#014 Exploring in Tokyo?
A powerful one day ticket for a short stay.
If you have hopped around in Tokyo for a short time, you may have recognized the credit of Suica decrease so quickly without notice since the single ticket is not cheap. Single charge for JR East in metropolitan area starts with 160 Yen and increase irregularly. As I wrote on the Japan Rail Pass last week, you don’t have to worry about charges every time you use JR train, but for those who are staying short time such as on your business or short stay for any other reason every single charge will be a headache, but there is a solution and purchasing a special ticket will solve problems. This week I am going to write about a handy ticket for short stay in Tokyo.
When it comes to talking about popular places among visitors from overseas, lots of places are within or near Yamanote Line. Yamanote Line is a circular train line with green carriage, and it goes around in just around one hour. Interestingly Yamanote Line keeps running and rarely terminate at certain stations. So you just keep going around and around if you fall asleep and stay on the same train. Once I was so sleepy after a couple of drinks and fell asleep. When I woke up, got out of the train and finally realized that I went around for one hour from my watch.
Tokyo Metropolitan District Pass
Shinjyuku Imperial Garden, Meiji Shrine, Tokyo Tower, Ginza…. there are lots of places where you can use JR East to hop around. This time a ticket I strongly recommend is “Tokyo Metropolitan District Pass” which cover the most of central Tokyo stations. Geographically, this pass is covering stations located in 23 wards in Tokyo. Validity is one day and it only costs 760 Yen, which you will gain if you use the lowest charge of 160 Yen five times.
One thing good about it is that it doesn’t limit the range of travel even if you are going out of the area. Supposedly, if you are moving from Tokyo to Kichijoji using Chuo Line, Kichijoji is one station out of the free pass zone, but additional payment of 160 Yen from Nishi-Ogikubo to Kichijoji will do no matter where you are coming inside the pass area. When you look at the map of Tokyo, Tokyo is very wide from the east to the west and shorter from the north to the south. So horizontal usage of the pass is the most efficient way from the point of the cost. It all depends on where you stay.
For this pass, you can choose either by a paper ticket or charge to Suica which I wrote about three weeks ago.
Tokyo Metro One Day Pass
Some of you may say, you need to go to a place like Asakusa with Tokyo Metro. Tokyo Metro has one day pass and it costs 600 Yen for 24 hours. The validity is the unique part of it and it is valid for 24 hours after the purchase. So if you buy it midday it is valid until midday next day. There are two types, one is a paper ticket and the other is an IC ticket. For IC ticket you need to deposit 500 Yen for PASMO.
All in one ticket
JR East is selling Tokyo One Day Ticket with 1,600 Yen. This cover Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, Toden Arakawa Line, Nippori-Toneri Line and Toei Bus on top of Tokyo Metropolitan District Pass area. Tokyo One Day Ticket is all mighty, but you really have to use public transport heavily to be paid off. Before you start your day, please make a list of places to visit and check which pass will be enough.
What you will choose will depend the duration, destinations, and how you enjoy metropolitan Tokyo. Good luck with your planning. You still got lots of time before you really can travel in Japan freely.