Then click the button labelled 新規登録はこちら。　The button is kind of hidden in a graphic, so if you cannot read the Japanese it is not easy to notice.

From there, choose what type of customer you are from the dropdown list. There are three options, have a vodofone, have a prepaid phone, do not yet have a phone. So you choose ボーだフォン携帯電話を持ちのかた　and continue.

Then you fill out a big long Japanese form where you must write your name in "Japanese", English characters are no good, and after pressing the continue button and confirming, you get presented with this wonderful image.

You are to use this image to navigate through a special browser on your phone from which you can receive a special randomly assigned password to log onto the website (using your regular computer).

However, it turns out that you do not need to use this password. Instead, you go to the vodafone website and choose "Vodafone live!" At the top left of the page there is an option オリジナルメール設定

After clicking that, you get a new page and scroll down to heading 1. パソコンからの設定 and click the オリジナルメール設定はこちら button to get a popup window at which point you can choose English to help you along.

Now you have to enter your phone number and a password that you were never told about. To get this password, you can click "Forgot your password?" to bring up a help screen. This screen instructs you to go back to the phone's browser for you to retrieve yet a different password to log in.

To retrieve this new password you need to know the four digit numeric password you gave the clerk when you originally signed up for the service and you need access to the phone based online system that you gained by following the steps in the beginning of this article.

It seems like Vodafone does not want you to use a personalized email address! But I beat the system and got one. You can send me emails and I will receive them whenever and wherever on my mobile phone. Try to keep them short! My shiny new personalized Vodafone email address is:

discowill AT k DOT vodafone DOT ne DOT jp