My daughter will be living in Japan from May through December. We need to know the best cell phone plan to get.

We live in the USA, and are currently with Sprint, and it would be lovely to keep her on the same phone, but we’ve been told we’d have to sign up for international service for longer than her time in Japan, which means she’d be locked into $100 a month for a long time.

Someone suggested to us a Go-phone, one of those pay as you go deals, and I’m not even sure if that’s possible or practical. So what do you suggest?

What we’d really like is unlimited texting in addition to phone use.

We’re also planning to use Skype for talking to her in the evenings.

Suggestions?