Getting the most out of Japanese Trains: Suica Card

My Suica Card, taken while in Japan

Over the last six years, I’ve been to Japan five times, and learning to travel around has been an uphill struggle due to a lack of language skills, and a lack of explanation. The good news is that each time I come, it gets easier, and I wanted to pass on humble experiences for getting the most out of the train system.

First, trains in Japan are really great. I mean, you have to do more walking then your body might be used to, at least in most parts of the US where cars are just part of the culture,¹ but trains in Japan are basically your best friend. It’s a bit overwhelming at first because the process is so automated, and there are so many lines and stations (and etiquette!), but once you get into the flow it’s really helpful.

Normally, when I visited in the past, I had to buy tickets at the little ticket machines near the entrance. You have to know how much it will cost for you to go from station A to station B, and unless you can read Japanese place-names well enough, this can be hard. Major stations in Tokyo often have bi-lingual signs (English-Japanese), but not always. Also, those maps can be very complicated if you’re at a busy station, and you have to be able to figure out which train to take, where to switch, and then where to get off on the second or third line.² Assuming you do figure this out, if the cost of the trip was ¥120, then you had to buy a ticket at of at least ¥120.

Then as you go to the ticket gates (kaisatsu 改札), you put your ticket in the slot and it comes out the other side with a hole punched through. Then you board your train. Guys, remember to keep your arms to yourself, especially if the train is crowded and bumpy, otherwise girls might get the wrong idea and call the police. As you get off, you put your ticket in again in the ticket gate and this time it eats your ticket, since you presumably have used it up, rather than spitting it out. Transaction is complete, you are now free to leave station B.

This is an established process, but again if you’re new it’s hard to get used to. I was totally bewildered the first few times, and really depended on my wife and her friends a lot. So, at some point, my mother-in-law gave me a Suica card, or suika kādo (Suicaカード), which is a train fare card that you can pre-load with money and just swipe at the ticket gates. This is only for JR East (Japan Railways East) which includes the greater Tokyo area, but similar cards exist in other parts of Japan (e.g. Pasmo and others). Kyoto and Nara, if I recall right, had different cards, but were in the process of integrating with Suica. So now, at the same green terminals you get tickets at, you can just put in your Suica card, tell the machine how much money you want to preload (¥1000, 2000, 5000, 10000) and then feed the machine your money.

The best part of Suica cards is that you can just put it in your wallet and every time you get to a ticket gate, you just slap your wallet gently over the card reader and the gate opens and kindly deducts the appropriate fee. This is much, much easier than the old-fashioned way of getting tickets and figuring out the right fare. When I lived in Ireland, I visited London in the UK from time to time, and found life got a lot better for me after I learned to use the “Tube” train system with an Oyster card in the same way. No more expensive taxis, or bumbling around lost. Even getting to Heathrow Airport using the Tube was much better than paying £70 for a taxi ride. I could just put some money on my card, swipe it as I got through the ticket gates, and off I went!

So, while staying here in Tokyo for the week, carrying a sleeping four year old on my shoulder, and with heavy bags in my other arm, it’s sooooo much nicer to just slip out my wallet over the card reader, and just pass through the ticket gate effortlessly.

The best part is that Suica cards also work on buses, which are pretty nice in Japan and sometimes more convenient than a train if you’re going to a neighborhood too small to require a train station. They also work increasingly for vending machines and other small shops too for purchases! I think my mother-in-law also has a credit card that earns points that eventually find their way into her Suica card as well.

The hardest part of Suica cards is getting one. Thankfully a lot of train-tourist packages will include one that’s preloaded if you’re interested. For example, if you’re going from Narita Airport to Tokyo and you want to take the Narita Express train line (separate post coming up), they have packages that include the Express train reserved seats and Suica cards for any additional sight-seeing you want to do. Don’t throw away that Suica card because you can reload it as much as you want! If you come back to Japan a year later, that balance should still be good, as I discovered recently.

If you are living in Japan already, or just moved there, then go to any JR Ticket Office and ask about getting one. JR (Japan Railways) is the company that’s promoting them, so they certainly will provide one if you apply. I haven’t done it myself, so I don’t know how hard it is, but I do know you have to pay a one-time fee of ¥500, which is pocket change in Japan’s high-cost-of-living world. Being a foreigner in Japan shouldn’t be an issue either, since JR is eager to get people to ride their trains

So that’s a brief look at using the Japan rail system with a payment card instead of buying tickets. Even for tourists who just ride the ol’ Yamanote Line, or anything that branches off of it, it’s still immensely helpful and worth getting one in your travel package if you can.

Next time, I’ll try to pass along more tips if I can. People who actually live in Japan can probably offer better ones too.

¹ Along with bad eating habits (food quantity over food quality), this is another health-destroyer and only a recent epidemic in the US. If you don’t move your body enough, it will just atrophy and break down. Simple as that.

² Also, if the different lines are owned by different companies, you have to get out of one ticket gate and purchase another ticket to go on the next line. If they’re the same company, you can buy one ticket as far as you need to go.