Combining three questions into one posting here.
1) I’m going on a road trip in 2 weeks. I’m driving from Yokosuka to Kyoto, through Chūbu-Sangaku National Park. Do I NEED an ETC card or can I just pay cash?
I know driving to Atsugi there’s a toll booth that is ETC exclusively, no cash option.
Unsure of the process to get an ETC (car does have a reader). But I’ll barely ever use it, so if there’s any monthly fee associated, or if it needs a japanese bank account, then it won’t be worth it.
1b …onsen recommends snow tires. Is it really necessary for late November?? I won’t need them in yokosuka.
2) Train cards: I actually don’t have one yet, and then tokyo stopped selling them when they ran out of supply.
If I buy a train card while I’m in Kyoto,
Will I be able to both use it, and reload it with more yen, back in Yokosuka?
3) Store Point cards. Worth bothering with?
I spend a lot of money on wood at Shimachu. Last spring I got their point card, and they scanned it woth probably 400,000 yen in purchases. I never knew what it was good for though– do points reward redeemable coupons, or what exactly?
And then this summer, shimachu switched something and stopped accepting their own point card that they issued to me! but they told me it might still work at 7-11?
I really didn’t understand the system, or why they were rejecting their own card, and I just threw it away as useless. But maybe someone here can explain them to me.
Thank you for the explanations!!
Bernie
8 comments
1. Call your credit card company and see if you can get an ETC card. The readers are free once installed and registered. Basically all you need is the card which will be tied to your credit card. There are discounts associated with the ETC in addition to the ETC only entrances/exits and saving time by not having to wait at a gate.
2. You take your chances, if it’s in the mountains it might very well need snow tires or chains. It’s your life though hopefully you don’t kill a family in another car when you take yourself out.
3. I have no idea if Kyoto train cards work in Tokyo. But, I imagine that they’re suffering from the same IC chip shortage that’s making the cards impossible to buy here.
4. You should have the option of using your points. Get a t-point, a rakuten, and a ponta. They’re valuable just because many gas stations give you a 2-3 yen/l discount in addition to the points you get back.
> Will I be able to both use it, and reload it with more yen, back in Yokosuka?
Yes. ~~All~~ *most major* Japanese IC cards are compatible with each other (the only exception might be for non-transit electronic payments, but ICOCA cards from Kansai work in Tokyo for e-payments).
Incidentally, I have *heard* that they are selling TOICA cards in Tokyo Station if you want to get one right now.
2) I believe you can buy ICOCA in Kyoto. The same can be used in Tokyo where SUICA is accepted. You can also recharge it at convenience stores.
3) Perhaps it is a T Point card. This is a point card issued by the parent company of TSUTAYA, and is a “common point card” with many companies participating in the alliance.
Here is a list of merchants. You can use it at FamilyMart, not 7Eleven.
[https://t-point.tsite.jp/store/list/](https://t-point.tsite.jp/store/list/)
Shimachu was acquired by Nitori a while ago. And since they adopted Nitori’s point card, they left this alliance. That is why your card is no longer accepted at Shimachu. This was announced in February of this year and implemented at the end of August.
Do I NEED an ETC card or can I just pay cash? **I know driving to Atsugi there’s a toll booth that is ETC exclusively, no cash option**
you said it yourself my friend 🙂
If you can get an ETC card through your credit card company, do that (mine is with Rakuten). No fees, just when you use it.
Before I got it I had to turn a 20min highway trip into a 45min back roads trip because the gates were ETC only. Hard lesson learned.
>I really didn’t understand the system, or why they were rejecting their own card, and I just threw it away as useless.
Sometimes companies switch point card networks. A lot of stores use point cards from third party companies even though the card itself has the store’s own logo on it. In this case, Shimachu was taken over by Nitori, so they joined Nitori’s point system and left T-Point, the original system they were using. If they’d scanned your card for over 400k yen then you probably had a good few thousand yen of points on it you could’ve used at FamilyMart (not 7-Eleven).
…I didn’t know there were ETC only roads. Now I’m scared. I don’t have one or know how to use it.
> Unsure of the process to get an ETC (car does have a reader). But I’ll barely ever use it, so if there’s any monthly fee associated, or if it needs a japanese bank account, then it won’t be worth it.
Usually you get one linked to your Japanese credit card. There is sometimes a fee but it’s like ¥500/year, and for some cards it’s completely free. But presumably if you don’t have a Japanese bank account then you don’t have a credit card either?
> If I buy a train card while I’m in Kyoto, Will I be able to both use it, and reload it with more yen, back in Yokosuka?
Yes. You’ll miss out on some minor benefits, e.g. you can’t do credit card auto charge at another company’s ticket gates that’s not its “home” rail company, or earn points from using it. But the basic functionality of charging and using will work fine.
> I never knew what it was good for though– do points reward redeemable coupons, or what exactly?
A lot of the time you can use them as straight up money off your bill – just tell the person at the register you want to use your points. For some stricter systems you have to save up a certain amount and then exchange it for a coupon or something (e.g. the Keio one you mostly have to save up 500 points and then you can get a ¥500 voucher, or maybe it was 5000). There are other more complicated things you can get into but that’s the most basic thing.