IC Card Question

[Tony Galiani]

I am thinking of another trip to Japan in April (unless I come to my senses) and was looking at various train options out of Tokyo.  In looking at the JR East web site it struck me that I might not need to purchase tickets for trips to Ofuna or Fujisawa and similar locations but could just use my Suica card instead.  Am I seeing that correctly?  That would certainly have saved me some time on my last trip if I had done that.

I know I can use the Suica card for the Shonan monorail and the Enoden so it would be nice if that applied to the JR East trains as well.

 

Tony

[railsquid]

Umm, Suica is issued by JR East, so it's valid over their entire network in the Kanto area and on pretty much any other train or bus (everyone else in the Kanto area issues Pasmo cards, but they're mutally compatible).

 

There may be some smaller companies out in the boonies which still don't take it, but the last one I encountered (Chichibu Railway) now does. It's also accepted in most other travel card areas (though I suspect these travel cards might not work if you try and use one to travel *between* areas, but am not up-to-date on what's what these days).

[Tony Galiani]

@railsquid -Thanks!

I did not realize Suica was issued by JR East - I could have saved some time in line buying tickets if I had understood that.  Live and learn!

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

Nope - my eSuica only has a picture of the card front so all I see is a cute penguin.  No card back for me to check out! 

Tony

[MeTheSwede]

Not only can you use your IC card (Suica or otherwise named) to travel with trains, buses, trams, boats, taxis, chair lifts, rented bicycles, motorcycles and cars in places all over Japan, what's even better is that in many places you can use your IC card to buy items in model train stores. 😁

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Nope - my eSuica only has a picture of the card front so all I see is a cute penguin.  No card back for me to check out! 

Tony

 

I know it's JR because I live here, and it's one of those things you just know, but yeah looking at the front of the physical card there's actually no JR branding at all. Even on the back it's pretty small.

[Tony Galiani]

@MeTheSwede - another thing I did not know!  Great - an additional way to spend money on trains!  I used the card for buses, convenience stores and such but not for trains - I mean model trains.  Certainly have used it for the real thing.

 

@railsquid There's no obvious info on the app on the phone but, if you look at the App Store - that is where it mentions JR East.  Of course, one has to look at that - but I was so focused on getting the app I did not really look at the info closely.

 

Tony

[Kamome]

IC cards can be used across most networks here in Kyushu too. Suica or equivalent (Sugoca here) can be used on JR obviously and Nishitetsu network (Nimoca card) although some of the smaller bus companies have their own and are not interchangeable. 

 

Also on vending machines and convenience stores. 

 

More info on where you can use it here.

 

https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/suicamoney/shop.html

Edited March 11 by Kamome

[Gunzel]

Another option in Tokyo is to eschew JR East and use private railways. Often they are cheaper than JR to boot, for instance Shinjuku to Fujisawa on JR is ¥990, whereas on Odakyu it is ¥610 (or ¥607 on an IC card).

 

You can use the vast majority of these on your Suica as well, or you can purchase a Greater Tokyo Pass (¥6000 for three days, ¥7200 for five days). 

[GeorgeHInch]

I used to use the JR pass pretty heavily there but with the change in pricing before my last trip I calculated it to be cheaper to just pay per ticket. I used my digital SUICA card across Japan (Tokyo and southward) using private railways and JR alike without any issue. I don’t think I encountered a single issue with the exception of not being able to tap out of the monorail at Haneda for some reason I still can’t figure out. Otherwise everything accepted it, including a lot of retail and food vendors.   

[Tony Galiani]

@Gunzel - Good to know.  JR East has been convenient for us on our recent trips as we stayed near Tokyo Station but I would like to ride on Odakyu if I manage to pull off a short trip in April.  (Actually would like to ride it down the Izu peninsula as I think that would be a neat trip.)

 

@GeorgeHInch - I remember something weird with it when we switched from the Yamanote Line to the monorail at Hamamatsucho but we got through so didn't think much of it. 

 

I have been performing music for years and I still find myself starting to play a piece and realize I have not looked at the key signature - which would be sort of helpful.  So, in not reading the directions and the info for the Suica card - I am at least being consistent! 

I have booked marked the page @Kamome sent for future reference.

 

Ciao,
Tony

 

[kuro68000]

Being able to use an IC card in conbini and other shops is extremely handy. No messing about with coins.

 

Conbini do tend to be more expensive though. My tip is to look for supermarkets. Seiyu is cheap, for example. They can be good for bento when taking long train rides too.

[chadbag]

All the - "-ca" cards (Suica, Icoca, Sugoca, etc) all use the HR East Suica backend.   That's what I've read.  

 

I have an app on my phone that will read the NFC chip cards (physical IC cards) and our ICOCA cards re identified as "Suica" and show the balance correctly.

 

I've also been able to top off a physical ICOCA card at Suica terminals in Tokyo and at whatever JR Centrals cards are called, terminals.

 

I believe you can cross boundaries and pay with your Suica/-ca card on exit.   But I'm not sure, having only used my e-Suica for Hankyu and other 3rd party local rail systems and various Osaka and Tokyo subways.

 

The nice thing about the e-Suice is that you can load it while standing in line.  I was at Mr Donut and didn't have enough cash and they didn't take credit cards.  I estimated my totall and quickly loaded a little more than that on my e-Suica and was able to pay out when it was my turn.  

 

Another time in Kobe I was at one of the market inside the department store basement areas at a small vendor selling some sort of local cakes.  I wanted to buy one as a gift for our hosts but they didn't take credit cards, unlike most of the vendors there.  I asked if they took the Suica type IC cards and quickly loaded the e-Suica with my Apple Card credit card on the watch and paid.  Very simple and easy.

 

[Gunzel]

While I'm sure it would work out and I love how in Japan that things are approached as if you are trying to do the right thing I wouldn't try and travel between non-contiguous areas on an IC card as at the very least it will probably take a little bit of time to work out. This image from the JR East Suica page sets them out sort of, it's just that effectively the ones in the same city (like Suica and Pasmo in Tokyo, manaca and TOICA in Nagoya etc.) are effectively contiguous and you can travel from between them without any issues.  

 

https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/pass/img/renew/suica/img_map.jpg

 

This map is missing some smaller areas, like around Kumamoto, Kagoshima and Miyazaki in Kyushu for instance.

 

I think there is also some ability to link a long distance booking to an IC card so that you can tap in in Tokyo and then tap out in Shin-Osaka, but my understanding is that you buy a ticket for the journey in advance and the iC card is used to show it is you, it doesn't calculate the fare and take it from your card balance. As I've been travelling on passes I haven't explored this further. This probably also lets you use transfer gates easily so that you can end your Shinkansen trip and start an IC card trip in one go. I know there is an elaborate dance with transfer gates when transitioning for a magnetic backed paper ticket to or from an IC card, but the order escapes me.

 

Never thought about using it in a model railway shop, will have to try that out next trip.

 

[kuro68000]

8 hours ago, chadbag said:

I believe you can cross boundaries and pay with your Suica/-ca card on exit.   But I'm not sure, having only used my e-Suica for Hankyu and other 3rd party local rail systems and various Osaka and Tokyo subways.

 

 

Do you mean going from one railway to another? That is usually possible and often they have gates linking the too that automatically debit you for the first railway journey, and set up your card for the second one.

 

Just beware, it can get a bit confusing sometimes. Shimodate, for example. Because there are no gates, just touch terminals, and the Moka line doesn't take IC cards at all, I found it a bit confusing and tapped in for the JR line by mistake. Fortunately I needed to take the JR line later anyway, so no problem since there are no gates.

[chadbag]

4 hours ago, mojo said:

 

Do you mean going from one railway to another? That is usually possible and often they have gates linking the too that automatically debit you for the first railway journey, and set up your card for the second one.

 

 

No, I mean starting in Tokyo (JR East) and ending in Yokohama or Osaka (JR Central/JR West) on one journey.  

 

[kuro68000]

On 3/13/2024 at 2:22 PM, chadbag said:

 

No, I mean starting in Tokyo (JR East) and ending in Yokohama or Osaka (JR Central/JR West) on one journey.  

 

 

Ah, I see. To be honest until you said that I hadn't even realized that they were two different operators. I've done Tokyo to Yokohama many times and it's seamless.

[railsquid]

Yokohama is very much JR East (the Shin-Yokohama Shinkansen station is of course JR Tokai).

 

Digging into it for my own understanding, it is evidently not possible to travel *between* IC card areas using only an IC card, for example using Suica to travel on the Tokaido Main Line via Atami (JR East) to Shizuoka (JR Tokai). You'd get an error at the gate when trying to exit at Shizuoka, and would have to pay the excess (not sure how they'd calculate that) "manually". However once that's sorted you could then use the Suica as a Toica in the Toica area.

 

However should you be in Atami (which is the last station before you hit the JR Tokai realm) and want to travel westwards, you can simply use the Toica-specific ticket gates.

 

See: https://firstlife-ontheearth.com/suica/

[GeorgeHInch]

@railsquid but in the case you describe don’t you just have to do a fare adjustment? Not quite as easy as just tapping out but definitely not impossible. 
 

If I remember correctly, there were automated fare adjustment machines in some stations. Everything is a little squishy in my head on this so I could be wrong though. 

[MeTheSwede]

To me it makes sense that an IC card reader should protest if you travel past Atami (the border station between JR East and JR Central on the Tokaido Line) because the machine won't know how much of your money to send to JR East or JR Central respectively. Maybe you traveled all the time on a JR East through train, or maybe you changed trains to a JR Central train somewhere. An IC card reader couldn't tell.

 

 

[chadbag]

9 hours ago, railsquid said:

Yokohama is very much JR East (the Shin-Yokohama Shinkansen station is of course JR Tokai).

 

Digging into it for my own understanding, it is evidently not possible to travel *between* IC card areas using only an IC card, for example using Suica to travel on the Tokaido Main Line via Atami (JR East) to Shizuoka (JR Tokai). You'd get an error at the gate when trying to exit at Shizuoka, and would have to pay the excess (not sure how they'd calculate that) "manually". However once that's sorted you could then use the Suica as a Toica in the Toica area.

 

However should you be in Atami (which is the last station before you hit the JR Tokai realm) and want to travel westwards, you can simply use the Toica-specific ticket gates.

 

See: https://firstlife-ontheearth.com/suica/

 

Thanks.  I assumed Yokohama was in JR Central region as the IC card I saw the refill machines for in the stations was not Suica but whatever the JR Central  "-ca" card is when I was there.

 

You'd think their fancy computers could figure it out.  JR East runs the backend for all the IC cards anyway (or at least their Suica division does) from my understanding and it shouldn't be hard to figure out who gets how much.

 

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, MeTheSwede said:

To me it makes sense that an IC card reader should protest if you travel past Atami (the border station between JR East and JR Central on the Tokaido Line) because the machine won't know how much of your money to send to JR East or JR Central respectively. Maybe you traveled all the time on a JR East through train, or maybe you changed trains to a JR Central train somewhere. An IC card reader couldn't tell.

 

 

But it would know where the boundary is and any JR Central train running on JR East tracks you pay JR East for anyway.  It shouldn't be that hard.  No harder than the manual figure it out when you get off.

 

[kuro68000]

On 3/15/2024 at 1:04 PM, railsquid said:

Yokohama is very much JR East (the Shin-Yokohama Shinkansen station is of course JR Tokai).

 

Digging into it for my own understanding, it is evidently not possible to travel *between* IC card areas using only an IC card, for example using Suica to travel on the Tokaido Main Line via Atami (JR East) to Shizuoka (JR Tokai). You'd get an error at the gate when trying to exit at Shizuoka, and would have to pay the excess (not sure how they'd calculate that) "manually". However once that's sorted you could then use the Suica as a Toica in the Toica area.

 

However should you be in Atami (which is the last station before you hit the JR Tokai realm) and want to travel westwards, you can simply use the Toica-specific ticket gates.

 

See: https://firstlife-ontheearth.com/suica/

 

Ah, I see. I bet that trips a lot of people up.