Just want to put this out there...
I have some family that live in Japan. Thankfully, they are just south of Tokyo, so not in the major damage area. I was finally able to call them Saturday night, and all is well (at least, I'm pretty sure things are, because my Japanese isn't that good, and their English isn't either). I don't have the monthly international calling plan because I don't usually call them (mostly email and 'snail' mail), so I had a $2.49 per minute charge. I've heard that AT&T is offering free calls to Japan for a limited time. Verizon?