JAPLANS :)

jonnyburgo

Can't add anything really, just have a great time, we loved it and will return. There is nowhere in the world remotely like it!

RaymondLin

strumjoughlamps said:

@RaymondLin now I’m gonna stop watching tube vids soon as I want to explore and find shops..

but I did watch one today, recent walkabout showing the new Harajuku building, there is one on one corner and they have built a new one on the opposite corner almost mirroring just one is more modern looking.. it looks superb..

anyways to the question, if I’m on a decent legs day and went to Shibuya with the mindset of walking to Shinjuku, is there something to see and do from one end to the other??

also they are installing a new fountain structure in Yoyogi Park… I’m hoping it’s complete by December as the pics of it look amazing.

also, what is you’re preferred payment for metro?

Ta

You can walk there but do it via Harajuku, Yoyogi Park and the Meiji Shrine route, hit as many spots at one go, plenty of places to stop to rest on the way in the park.

for Metro, I pay by my iPhone with the Suica App.  It is basically a top up card.  I don’t think you can pay by contactless visa like in London yet.  The alternative is get a physical suica card but due to chip shortage the actual cards are hard to come by.  People are meant to return them when leaving the country and get 500 yen deposit back but people take them home with them as souvenirs…there is an entire sub culture of people collecting different design ones by different operators around the country!  

Alternative to Suica is the PASMO card, exactly the same function.  The last resort is to buy physical ticket.  To get a physical ticket you need to work out where you are, where you are going and get the correct price ticket and it’s annoying, although don’t worry if you are short. At every exit gate there is a top up machine, my problem with the physical cards and tickets is a lot of the machines when I used them before only took cash.  So I needed cash to top up the card or the ticket.

Suica card on the iPhone I top up via Apple Pay.  I hope they have updated the machine to take card and cash.

strumjoughlamps

Cool cheers I thought Suica was the way to go, I don’t think they do Pasmo now, not for tourists anyway. 

RaymondLin

strumjoughlamps said:

Cool cheers I thought Suica was the way to go, I don’t think they do Pasmo now, not for tourists anyway. 

Anyone can buy these cards. You get them from the machines.

there are 2 types of Suica, the Welcome version which is red and only valid for 30 days or the green one which is standard, same as the iPhone one, which when topped up, valid for 10 years.  The green ones and Pasmo are in low supply. You can still find them but probably not in the major stations in Tokyo.

RaymondLin

If you have an iPhone, I highly encourage you to use it on the phone.  Unfortunately the same app does not work on android phones release outside Japan.

strumjoughlamps

RaymondLin said:

If you have an iPhone, I highly encourage you to use it on the phone.  Unfortunately the same app does not work on android phones release outside Japan.

Is it one per person? I am iOS whereas missus is Droid

RaymondLin

strumjoughlamps said:

RaymondLin said:

If you have an iPhone, I highly encourage you to use it on the phone.  Unfortunately the same app does not work on android phones release outside Japan.

Is it one per person? I am iOS whereas missus is Droid

It’s one per person.

You can add it to your phone now to see, don’t need to add money to it. It’s under travel cards.

stickyfiddle

I’ve always just used cash on the subways tbh. 

The queue for the machines can be annoying when other tourists can’t work them out but it’s not actually that hard (multi-language machines etc) 

RaymondLin

I also like seeing a history of where I been to.  You can use it to buy things too, some places I just say “Suica?” to the cashier when paying.