Tap In, Tap Out: How Tokyo's Trains Actually Work

A trip to Japan isn't only planned with your head in the clouds — it also needs your feet on the ground. During a visit, you'll likely spend as much time walking as you will on public transport, and while first-time visitors are always surprised by just how much walking is involved, they usually come to appreciate how easy it is to get from one place to another on a network that's reliable, clean, and safe. Since you'll be spending a fair amount of time in it, it felt like time for a practical article on what's worth knowing from the moment you land.

Every first-time visitor I've talked to arrives in Tokyo having read the same advice: get a JR Pass, it covers everything. Every one of them leaves having spent money on a pass that barely got used, while fumbling at a ticket gate with a paper ticket for a line it didn't even cover. The advice isn't malicious — it was true once. It just hasn't been true since 2023, and most of the internet hasn't caught up.

The IC card is not optional

Before any pass, any route, any app — get an IC card. Suica or Pasmo, it doesn't matter which; they work identically almost everywhere in the country. Tap it on the reader when you enter a station, tap it again when you leave, and the correct fare is deducted automatically.

If you're arriving from abroad, get the Welcome Suica — a tourist version available at Haneda, Narita, and the main Tokyo stations (Shinjuku, Tokyo, Ikebukuro, Ueno, Shibuya), among a few others. It works exactly like a regular Suica but doesn't require the registration a standard card does, and it expires on its own after 28 days (unless your stay is meant to last longer or you plan to come back, in which case a permanent card makes more sense).

Topping up is almost always cash-only at station machines and convenience stores — bring coins and small bills, not your card, unless you're on the Apple Pay version. And don't overthink the deposit: a physical Suica costs ¥2,000 to start (¥500 deposit, ¥1,500 usable balance), refundable minus a small handling fee if you return it before leaving — though with a Welcome Suica, you don't even need to bother.

Beyond trains, the same card quietly turns into something close to a debit card for everyday life: buses, taxis that accept IC, vending machines, convenience stores, supermarkets — tap and go, no cash, no change to fumble with. It is, without exaggeration, the single most useful thing you'll carry in Tokyo.

About that JR Pass

Here's the part most pre-trip blog posts haven't updated: in October 2023, the price of the Japan Rail Pass jumped by roughly 70%. A 7-day ordinary pass that used to cost around ¥29,650 now runs ¥50,000. That change alone flipped the math for a huge share of travelers.

If your trip is Tokyo only, or Tokyo with a single round trip to Kyoto or Osaka, buying individual tickets will almost always cost you less than the pass — sometimes by a wide margin. The JR Pass still earns its price when you're stringing together several cities in one trip (Tokyo → Kyoto → Hiroshima → Fukuoka, for instance), where the cumulative bullet-train fares add up fast. For a Tokyo-centered stay, it's close to dead money.

What actually makes sense inside Tokyo

For getting around the city itself, there are really three options, and which one wins depends entirely on how much ground you're covering.

Pay-as-you-go with your IC card is the right default for most visitors, most days. You're not locked into anything, it covers every operator — Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, JR lines including the Yamanote loop, buses — and you only pay for the rides you take.

The Tokyo Subway Ticket is a 24/48/72-hour unlimited pass, but it only covers Tokyo Metro's 9 lines and Toei's 4 subway lines — not JR (so not the Yamanote Line), not the airport trains, not Disney Resort access. It only pays for itself if you're doing five or six short subway rides a day; for a normal sightseeing pace of two or three stops a day, paying per ride is probably cheaper.

A day pass covering JR too exists but is rarely worth it unless your day is unusually transit-heavy.

A few things nobody tells you until you miss the last train

Tokyo's trains stop running around midnight to 1am depending on the line, and they do not restart until about 5am — there's no night service to fall back on. Missing the last train is a Tokyo rite of passage; it usually means an expensive taxi, a karaoke box until the trains resume, or a very long walk you'll laugh about later. Build in a buffer if your evening plans are anywhere near a station's closing time.