A question about NEX and Suica

Hello everyone

I have 2 questions for you today.

I have been trying to find out about transportation in Tokyo from Narita to Shinjuku. We land in Narita at 9am on a Wednesday morning and intend to purchase the NEX Sucia combination for 3500 Yen. I have seen the link here:

www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica-nex/index.html

I understand the NEX seats are booked on the purchase of the ticket and that the Sucia ticket has a 500 yen deposit.

Q. How quickly are we likely to use the remaining balance of 1500 yen in and around the centre of Tokyo? How much would it be for a journey say from Shinjuku to Ueno and back again? We are just trying to work out how much money we are likely to need for the subway etc. I understand that their is a surcharge if you ge the 500yen refund once we leave Tokyo if the balance is not 0 yen.

To return to the airport a week later, we intend to use the airport limousine service leaving out hotel (Sunroute plaza Shinjuku)at 7am. Is this leaving adequate time? We are flying at 11.15am to Amsterdam from terminal 1. Failing that, would the NEX be a good move back to Narita and if so how much would it be?

Many thanks again if you can help. I am sure I will have many more questions to go!

A question about NEX and Suica

You can use www.hyperdia.com to calculate your fares.

Fares in central tokyo are pretty small.

You can always ';recharge'; your suica card at any time.

';I understand that their is a surcharge if you ge the 500yen refund once we leave Tokyo if the balance is not 0 yen.';

You get 500 yen back no matter what. The surcharge is if you want any remaining balance over 210yen back.

For example, if you have 350 yen left on the Suica card when you are about to leave Japan, you return the Suica card, you get the 500yen, PLUS 350yen minus 210 service charge, so you get 140 of the 350 PLUS 500, so you leave out with 640yen.

If you have 0yen left on the card or any amount under 210 yen, you just get 500 yen back.

Yes I think thats enough time to get back to the airport.

A question about NEX and Suica

Hi Tokyosubway

thanks so much for clarifying that, that helps me enrmously.

You may be the person to ask about using the subway- I appreciate that big cities like London have peak times on the subway e.g roughly 7am - 10am and from about 5pm - 7pm ) where the trains are more full. I gather that in Tokyo the subway trains are busy a lot, but are there any quieter times when it might be a good idea to leave our hotel to start sightseeing?

Any suggestions would be great!

nic

Remember Tokyo is full of railways not just subways, for example Shinuku to Ueno is JR, but not Subway. It%26#39;s all symetics, trains will get you to where you need to go, no matter if its called a subway, JR, monorail or whatever.

As for Rush Hour,

yes rush hour is typically in the morning for trains coming into Central Tokyo, but as a tourist if you are heading out at 9am~10am in the morning then you should be fine.

The trains are mad with people coming into Central Tokyo from the suburbs in the morning and leaving back out in the evenings, thats an experience in itself, if you ever want to feel the ';experience'; though not an experience I recommend doing it everyday @_@.

Hi Tokyosubway

Thanks agin for your help.

With the Suica card, I understand I can travel on different (but not all) Tokyo railways and subways etc. Can I use it on JR Yamanote line? I would like to travel to Harajuku on this line.

thanks

Nic

You can use Suica on the JR Yamanote line.

%26lt;With the Suica card, I understand I can travel on different (but not all) Tokyo railways and subways etc. Can I use it on JR Yamanote line? I would like to travel to Harajuku on this line.%26gt;

You can use a Suica (or Pasmo) on ALMOST any train or subway. Even on the Setagaya Line ';streetcar'; and local buses!

http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/suica/index.html

According to their Japanese website, the exceptions would be the Tokaido Shinkansen, and some areas that overlap one another, such as with Sendai, Niigata, TOICA (JR Tokaido), ICOCA (JR West), ie you can%26#39;t get on with a SUICA in Tokyo and get off in Sendai.

Here%26#39;s a site with all the train stations (in Japanese). As you can see, there are a LOT of train lines and stations! :-)

www.jreast.co.jp/suica/area/tokyo/map.html

As said above, with a Suica, you can travel on just about any public mode of transport within Greater Tokyo with the swipe of a card so you can pretty much consider it ';all'; outside Shinkansen.

NEX is always a good on-time method to get to Narita. You can either take the 7:07 train or the 8:03 train (which gets to Narita at 9:29, still enough time to check-in). The cost is 3,110 Yen.

Alternatively, you can save a couple thousand Yen if you take the JR Yamanote Line to Nippori and transfer to the Keisei Limited Express (1,190 Yen total), or save 1,000 Yen by transferring to the Keisei Skyliner (2,110 Yen total).

If you decide to take NEX out, be sure to buy your ticket the day before so you don%26#39;t have to stand in line in the morning and miss your train.

Train schedules and fares:

http://www.hyperdia.com

For Tokyo, as mention Suica is comptable with all Pasmo system trains. So if you see something that says PASMO, you can use the Suica card on it without problems. That pretty much means virtually every line and bus line in Tokyo you shouldn%26#39;t have a problem.

If you read anything that says Suica is not compatable with subways etc, then its an old outdated website/book that you need to throw out. :) things changed a 2 years ago with the combination of all systems into Suica/Pasmo.

';things changed a 2 years ago with the combination of all systems into Suica/Pasmo.';

TokyoSubway,

I recently saw a sign that said Suica/Pasmo AND ICOCA! Finally, someone with some common sense is taking charge!

Now if we can only get the ETC to work! lol

Cheers.

Its all quite complicated to look at the list but if you go to the JR site they provide you all the compatibility lists.

Pretty much not to confuse people, I say if you are going to buy Suica or Pasmo use it in the Tokyo area.

If you are heading out to Osaka then better to invest in a ICOCA anyway, just because even though Suica works on Icoca, it won%26#39;t work on everything like Pitapa, however Pasmo will not work on either. Yeah its all confusion. But it probably takes alot of programming because the fares have to be spit and routed to the proper railways accounts.

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