An Honest Guide to the SUICA Card

Are you planning a trip to Japan and wondering whether to get a SUICA card? Although recommended by everyone, these transit cards are often misunderstood. So take an honest look at Japan’s IC cards with me and discover all the basics, as well as the hidden details before you travel!

///GET YOUR SUICA/ICOCA CARD
https://bit.ly/Klook-Preloaded-Suica-Card

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/// USEFUL TRANSPORT PASSES
TOKYO SUBWAY PASS: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Tokyo-Subway-Pass
WELCOME SUICA: https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/welcomesuica/welcomesuica.html
OSAKA AMAZING PASS: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Osaka-Amazing-Pass
OSAKA METRO PASS: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Osaka-Metro-1or2-Day-Pass
KYOTO ONE DAY BUS PASS: https://www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/regular_1day_card_bus.html
KYOTO SUBWAY AND BUS PASS: https://www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/regular_1day_card_comm.html

/// MOBILE SUICA HELP (iPHONE ONLY)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207154

/// CHECK IC CARD BALANCE APPS
ANDROID: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.id.micolous.farebot
iPHONE: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/multi-ic-card-reader/id1478703111

/// POCKET WIFI / SIM CARDS
Pocket Wifi + Powerbank Rental: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Pocket-Wifi
eSim from Airalo: https://airalo.tp.st/E74tq5nv
Unlimited Data 4G SIM Card (Multiple JP Airport Pick Up): https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Data-SIM-Card

/// GET YOUR RAIL PASS
Japan Rail Pass: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-JAPANRAILPASS
JR Tokyo Wide Pass: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Tokyo-Wide
JR Kansai Wide Pass: https://bit.ly/KLOOK-Kansai-Wide

/// FIND THE CHEAPEST FLIGHT TO JAPAN
https://bit.ly/WAYAWAY-Cheap-Flight-Finder

/// VPN SERVICE
NORDVPN: https://ref.nordvpn.com/EwSsZRUdypJ

*There are some affiliate links in this description and using them helps to support this channel.

/// MUSIC
“Rollin at 5” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

// PHOTOS
Karl Baron – Japan is uniting their IC cards!

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Karl Baron – Package from Hildgrim in japan!

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

if you’re planning a trip to Japan you might be wondering do I need a suica card well a silica card is just one of many IC cards used in Japan an IC card is just a fancy way of prepaying for transportation it works a lot like a debit card first you load it up with money then go through the gates and when you exit at your destination the system calculates how much the Journey cost that money gets debited from your card and you can keep on using it like this until you have no money left and when that happens you just take it to a machine and recharge it with cash you don’t need to buy tickets you also get to buy drinks at vending machines and snacks at convenience stores and everyone’s happy except there are a lot of things nobody tells you about I see cards IC cards won’t save you money they aren’t discount passes the only thing you save with an IC card is time if you want to save money you should just get a proper discount pass for the subway trains or buses wherever you’re visiting either for one city or a larger region these usually pay off if you make more than three Journeys but it depends on the length of each hop because the longer the hot the more expensive the ride I put links to some useful passes down in the description now just now I said that you can use your IC card to pay at convenience stores but what most people don’t tell you is how to announce this to the staff I mean you don’t want to just wave around your cards do you instead you should just say I see card all day on a guy’s Mass the staff will then point out where the card reader is you tap it and you get to leave feeling like a total boss and speaking of tapping another fact nobody ever talks about is that you don’t actually need to tap your card for it to work thanks to it using NFC technology you can just hover it over the reader and it’ll work just fine many people put their IC card into their wallet and pass it over the reader and look no problem why does this matter well just think about how many fingers have touched those Gates before you arrive now if you’re getting value out of this video then let me know by giving me a thumbs up and keep watching until the very end because there’s an important safety tip that you need to know about if you’ve watched other YouTube videos on this topic you might think that suica is the only IC card in Japan but you’d be wrong in the Kansai area as well as huge chunks of West Japan ikoka is the name of Jr’s IC card and you might think who cares and that’s okay because ticket machines don’t care wickets don’t care when you pass through and shops and vending machines couldn’t give a flying monkeys about what brand of IC card you have and that’s because all cards are more or less interchangeable so whichever card you have you can use it all across the country there is however one time when you do need to care and that’s if and when you want to return it and get your deposit back suico is AJR East card so you need to return it in that region and a Coca is the card 4jr West and that means that you can’t return a Circa card in Osaka and you can’t return any Coker card in Tokyo but let’s talk about returning your card a bit more at the end of your trip you can take it to the ticket office and get your deposit back as well as any remaining balance minus a fee and if you have a zero balance there’s no fee and you get 500 yen back but let’s think for a moment you’re getting off your train at the airport and you’re wondering how long you’re going to have to wait in line at security and how much time you’re going to have left to stock up on Sakura kitkats before you need to get on your plane I don’t know about you but returning my IC card is not high on my list of priorities if you don’t want the extra hustle just get the welcome suica card this version has no deposits so just spend all the money left on the card in the shops at the airport even if you’ve got a tiny amount of money left ask the shop staff to use it at first before paying the balance in cash no deposit to worry about silent zero job done go and get on your plane of course if you’re watching this channel there’s a high likelihood that you’ll be returning to Japan in the future and if that’s you then get the normal silica card so you can bring it with you next time your balance is good for 10 years so no pressure at this point you might be thinking if Japan is so high-tech and modern how come we can’t just use our smartphones instead of IC cards well the answer to that is you can if you have an iPhone you should be able to set up mobile silica but for Android users don’t even think about it because you need a phone with felica capability and unless you bought your phone in Japan you don’t have it obviously the big drawback for using mobile silica is that you can’t use it if your phone battery is dead so I recommend just getting a physical card but don’t worry because there’s still a very simple way of getting your IC card onto your phone now although IC cards make it easy for you to spend the money you load onto them it’s a bit harder to know how much you have left if you’re jumping from train to Subway to bus like a Japan Pro then you’re probably too distracted to notice the updated balance that displays every time you use the card but fortunately there’s another way to check your balance that works anywhere if your phone has NFC capability you can download an app that reads your IC card and tells you how much money is left on it and that’s not all you can review your travel history and it also gives the price of every single Journey the link is in the description IC cards are great and everything but you’re still going to need to carry cash because you can’t recharge it with your credit card and just like your credit card you won’t be able to use your IC card everywhere I’ve taken a lot of buses that were cash only and if you’re heading into the countryside many stations don’t have IC card support yet but there’s one more reason why you shouldn’t just rely on your IC card and always have some cash with you and this is something that nobody ever talks about earthquakes and other natural disasters in case you didn’t know Japan gets quite a lot of these and when the power goes out the icy card is going to be absolutely useless and you’re going to want to have some cash seriously there’s a reason why they put it on the emergency kit list so be prepared and keep some cash with you and if you want to get yourself properly prepared for your whole trip don’t do anything until you’ve watched this video with all my best tips for traveling here see ya