In an attempt to keep costs from going parabolic we are committed to trying to use buses and metro’s when we can to save money. As opposed to using Ubers or renting cars all the time. Mexico City was interesting because Ubers were *so* cheap, but we still used the metro a lot. Though I will say that often it was because the trains were faster since they didn’t have to wait for traffic.
Tokyo is a different animal entirely. Uber’s are *expensive* here. Surely due to the high cost of living. The metro’s are reasonable, to my USD sensibilities but far more expensive than Mexico City.
The Tokyo Metro Experience
I’ll admit, I’ve spent most of my life living in the midwestern United States, and not in Chicago, so taking the metro is not something that I’ve done on the regular, and I’m far from an expert. But something about Tokyo’s metro that surprised me quite a bit is that you don’t just pay a fixed fare and ride until you want to get off. You pay for the distance traveled! I thought that this was going to be a nightmare but since we used their Sucia digital payment system we didn’t need to estimate the cost based on distance and get the right ticket. We just paid with our phones and the system figured it out. So slick.
If you’re an iPhone user, it couldn’t be any easier. Just open your wallet app, find the “transit card” section and search for “Suica”. From there you can add a digital Suica card and fund it from your credit card or Apple pay. You don’t need to install the Suica app, or create an account. Just add the card directly to your wallet, fund it from a credit card or apple pay and you’re good to go. Once you have that done you can just wave your phone at the sensor on the entry gate and ride.
When your phone is scanned, it shows your account balance so you have an idea of how much cash you have. But be mindful, swiping in does not charge you anything. The charge happens when you swipe out. That’s how they know how far you went, which is how they know what to charge you.
Cool things I noticed
Mexico City is fresh on my mind, and we used its metro system a fair bit in our month of living in that lovely city so I may use it a lot for comparison. In Mexico, you usually have a static image of the stations of the line that you’re on. (We never saw any trains in Mexico with lights, or indicators showing which station you were at. You just had to look out of the window and read it on the walls during the short stops.) In Tokyo they have LCD screens and holy crap are they cool. It doesn’t just show a route map for the line, it shows that info in Japanese written in what I assume is using Kanji. If you wait a moment the screens change and show the stops in Romaji (a roman alphabet, phonetic version of word — stuff that an American has a fighting chance at pronouncing.) That was awfully handy but the thing that they showed that I’ve never seen anywhere before was at the stops the screen had a graphic showing which car you were in and which street you would be on depending on which direction you turned after stepping off. So cool.
The myths
Maybe I’m a sucker, or I’m miss remembering but some things I’ve heard about the metro in Tokyo just don’t seem true.
- Supernaturally organized order.
- No talking on the train.
These are the big two. As far as order is concerned, we did take a fairly busy, standing room only, train this afternoon and people were Japanese polite in letting everyone who wanted to exit the train do so before new folks got on, but there weren’t weird robotic lines with people moving like drones. It was just people, being aware of other people and doing what made the most sense.
Talking on the train. I’ve seen this so much on facebook, and I don’t think I get it. I’ve seen so many comments saying not to talk on the train, that no one talks. But what I noticed seemed just like Mexico. Everyone glued to their phones, or listening to their music or fav podcasts with a remaining few either exchanging private words with their travel companions, or just sitting in silence. It didn’t seem any different to me.
The big differences
Clean. I wont say that they were some sci-fi level of spotlessness but the system was quite clean. The stations, the train cars and even the restrooms at the stations. Surely the cleanest I’ve seen anywhere.
The technology they use to assess the distance you went by scanning your card at your exit gate was fascinating to me. I can only assume that it is a cost control measure to make the system charge a fair price to riders so that folks using it for longer distances are paying more.
For our short stay, the farthest we went was probably about 7 miles outside of our neighborhood, about 30 minutes by Uber. (and by train, including walking to the station). That cost us about ¥358 ($2.50). But the shorter trip to visit the palace nearby was more like ¥178 ($1.25).
Contrasted by Mexico’s 5 pesos ($0.25) to go as far as you want, it’s pretty expensive, but relative to a 50 dollar Uber ride that took the same amount of time, it’s a steal.
Conclusion
The metro in Tokyo is pretty easy to use and no more confusing than any other. Getting your Suica card set up in Apple Pay is probably the biggest difference but once you know how it’s awfully easy. The main key in making it manageable is Google. When you ask google to give you directions and choose public transit, it shows you how to get to the stations, which entry to take, which train to take and how many stops to go. Technology wins.
