Hello everyone,
As i am thoroughly planning my first trip to Japan, i am trying to understand how Suica works when i will be transferring to the Shinkansen, and got off the train.
I heard some people had their suica blocked because they unfortunately forgot to tap out.
And it can’t be an issue if only JR east is able to fix it, when you are in Kyoto (and don’t intend to go back to Tokyo).
I won’t have any JR Pass, but physical train tickets.
Is there someone kind enough to tell me if i am getting right ?
I will take a real itinerary Asakusa – Tokyo station
– Asakusa: tap the suica
– Kanda: tap the suica
– Tokyo station (JR transferring gate): insert train ticket + tap the suica
– Kyoto station : insert the train ticket (kept by the gate) + tap the suica.
Am i right ?
To be honest, i don’t understand why it’s necessary to tap out in Kyoto (in my mind, tap out the suica in Tokyo should be more logical).
I would really appreciate your advices on it!
13 comments
You can’t really tap out at Tokyo because you’re still within the JR system and Tokaido sen is still JR. If I’m understanding your journeys correctly.
If you have physical train tickets, the shinkansen ticket will be for the Tokyo City zone. So you gotta tap out at Kanda anyways, since you come via Ginza line and will walk to Kanda JR. From there you can use your shinkansen ticket since you will be using JR.
Can’t help with the other stuff
asakusa staion : use suica : enter
kanda staion : use suica : exit
if you re buying shinkansen ticket it cover both basic fare+shinkansen fair so
Tokyo Shinkansen : insert ticket only : enter
kyoto Shinkansen : insert ticket only : exit (will lose paper ticket)
I don’t think you need to tap out in Kyoto when you leave the shinkansen gates as you’re ending your trip from Kanda JR station to Tokyo station when you tap into the shinkansen gates. I’m not 100% since I don’t have experience since I prefer to link my shinkansen ticket bought from smartex to my ic card to avoid the problem of forgetting to tap out properly when transferring to shinkansen gates.
I had something like that happen to me yesterday I think. There’s always an attendant, I went to the window and she manually did some stuff as I couldn’t get through the gate as I was transferring from Shinkansen to a JR line coming to Tokyo from Hiroshima. Don’t stress or overthink.
When all else fails and attendant is more than ready to help you
Yes, exactly as you described, except you don’t need to tap out in kyoto.
Thanks everyone for your replies ! I think that the easiest way for me is to put my shinkansen ticket on my suica !
I think for me it was tap in with Suica when coming from local station to Tokyo station. At ticket counter for Shinkansen they will take your Suica and clear it. You use Shinkansen tickets and they spit back out at you. You then use Shinkansen tickets again to exit and the machine eats it. Then you are free to exit.
If anything, just approach the attendant by the gate and they’ll sort you out.
I’m not an expert, but I was worried about this sort of thing on my trip, and it ended up being easier and more obvious than I anticipated. The JR lines are beyond different gates than the non-JR lines, so it’s pretty obvious when you have to leave a gate to get to another part of the station. You will be able to tell when you are exiting a subway for instance, and you tap out then. Then you enter your Shinkansen ticket when you get to that area. It seems like it would actually be kind of hard to get out without tapping your suica or inserting a ticket— not sure how people are doing that.
Don’t worry even if it is blocked.
Didn’t tap out in Kyoto and at Tokyo I just showed JR pass and the guy fixed my card!
I would not that broke my Suica card doing this a few years ago and it was fixable without issue, I think it’s a common issue people have.
Tbh, I’d just use your Suica to get to Tokyo station by what ever route you want and then just exit the station. That means any journey on the Suica card is closed. Then just turn around and re-enter that station using your Shinkansen ticket