Forem: Ren Sato

Why “Internet After Landing” Is a Bad Default

Ren Sato — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 10:16:53 +0000

There’s a small real-world problem I kept running into while traveling.

Not dramatic. Not a disaster. Just annoying enough that I started thinking about it like a product problem.

You land in a new country, open your phone, and suddenly the basic things don’t work smoothly.

Maps take too long to load.
Messages don’t send right away.
Ride apps keep spinning.
Airport Wi-Fi wants some login page that barely opens.

It feels like a bad onboarding flow.

The user has arrived, but the system is not ready yet.

That’s the part that annoyed me most. The first few minutes after landing are exactly when you need everything to work, but it’s also when the setup is usually the weakest.

Roaming can be unpredictable. Airport Wi-Fi is often overloaded. Buying a local SIM works, but it adds another step at the worst possible time - when you’re tired, carrying bags, and just trying to leave the airport.

So I started treating mobile data like something that should be configured before the “main app” starts.

Not after landing. Before.

That’s where eSIMs make sense.

The idea is simple: choose a data plan before the trip, install it on your phone, and activate it when needed. No physical SIM, no store, no waiting around.

Before my Turkey trip, I compared a few providers - Airalo, Holafly, Nomad, Ubigi, Skyalo. Most of them solve the same basic problem, but they differ in pricing, plan size, app flow, and how clear the setup feels.

I ended up using Skyalo this time. Not because I did some deep technical audit, but because the Turkey plan looked straightforward and I didn’t want the setup itself to become another task.

Before the trip, I also looked through a short guide on how mobile data works when traveling, just to avoid overthinking the setup.

That’s probably the main thing I care about with tools like this: it should disappear into the background.

After landing, the phone connected, maps worked, and I could move on. No airport Wi-Fi loop, no SIM counter, no guessing.

From a developer mindset, the useful lesson is simple:

If something is critical in the first interaction, don’t leave it as a runtime problem.

Handle it earlier.

It’s the same reason we preload important data, reduce external dependencies, or avoid blocking steps in onboarding. The best user experience is often not about adding more features - it’s about removing the tiny points of friction that happen at exactly the wrong moment.

For travel, eSIMs are one of those small fixes.

Not exciting.
Not flashy.
Just useful.

And sometimes that’s exactly what good technology should be.

What is an API and why do apps need it?

Ren Sato — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 09:37:50 +0000

Imagine you’re in a restaurant.

You sit at a table and look at the menu. You don’t go into the kitchen to cook your food yourself. Instead, a waiter comes, takes your order, and brings the food back to you.

That waiter is basically an API.

You (the app) don’t talk directly to the kitchen (server or database). You send a request through the API, and it brings back what you asked for.

For example:

You open a weather app
The app asks an API: “What’s the weather in Paris?”
The API goes to the server, gets the data, and returns it
You see the result on your screen

So the API is just a middle layer that lets different systems talk to each other safely and in a structured way.

Without APIs, apps would have to directly access databases or systems, which would be messy, unsafe, and hard to manage.

With APIs, everything stays organized:

apps ask for data
APIs handle the request
servers send the response

That’s it - just like ordering food without walking into the kitchen.

Why I Stopped Relying on Airport Wi-Fi (Spain Trip Notes)

Ren Sato — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:51:10 +0000

I didn’t think much about internet before traveling… until it actually became a problem.

A while ago I landed in a new country (Spain this time), got off the plane, and did what most people do - opened my phone to check directions, order a ride, maybe message the host.

Nothing worked.

The airport Wi-Fi existed, but it was slow, required a login I couldn’t complete, and randomly disconnected. I ended up standing there longer than I expected, just trying to get a map to load.

Not a great start.

The part no one really talks about

When people share travel tips, they usually focus on places, food, or itineraries.

But in reality, the first thing you need after landing is something much more basic:

Maps
Transport apps
Messages
Booking confirmations

All of that depends on having a connection right away.

And that’s exactly the moment when most setups fail.

What I changed before going to Spain

Before my last trip, I decided to fix this one thing properly.

Instead of relying on roaming or figuring it out after landing, I set up an eSIM in advance.

Nothing complicated - just installing it before the flight so the phone connects automatically once you land.

I’ve tried a few providers before (Airalo, Holafly, and this time I went with Skyalo. Mostly because the plans for Spain were easy to understand and I didn’t want to spend too much time comparing options.

If you want a quick breakdown of how it works in Spain specifically, I found this guide helpful before the trip.

What actually happens technically

From a technical point of view, travel eSIMs are pretty straightforward.

Most of them don’t operate their own networks. Instead, they connect to local carriers in the country you’re visiting.

In Spain, that usually means:

Movistar
Orange
Vodafone

So regardless of the provider you choose, coverage is generally similar.

The real differences come down to:

pricing
data limits
speed stability
how quickly the connection activates

Real usage during the trip

In practice, it just worked.

Right after landing in Barcelona, my phone connected within a minute or two. No setup, no extra steps.

From that point on, it was just normal usage:

Google Maps while moving around the city
Uber / local transport apps
checking places to eat
train tickets between Barcelona and Valencia

I took a 10 GB plan for a week, and it was more than enough. I didn’t have to constantly think about usage or look for Wi-Fi.

There were a couple of moments on trains where the connection dropped briefly, but that’s more about moving between networks than the eSIM itself.

Where most options feel the same (and where they don’t)

One thing I noticed - in cities like Barcelona or Valencia, almost any eSIM works fine.

The differences show up more:

when moving between cities
in less crowded areas
during peak network usage

Also, “unlimited” plans are not always truly unlimited. Many of them reduce speed after a certain point, which is something to keep in mind.

If you’re just doing normal travel stuff, a fixed data plan is usually enough.

If you’re comparing options, it’s easier to just look at Spain-specific plans directly.

Why this setup works better

The biggest difference wasn’t speed or price.

It was the fact that everything worked immediately after landing.

No searching for Wi-Fi
No buying SIM cards
No figuring things out when you’re already tired

Just one less thing to think about.

Final thought

This isn’t really about eSIM vs something else.

It’s about removing friction at the start of a trip.

Once you do that, everything else - getting around, finding places, moving between cities - becomes noticeably easier.

And that’s probably the only “travel setup” that actually made a difference for me.

Why I stopped overcomplicating things while learning to code

Ren Sato — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:49:01 +0000

When I first started learning web development, I thought I needed to understand everything before building anything. I spent most of my time watching tutorials, reading documentation, and trying to “prepare”, but I wasn’t actually building much.

At the beginning, everything felt important. Frameworks, tools, best practices - it all seemed like something I had to learn right away. I kept jumping between things, doing a bit of JavaScript, a bit of React, a bit of Node, but instead of making progress, I just felt stuck.

At some point, I decided to simplify everything. Instead of trying to learn everything at once, I focused on one small idea and one simple project. Nothing impressive, just something I could actually finish.

Once I started doing that, things became much clearer. Even small projects helped me understand how things connect, remember concepts better, and feel less overwhelmed. Finishing something small felt much better than starting something big and never completing it.

I still don’t know a lot of things, and I still get confused sometimes. But now I try to keep things simple, build step by step, and not overthink everything.

For me, learning started to feel easier when I stopped trying to do everything perfectly and just focused on building small things. I’m still figuring things out, but this approach has helped me a lot so far.

Getting started here - quick intro

Ren Sato — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 10:13:59 +0000

Hi everyone,

I just joined DEV and wanted to say hello.

I've been learning and building small web projects, mostly with JavaScript and simple frontend tools. Nothing too big yet, just trying to get better step by step.

Recently I've been focusing on building small things that actually solve simple problems. It's been a good way to stay consistent and not overcomplicate everything.

Still figuring things out, but looking forward to learning from others here and sharing what I build along the way.

Thanks for reading)