You can buy Suica at the following places
- “Kiosk”
- “New days (convenience store)”
- “JR Ticket Office” (Midori-no-Madoguchi)
- “Multifunctional ticket machine”
These selling places are in the relatively big station building. Kiosks are generally installed in the middle of platforms of JR railway. Nowadays are convenience store which is located right behind the ticket gate. JR ticket office is installed in the middle to the large station. Ticket machines are equipped at almost every station.
A Suica rechargeable IC card you can get at Kiosk and New days cost you 2000yen in total. Its breakdown is like 500 yen is for the card deposit, and 1500 yen is for the first charge.
Contents
Types of Suica, registered or unregistered
There are two types of Suica between registrable one and non-registrable one.
For example, registered Suica is the one notified to JR that this card is owned by you and non-registered IC card is the one notified nothing to JR. The big difference between both two types of IC cards is whether or not you can be reissued with Suica when you lose the one.
If your Suica is registered, even if you lose it, you can apply for re-issuance of Suica. When completing the re-issuance procedure, your transaction history and balance are terminated from your lost card and transferred into reissued IC card. Your lost card will be out of service.
If not registered, you should give up the card even though it remains a lot of account balances in it.
What you need to buy registrable IC card is the followings
- Identification documents (your passport, international driver’s license, insurance card etc)
- 1000yen (500yen for deposit, another 500 yen for the first topup)
- Filled application form (Forms are stood by in ticket office)
Where you can get registrable Suica
| Kiosk | |
|---|---|
| New days | |
| JR Ticket Office | |
| Multifunctional Ticket Machine |
How to be reissued
You need to bring your identification documents which prove yourself and re-issuance fee (510yen) and new car deposit (500), which is 1010yen in total. Card will be reissued the day after you apply at JR Ticket office. If you don’t come back again to Ticket office to get new reissued IC card over 14 days, your IC card’s re-issuance procedure will be cancelled and you end up starting application from scratch if you need.
Where you can get non-registrable Suica
You can get non-registrable at the following every places.
| Kiosk | |
|---|---|
| New days | |
| JR Ticket Office | |
| Multifunctional Ticket Machine |
One thing you notice for buying this card is that this card is not guaranteed by JR on re-issuance. If you loose this card, you should give up no matter how much money you’ve topped up and buy new one.
How to get non-registrable card with Multifunctional ticket machine
There are several types of ticket machines installed in stations. These are classified by color depending on the application. To buy Suica card, you have to choose the black one.
| Machine type | Applications |
|---|---|
| Green ticket machine |
|
| Purple ticket machine |
|
| Red ticket machine | Only top up |
| Black ticket machine |
|
This is a start screen. If you don’t understand Japanese, you can find an English translation button on the top right corner of the screen.
You’re going to choose the blue box in the left bottom out of 4 boxes in the middle of the screen.
Next, you choose the middle one which tells you this is new purchase.
You’re going to choose which one of Suica you buy. 500 yen will be taken as card deposit and 500 yen other than card deposit is minimum charge for new issuance card. The more expensive you get, the more often you can take a train.
Insert bills
There you go, Suica comes out! It’s pretty easy. I recommend this card even if you are a traveller.
So far as you go to country side of Japan, you don’t need to take a taxi to go to wherever you want to because public transportation is spread throughout the city area.
Your first 500 yen investment turns out to be very good advantage to go for a sightseeing around Tokyo effectively.
How to get registerble Suica
What you do to get registrable Suica, fill in the above application form and submit it to a JR ticket office, called Midorino-Madoguchi (みどりの窓口)
You can get this form at “Midorino Madoguchi”.
The columns you should fill in is the followings.
Choose and circle what you apply to
You circle “My Suica (記名式)” .
- 通勤: regular commuter pass
- グリーン: green commuter pass (Luxry seat)
- フレックス: bullet train commuter pass
- 山手線均一: Yamanote line commuter pass ( You can use Yamanote line whenever you want freely)
- My Suica (記名式): Registable Suica
The term of validity of Yamanote line commuter pass is only 1 month. After 1 month, you need to renew it if you want to use continuously.
Payment method
If your want to pay by cash, circle “現金” (cash). If you want to pay by credit card, “クレジットカード” (credit card)
Name, gender and age
In the left space before “様”, you need to write your name in Katakana. If you google your name with google translation, you can find your name in Katakana easily.
“男女”, placed in the upper middle between “様” and “才” is about asking you gender. If you are a man, cirlce “男”. If you are a woman, circle “女”
In the space between “様” and “才”, write your age. By the way, “才” means “year old”.
Birth year and date
Phone number
Wirte your phone number usable in Japan. This is needed when you lose a commuter pass on your way and a finder will contact you.