im stationed...
here in japan and i and alot of my friends got iphones from softbank, and they dont just give them away, you have to sign up with a 2 year contract and pay an extra 17 dollars a month, they reimburse you 13 of the 17 dollars back and its also the plan comes with basically unlimited features of the phone, it has superfast internet, youtube is great, communication is great, Fox news is just jealous that the iPhone is such a great successful apple product, i use my iPhone over here all the time, and i know some japanese ppl are interested in these type of phones cuz i see them with fancy phones all the time
(edit) oh and you can get an mms program to send pix via text, besides you still have email and stuff