Wise Ticketing As you already know how convenient that Japanese train system is, and you will ride trains a lot while you are in Japan. It is important to understand how train tickets work and buy your ticket wisely all the time. Wise ticketing not only save your money, but also manage your time efficiently.
There two major train and subway market makers in Tokyo. One is public owned which is called toei, the other one is private owned which is known as JR. Even though there are different companies and they different train passes, they are transfer-friendly. One the most know train of Japan called Shinkansen (bullet train) is running by JR. The company operates trains in different cities include Tokyo. However, toei is still the most important train system over the country.
Due to a big amount of people ride trains and subways, the cost of trains and subways are expensive in Japan. A single ride really cost 100 to 300 Japanese Yen which is about 1 to 3 dollar. Unlike in U.S, students do not have a big discount or free rides. If you live faraway, taking transfers to get school every day, the cost of whole day transportation fee can be more than 10 dollars. However, you can definitely purchase month pass or season pass which is much cheaper than buying ticket individually. You can purchase a card ticket called teikiken which allows you ride certain line from certain stations to your home station in a period of time. This teikiken can be issued at your home station with your student ID. Not only student can purchase teikiken, everyone who is regularly rides certain line is good for teikiken. This teikiken is not like a regular bus pass in U.S that you can ride any bus any time during the period. The teikiken only works for your daily route (between assigned stations). This card ticket can also work in another way. You can put money in this teikiken and use it for your extra rides that are not between assigned stations. After the period, you can re-charge the cared by same amount of money for a new riding period.
If you want to buy individual ticket for any single ride, it is good to look at the exact price before you purchase ticket. Every station has a map that helps people to figure out how much of the ticket one should buy for commuting from this station to other ones. All tickets are sold by ticket machines, and they are very easy to use. But do not worry about if you purchase wrong price ticket for your ride, you can do fare adjustment before you get out of the destination station. Fare adjustment machines will either ask you to pay the lack of money or return you what is over-paid. Fare adjustment can be also done by a station employee if you think the fare adjustment machine is too complicated.
There are always a lot of different ways to get to your destination. Some of them are fewer transfers, some of them are faster, and some of them are cheaper. To search on Google Map or other train website in Japan before you head to somewhere is always a good idea. Those search engines always tell you the total price, how long it takes and the train schedules. Now, you can start your amazing train journey in Tokyo.
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