A Guide to the Suica and Pasmo (IC Card)

Japan from the bustling City to the Tranquil Countryside there's a lot to see and do to get to all the places you want to see you'll be riding lots of Japan's world-renowned public transportation I'm mostly talking about trains to do that as smoothly as possible you'll want to get your hands on an IC card collo known here in Tokyo as a secer pasmo in this video I'll be going over how to get yourself an IC card how it works and the ways you can use it my name is Bradley and I hope you find this video helpful [Music] so what is an IC card an IC card or integrated circuit card is a prepaid tap Ando payment card provided by train companies and other organizations to get you from point A to point B without the hassle of Paper Tickets trust me when I say you want to minimize your paper ticket exposure the IC card has since become a general payment card that can be used at almost all chain stores and even independently run restaurants note however that all train lines across Japan will not take an IC card in the case of Tokyo and other major cities you'll be fine there are many variations of the IC card depending on where you are in Japan as can be seen in this map some exceptions do apply but all these IC cards serve the same purpose and can be used for the same thing in this video I'm going to be kto or Tokyo specific talking about the SAA provided by Jr East and pasmo provided by pasmo yeah pmo or pmo committee is a organization consisting of 28 Railway operators and 33 bus operators in the kto OR Tokyo region now how do you get one I'll have to start with bad news you can no longer purchase the regular suur pasmo that have shown in previous slides due to the everpresent chip shortage the only way to get them is in a commuter pass format I have some here but they're outside the scope of the video and will not be explained what's the alternative well in other parts of Japan you can still buy the normal IC card like the monaka Nagoya but double check what I'm saying is that could change at any time but you're in Tokyo and you need one now you have two options the welcome Sika and the pmo passport they offer the same capabilities as the regular CA passo they only last for 28 days from the day of use after 28 days the card will be disabled and you will not be able to recover any money on the card however in Japan you can use this card anywhere so even if you put the max amount of money on it I can assure you that you can use almost all the money on it now that that's been explained how do you get the welcome saika or pasma passport I went ahead and went to the honey International Airport here in Tokyo to see how to get one there are more places you can get them from outlin on their websites the welcome sua ticket machine was easy to spot right next to the Montreal entrance just after leaving customs and arriving in arrivals the pass passport was on the other side of the hall next to the KQ line entrance it was a man kiosk and because I despise human interaction I land up for the welcome sua from what I could see there's only one machine in the entirety of the airport so getting there before the rush is ideal here are the steps to get your very own welcome seup so you come up to the machine and you can select English or Chinese or Korean or Japanese and in this case I got an adult card and I put 2,000 Yen on there but I would recommend putting 5,000 or even 10,000 Yen on there because you will be able to use the money after that you put your money in and then if you want to receipt you press the receipt button after a little while the card will come out as well as your receipt and your reference paper here's the reference paper with your card number and expiration date and the receipt and here's the card itself as you can see you have your service code and your Suka card code it does say good through March 2025 I'm not exactly sure what that means but it's probably attached to the service code just note that you can only use this card for 28 days from when you use it as is written on the card and also it says the card balance is 20,000 yen or the maximum is 20,000 yen how do you use the IC card at train stations most stations have ticket Gates some are paper ticket and IC compatible While others are just for IC cards on the Tokyo Metro IC card gates are pink but on Jr they can be green here's your standard ticket gate you can see that they're pink and then there's an IC symbol on there on that oval blue part you tap your card the gates open and you walk in after you tap your card on the display you can see that you have your card balance as well as when your card expires on the way out your fair is automatically detected and can be seen on the display this is the cleanest picture I took of the display how do you recharge your card on the outside of ticket Gates they're machines similar to the one where you purchase your welcome suit make sure it says charge on them on the inside of the gates there are yellow Fair adjustment machines here's how it's used first you select your language of choice then you insert your card after that you can check your balance or recharge the card in this case I'm putting 1,000 yen in put 1,000 yen into the machine and it'll automatically charge to the card there's an option for a receipt as well there are also machines where you place the card on this little pad and it recharges it that [Music] way I always see other videos overlook this important aspect what happens when things go wrong at the ticket gate the blue IC oval will turn red and the gates will close the reason for the failure will be on the display when this happens you want to step back so that you can reset the present sensor in the gate then you want to move out of the way to let other people pass it's a big city after all once you've corrected your mistake such as insufficient funds you can pass through the main rejection reasons are as follows one you have insufficient funds two you didn't really tap or it didn't read correctly and third you leave the same station from which you entered without getting on the train in the last case you'll see the following aor sh up and you'll actually have to talk to the attendant to get them to reset your IC card in some stations they may charge a passage fee of 100 to 200 yen another use case of the IC card are vending machines compatible machines will have an IC card symbol on it as shown now to use one of these vending machines you want to go up to the machine and choose your drink of choice afterwards you tap or you hold your IC card over the IC reader after the transaction is complete it will briefly flash your remaining balance on the LCD display the final use case is at stores and restaurants such as 7-Eleven and Donkey at the register they'll have tiny stands that show compatible payment methods when you want to pay with an IC card say sua pasmo or IC card and it will get the point across I guess in Japanese it would be aiado here's me when I ran across an opportunity to use my Suka at a taco restaurant in ki the IC card truly is ubiquitous here in Japan I purposely neglected to mention the mobile Seeker pasmo this is because Jr East and pasmo continue to change the requirements for them what seems like every month please check for more recent news if you want to use the mobile version otherwise I hope this video was helpful and if you're planning to come to Japan or you're already here like subscribe and have a good [Music] [Music] one

Channel: Japan Reality

Views: 10,080

Keywords: Japan, Tokyo, Trains, Subway, Metro, IC Card, Travel, How to buy a suica, How to buy a pasmo, How to ride the train, Where to buy IC card, Where to buy Suica, Pasmo Passport, Welcome Suica, Haneda Airport, Narita Airport

Id: oST1f2ivv7k

Length: 7min 50sec (470 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2023