Renting a Mobile Hotspot in Japan

godmode

I'm looking to rent one of those little "mifi" devices while I'm in Japan for a couple months and want to make sure I pick a brand with good coverage and unlimited data.
The front runner seems to be SoftBank right now, but the price comes to about 8.50-8.80 USD/day. Are there any other quality offerings for a better price?
I forgot to mention: I'll be primarily staying on the east coast of the mainland, in Yokosuka, but I plan on venturing out from there for weekends and stuff when I get some free time.

Caedwyr

I rented one from Pupuru last time. I needed something that had coverage for all of Kyushu as well as the Kansai area. The website is

http://www.pupuru.com/en/service/emobile/

Most of the ones I could find with unlimited data is about 800 yen/day. The 10 GB data plan is 400 yen/day.

au, SoftBank had pretty good coverage (except for mountain tops and inside tunnels on the shinkasen. Y!Mobile and one of the other common ones you would see had less extensive networks last time I was there.

godmode

@Caedwyr How was the battery life on the Pupuru device? Softbank estimates about 4 hours. Do you remember a ballpark figure?

Caedwyr

I never had an issue with running out of battery. For heavy use such as on the Shinkansen I would plug it in. It had similar battery life to a cellphone. 4-6 hours of heavy use sounds about right.

Last time I was in Japan I think I rented a smartphone from Pupuru with 10 GB of data and just used it as a hotspot. If I recall correctly, it ended up being cheaper than a WiFi hotspot.

Edit: I just checked their website and the pricing structure for phone rentals is different this time. Renting a phone and using it as a hotspot doesn't seem to be a winning idea.