The Long-Awaited Day Has Arrived!

March 18, 2007. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. From now on, life in Japan will be a lot more convenient. And I have a penguin to thank!

There are many trains in Tokyo. There is the JR (Japan Railways) system, Tokyo Metro (subways), and private lines (run by large department store companies). For the most part, I ride JR trains, which are usually elevated trains, but I also ride subways and private company lines. I have been using the Suica magnetic train pass for a long time. You can get a one-month, three-month, or six-month pass. My company provides me with a three-month pass. It is great, because you just touch the electronic reader on the ticket gate, so you don’t have to worry about using a paper ticket. You have to designate a home station and a destination; any stops within that range are free. If you go outside of that area, you have to pay. The nice thing about the Suica card is that you can pre-load money on it, and it will automatically deduct the fare. You can even use it to buy drinks from vending machines, or in shops and restaurants in or around stations!

The Suica penguin is welcoming us into this restaurant in Shinagawa Station, in Tokyo. You can use your Suica card to pay for your meal.

The Suica was introduced in 2001 by JR. As the number of vending machines and shops that accepted it has grown, it has become more and more useful. But until today, if you transferred to a non-JR line, you had to get a separate ticket. What a hassle! Now, I can go anywhere, just by touching my wallet to the top of the ticket gate. It’s also possible to load Suica money on your cell phone, and touch it to the ticket gate or use it to buy food or drinks!

The train system in Tokyo is huge. I just found a new site about Japan. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, but it looks pretty good so far. It has maps of the JR trains and Tokyo Metro subways here. Keep in mind that there are also private lines and subways that are not shown! For most destinations, there are often many possible train combinations. I constantly look up train times on my cell phone, to find the fastest and most convenient route to take. Being able to use my Suica card to ride any train will make it much easier to make tight connections.

By the way, the anti-smoking campaign has been gaining ground here for the past few years. The number of non-smoking stations has been increasing over the past couple years. As of today, all stations prohibit smoking on the platforms.

Ever since I began using the Suica card, I have been waiting for the day when I could use it for any train or bus I needed to ride. Today, riding the train in Tokyo just got a lot more convenient…Now, if they could only make them less crowded I’d be set!

For more information:

You can learn more about Suica cards and the Penguin mascot from the Wikipedia site here. Or, you can go to the official JR site here (in Japanese).

I also mentioned Japan Reference, a site I just found tonight, with images of the train maps in English. I just glanced at it, but it looks like it is full of information about Japan. I will take a look at it later. If you check it out, go here.