If you live in the metropolitan Tokyo area, the coverage is pretty good as long as you are not underground. I visited my folks in the Nagoya area over the new year holiday and I would say I was connected about 40-50% of the time on the bullet train ride there. I believe the N700 series Shinkansen cars now provide free low-bandwidth Wi-Fi internally so combined with that, you can have a pretty reliable and reasonably fast Internet connection throughout your trip.
Bic Camera's WiMAX plan comes with a complementary Wi-Fi service so in case you are in the area where WiMAX coverage is not available or you are in need of higher bandwidth, you can try and find a nearby Wi-Fi spot and get connected.
The plan also includes a USB adapter (and a mobile wireless router if you would like). However, I highly recommend that you pay a little extra and get the model BDSS01 which is considerably smaller and definitely is more slick-looking. If you sign up for Bic Camera's WiMAX plan now, it'll only cost you 2,800 yen. I signed up while they had this special one time deal where they were offering a BDSS01 adapter and a URoad-5000 wireless router together for 9,800 yen but I believe the deal has already expired.
The URoad-5000 router is about the size of a BlackBerry Bold. Perfect for when you want to quickly check something out on the web at a cafe or even on the train.
Bic Camera WiMAX sign up form:
https://www.biccamera.com/bicbic/jsp/w/service/bic_wimax/form.jsp
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