[Travelogue] : Tokyo Part I - IC Card for Subways

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُه,

Salam readers!

For our 5th anniversary, I have decided to celebrate our anniversary at Japan. So I'd bought airline tickets few months before we flew. I have asked some agents for some quotations, and none of them satisfied me dari segi harga dan masa. So I have decided to do my own itinerary. But first and foremost, before fly kena survey siap2x navigator, IC card, weather kat sana, waktu solat kat sana. Today I would like to make a review pasal IC Card untuk Tokyo subways.

We have chosen Pasmo as our IC for Tokyo subways. Actually ada beberapa card yang kita boleh guna. Antara yang famous are Suica Card, Pasmo, JR Pass and Tokyo Metro Pass. Bagi sesiapa yang plan utk travel within Tokyo sahaja the options are on Suica, Pasmo or Tokyo Metro Pass. JR pass utk sesiapa yang plan nk pergi outside tokyo and also outskirt area sbb JR pass ni dia akan cover the whole Japan including Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima and etc.

Apa perbezaan antara Pasmo, Suica and Tokyo Metro Pass? Ikutkan paling murah antara these 3 adalah Tokyo Metro Pass sebab dia ada 24/48/72hrs pass. Harga bagi 24hrs pass dalam lingkungan ¥800 (RM30), 48hrs pass ¥1,200 (RM45) and 72hrs pass dalam ¥1,500 (RM57). Tapiiiiii... Tokyo Metro Pass tak cover certain subways especially JR. So sebelum beli this pass kena check dulu itinerary. Kalu itinerary ada nak ke Fuji ke Gotemba ke Hakone ke even Osaka memang tak dapek la guna Tokyo Metro Pass.

Suica and Pasmo kegunaan dia sama. You can used this at all subways and dia macam kad touch and go. Boleh digunakan di subways, any mart pun boleh swipe je. Bayar as per actual harga train and korang boleh dapatkan kad ni dekat any subway stations. Just pergi dekat ticket machine then korang pilih IC tak silap atau new card macam tu la dia ada translation in English and masukkan detail nama, berapa amount yg korg nk pkai and from that amount they will deduct ¥500 (RM19) as a deposit. If korang nak dapatkan balik deposit, you guys boleh pergi subway counter and minta refund. Tapi mostly ramai tak refund kut sbb boleh simpan or u can used it for your next trip pun sebab validity card is 10 years. Tapi if guna IC ni kalau tengok pada apps Japan Rail mmg ada discount compare dgn bayar cash sbb ikut plan itinerary total subways kitorg dalam RM400 tapi masa balik masing2x ada lagi balance dalam ¥1000+ lagi. Around (RM40). And how to check the balance? Everytime korang touch on each station, they will appear at the screen. So korang boleh budget itinerary korang dengan expenses korang.

For the JR Pass, where you are able to travel outside Tokyo, the price for 7 days pass is (~RM1,123), 14 days pass (~RM1,790) and 21 days pass (RM2,290). All fares above are for 1 adults. Kalau child dikira half price of all fares. Child dekat jepun adalah from 6 to 11 years. Below than that dikira free of charge on the subways and also busses. 12 years old and above dah dikira adults. 

So for those yang ada kids under 6 memang berbaloi since all the transportation here in Japan are free of charge for child under 6. So ape tunggu lagi, go buy your ticket! 😋