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Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

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Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#251

Post by Pooge »

taeric wrote: post #12

Huge shout out that if you are going to be in Japan, you need one of these cards. I had thought I could just buy a two day pass in Tokyo. Which, you can, but you are almost certainly going to be limited to what routes and lines you can use, then. Which is brutal when you can't tell google maps which card you have.

The Tokyo Metro Ticket (24h/48h/72h) is very convenient, though. I just looked at the prices and the longest one went from ¥1500 to ¥2000 since November 2025 but I think it's still very valuable, especially if you've never been to Tokyo and want to travel between a lot of places.

JR is better if you go to the countryside of Tokyo but for the city itself Metro is much more convenient, IMO. Perhaps it depends on the station you commute to, though.

When I travel to Tokyo, I usually do at the very least 4 Metro trips per day, and let's say the minimum fare is ¥178,it would come down to ¥712 daily.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#252

Post by Pooge »

decimalenough wrote: post #105
haunter wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tbh if you only stay in Tokyo then the combined Tokyo subway pass (Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway) is the best all around deal, you don't need anything else. ¥2000 for 72 hours

Hard disagree. It doesn't cover JR lines, and with subway fares starting from ¥160 a pop, that's a lot of riding.

If you do 5 Metro journeys per day—which is very reasonable if you're a tourist—at the bare minimum of ¥160 per trip, you would save money by buying the Tokyo Metro Ticket for 72h.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#253

Post by bayindirh »

> They found that tilting the reader exactly 13.5 degrees made it match the natural ergonomic motion of a hand moving forward.

Japan is, due to its history and culture, is very good at finding these kinds of nature inspired solutions to their somewhat hard problems in a very elegant way.

I really like them when they do that. This is why some of the Japanese wares look a bit unconventional but extremely delightful to use.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#254

Post by pohuing »

charcircuit wrote: post #98

>Every Suica card has a chip storing two things: a unique card ID, and your current balance. This is not true. It also stores some history on where you have last entered so it can do things like transfers or block you from exiting an area that you never entered.

And they're also easy to read. So if you find a wallet you can figure out where the owner lives for a visit/s

Was a bit shocked to find that I can just read my suica using my European Pixel. I had expected that part to be encrypted somehow.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#255

Post by MisterTea »

nihonde wrote: post #211
MisterTea wrote: post #68

Coming from NYC and being used to swiping once to pay a flat fair, my first Suica lesson was they vary the fair by the distance traveled. This means you have to tap in AND out of buses and subways. It was a bit embarrassing and frustrating when I almost could not board a bus in Sapporo with my friends after they all tapped in and my card was rejected. WTF? Thankfully the bus driver showed me a sign in English telling…

99% sure you passed through a transfer gate in Tokyo station that requires you to produce two "tickets" (physical or virtual)—one for subway and one for Shinkansen. Always plenty confusing. I have to hold my phone (Suica app) and an EX card (Shinkansen card) together for a dual-NFC tap. I always forget one or the other.

YES! That was it!

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#256

Post by snvzz »

eloisant wrote: post #236
cptcobalt wrote: post #20

If you haven’t experienced suica, it’s like magically fast. Faster than NFC, faster than Apple Pay, faster than tap to pay, faster than Disney magic bands, faster than your work badge. It absolutely floored me every time I used it in Japan and it’s a full payment transaction.

The Japanese gate machines with tickets are even more impressive because they're mechanical, and super fast. You can put a single tickets or 2, insert in any direction, and in a few seconds the tickets is out at the other end of the machine so you don't have to stop walking at a fast pace.

I swear they do FTL.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#257

Post by makeitdouble »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #239
makeitdouble wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a perhaps a trend of local payment means being less accessible to tourists. I haven't experienced it first hand but WeChat/Alipay are in the same boat as I understand, and PromptPay in Indonesia can be somewhat be used but needs preparation before making the trip. Now, if you're not a tourist passing by for 3 days, Suica has most of your gripes solved and is an incredibly useful general payment mean. I use t…

> There is a perhaps a trend of local payment means being less accessible to tourists. It's because you want to price differentiate tourists and local people. Tourists will pay more for travel than your electorate.

Could be part of it. Another angle is payment processors longing for stronger KYC.

Felica is bound to a phone with a carrier on a national network, which basically guarantees full traceability of the user. Same for WeChat. PromptPay also binds to a bank account, so again it can be tracked at a gov. level.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#258

Post by Gud »

ValdikSS wrote: post #244
Gud wrote: post #209

Ok, this might sound great but it's really not. I live in Switzerland, and they don't use a tap in/tap out system at all. There are no barriers to enter the station, anywhere. There are multiple ways to purchase a ticket, I usually use the app Fairtiq or the official SBB app, where I swipe right before boarding the train/tram/bus(it's a national system, so even works on the regional networks) and swipe left when I'm…

>tap in/tap off sucks no matter how good the system is. It is fundamentally a wrong think. Tap system doesn't have to end billing period on tap out, if that's what you're trying to say. Moscow/Saint Petersburg cards have many options which you can combine (add-on packages), as well as a regular balance (wallet). "90 minutes unlimited" does how it is named, and if you travel first by metro, then switch to a bus, you p…

As long as there is a barrier, and as long as I have to actively be doing something while moving around, it's a poor system. I enable my travel when I leave home ideally, and and stop it when I have reached my destination.

Not at a location most convenient for the train operator.

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#259

Post by ValdikSS »

Gud wrote: post #258
ValdikSS wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>tap in/tap off sucks no matter how good the system is. It is fundamentally a wrong think. Tap system doesn't have to end billing period on tap out, if that's what you're trying to say. Moscow/Saint Petersburg cards have many options which you can combine (add-on packages), as well as a regular balance (wallet). "90 minutes unlimited" does how it is named, and if you travel first by metro, then switch to a bus, you p…

As long as there is a barrier, and as long as I have to actively be doing something while moving around, it's a poor system. I enable my travel when I leave home ideally, and and stop it when I have reached my destination. Not at a location most convenient for the train operator.

I don't know how it works in your country, but in RU you only tap to get in, not to get out. There are no barriers to get out.

1. The card stores not only your ticket/cash data, but also your trips

2. You live far from the metro, so you ride by bus to the metro station. The metro station knows that you've just been on the bus (the bus activated 90 minutes window) and either don't account you or gives you a discount

3. You can also top-up the card using your smartphone with NFC. The smartphone writes data to the card (and can read your balance and a trip of course). But also, if your smartphone don't have NFC or you don't want to install the app, you can top-up using the web and write it to the card anywhere (inside the bus / on a metro station) with the regular validator (it not only reads, but writes the data received from the net as well)

Re: Suica, Japan's First IC Transit Card

#260

Post by seanmcdirmid »

sagarun wrote: post #49
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you should probably just get a suica in your apple or google wallet, you don’t actually need an IC card. I’m not sure if using a phone makes it less fast though, I couldn’t tell (we had to get a card for my kid since he doesn’t have a phone). Definitely better than the QR codes used by China.

You can use a digital Suica in Google Wallet only if your Android phone has Japan-spec hardware . International Android phones bought outside Japan generally cannot support digital Suica cards in Google Wallet.

Thanks, I forgot about. I have an iPhone so didnt have to worry about the incompatibility with Android. If it makes android users feel any better, here in Seattle orca cards can go on android phones but not iPhones.
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