i recently visited kansai and bought an icoca card (last time i was living in japan suica didn’t work in some stations in the kansai region). i went into the wrong station for the line i was catching, so had to leave via the ticket office. they seemed to reset my icoca card somehow at the office.
however, it looks like i accidentally tapped on with my suica at that station, and it was never reset.
my suica is now stuck in kansai, i’ve left the region, and according to station staff i’m now unable to use it at all.
i could get a new pass but i’m just curious if there’s any way to salvage it?
7 comments
I have done a similar thing, in Kyushu, tapped in through the gate and arrived to unmanned/no gates station and was unable to “pay” for the transit. About 2 months later I went to Tokyo and had to use the suica card there, so I went to the window and explained the situation and they reset it in a few seconds, no questions asked. Not sure why you’re being told that this is not possible. Just tell them exactly what happened and that you need to reset the card.
Also, when I came back from Tokyo I went to a nearby station and offered to pay for the fare I got for free few months back, and the attendant was very surprised I even bothered. Anyway, they charged me 700-ish yen for the unpaid train fare after some hesitation.
Suica not working in Kansai? That hasn’t been a thing since 2009.
The only way to reset a SUICA in that case is to take it to a JR East station, they should be able to fix the problem if you explain what happened.
Where are you now? Use your reset ICOCA for that area if you can. If or when you get back to a JR-East station, go to a station window take care of the SUICA issue.
I’m not sure but I also think it depends on the staff member, I had the same problem when visiting the F1 in Suzuka and it was all a mess with checking in and out with Suica. But in the end I asked the first officer he said no, and the second one it was just a few seconds and done, I don’t really know how, haha.
Reset -o onigaishimasu . That’s all you need to say to them.
My advice would be not to TMI the eki-san. Go in, say it doesn’t work, you don’t know why, you did everything correctly, please reset. Look pitifully concerned and baffled.
Speak to the man. He will rectify it.