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Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Today we bring you the final installment of our Riding the Rails series covering the Japanese railway system. In this lesson, we talk about norikae, or transfering trains, coin lockers, and more. Learn how to ask where to change trains, which line to go to, and more! Don’t miss this series finale!
This entry was posted on Monday, July 17th, 2006 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Survival Phrases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
19 Responses to “Survival Phrases #30 - Riding the Rails V”
JapanesePod101.com says:
July 17th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
Mina-san,
Omatase shimashita! How was everyone’s weekend? The information mentioned in the podcast will be posted shortly!
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu! 
JapanesePod101.com says:
July 17th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Regarding coin lockers located inside of the station, you must buy a ticket to enter. The cheapest ticket is generally 120 yen. You will also not be able to exit through the ticket gates using the ticket you bought, so simply show it to the station attendant and he or she will let you out. You will have to do the same to access the locker again when you are ready to remove your belongings.
A whole variety of one day passes are available for the Tokyo area. One day passes are sold at train stations and vending machines and are valid for one calendar day.
Tokyo Free Kippu (1580 Yen)
Unlimited use of all subway lines (Toei and Tokyo Metro) and JR trains in the central Tokyo area on one calendar day. It is also valid on buses and streetcars operated by Toei.
Toei and Tokyo Metro One-Day Economy Pass (1000 Yen)
Unlimited use of all subway lines (Toei and Tokyo Metro) on one calendar day.
Tokyo Metro One-Day Open Ticket (710 Yen)
Unlimited use of Tokyo Metro subway lines on one calendar day. Note that this covers only eight of Tokyo’s twelve subway lines, i.e. the ones operated by Tokyo Metro.
Toei One-Day Economy Pass (700 Yen)
Unlimited use of Toei subway lines, buses and streetcars on one calendar day. Note that this covers only four of Tokyo’s twelve subway lines, i.e. the ones operated by Toei.
Tokunai Pass (730 Yen)
Unlimited use of JR trains in the central Tokyo area on one calendar day.
Holiday Pass (2300 Yen)
Unlimited use of local and rapid JR trains in the greater Tokyo area (including Yokohama and Kamakura) on one calendar day. It can only be used on Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays and certain holiday seasons.
Prepaid cards don’t give you any discounts, but they make the process of taking trains easier, as you do not always need to buy a ticket before riding a train. Prepaid cards can be purchased at vending machines.
Passnet (1000, 3000 and 5000 Yen)
Passnet are prepaid cards that can be used on almost all trains and subways in the Tokyo area with the prominent exception of JR trains. They are available for 1000 Yen, 3000 Yen and 5000 Yen.
To use Passnet, insert the card into the ticket gates, and the required fee will be withdrawn automatically. If the remaining amount on the card is not sufficient anymore, you can use it at vending machines to buy another ticket.
Suica (from 1000 Yen)
Suica is a prepaid IC card that can be used on JR trains in the greater Tokyo and Sendai areas, on the Tokyo Monorail and on the Rinkai Line. Suica can also be used in place of an Icoca Card on JR trains in the Kansai region.
A refundable 500 Yen deposit is applied when you initially get a Suica card. Afterwards, you can re-charge it at vending machines. To use Suica, you do not insert your card into the ticket gate slot, but only hold it close to the Icoca sensor, which is attached to the ticket gate. The required fee will then be automatically withdrawn.
Harv says:
July 18th, 2006 at 3:20 am
Where is everyone today???????
Lots of good info today. The post above looks really useful, it should be helpful for when I go to Tokyo.
Liz says:
July 18th, 2006 at 3:53 am
Harv-san:
Hi! I’m here!!
Peter-san:
It was so much fun to hear you cracking up when Yoshi-san said, “Who cares?” 
and later when you talked about going to the beach I thought you were going to actually lose it. Peter-san and Yoshi-san are a dynamite combination. One of them is going to die laughing when they are together. 
It was really nice of you guys to post the information on the Comments for those traveling to Japan and who haven’t signed up yet for Basic or Premium.
Note: You left out Romaji for the second line of the dialogue. You left out “Nippori de norikaete”. 
Mark says:
July 18th, 2006 at 5:02 am
Peter-san:
I didn’t realize my name had changed to Michael. Or maybe someone else had similar input? I wouldn’t want to have to fine you for making a mistake. 
Thanks for the info about the lockers inside the stations, good to know. It’s definitely easier when the lockers are on the outside though. 
I beleve the stations at Shinjuku and Ueno had lockers outside the exits.
Daniel Beck says:
July 18th, 2006 at 5:02 am
Nagasaki Connection rules! 
Takaseさん rocks! And we love you too Peterちゃん！
Good to see Harvさん and Lizさん here! Where’s Our Vickyちゃん？ 
Good lesson! But then again, JP101 is amazingly consistent in quality. Not a small feat for a daily production. I only hope that after I have 200+ episodes under my belt [just put up episode #2 - pardon the shameless plug. (^^;) Well, at least it’s not in any way in competition with JP101], that my show will be consitently good too.
BTW, in the comments, you mentioned that Suica is an IC card, or Icoca card. Huh? No Icoca in my dictionary.
Suica is awesome though! Don’t know how I managed without it 5 years ago. It’s great that one card can incorporate both 定期券 (teiki-ken, monthly pass) and iO (prepaid fare) card functions. And especially how you can get on or off outside your set course and the card will automatically make the fare adjustment for you. Too easy!
Now, while Passnet is also fairly covenient, the holy grail of commuting will be when Suica (or some equivalent card) will be accepted by all rail companies.
Boy, all this rain is depressing me! 
C’mon already, it’s almost August, for crying out loud!
-Daniel
Vicky says:
July 18th, 2006 at 5:09 am
Daniel B-san I’m here. I knew you would looking for me. Btw, I check your lesson 1. It was pretty interesting. I should test myself.
Mark-san, somebody send me a message from skype today, his name was Michael. It was you??? 
I thought you gave me other ID.
Nagasaki Connection Rocks!! It was so fun to hear this morning….
Especially AC parts, I thought you guys put ocean sound track.
Great Monday!! 
Nathan says:
July 18th, 2006 at 6:56 am
Harv-san,
They were all waiting on you to post
Liz-san,
Thanks for the keeping an eye out! It has been corrected!
Mark-san,
I think it was just a “code name” used to preserve your privacy
Daniel-san,
An IC card is a card with an integrated circuit in it, or basically a little computer chip ICOCA is a card like Suica that is used on JR West lines (Kyoto, Osaka), while Suica is for JR East lines (Tokyo). By the way, apologies… I’ll try to listen to your podcast soon, but time is not on my side
Vicky-san,
Hiya
Mark says:
July 18th, 2006 at 7:50 am
Daniel-san,
Sorry to hear about the rain. The rainy season is almost done over there, correct?
Vicky-san,
I haven’t been on Skype in a couple days.
Nathan-san,
Daniel says:
July 18th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Markさん、
Is the rainy season almost done? Well, in my books it should already be over, but check this forecast out:
http://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/jp/13/4410/13212.html
Don’t let that partly-sunny mark for Sunday fool you. It’ll be gone by then. Hmm…am I getting cynical?
Thanks for your condolences though!
-Daniel B
Daniel says:
July 18th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Well, as I might have expected, the rain forecast has been extended through Monday. 
Nathanさん、
NW about the podcast. I look forward to your thoughts on it. And thanks for the info about ICOCA. But, why do you know this?
-Daniel B
Alan says:
July 18th, 2006 at 5:14 pm
Mina-san, the coin lockers at Kyoto station are accessible with out going through the barrier. I arrived too early to go straight to the hotel, so stuffed everything in the locker and did a little shopping. The other trick (at least with some hotels) is to go to the hotel, drop your bags off early & then return later to check in.
Changing trains is pretty easy on the whole provided you have a rail map, so can keep track of where you are. Knowing the kanji for the stations you will change at, is a sensible precaution, as I found less english signage at more rural stations.
Sorry to hear that you guys are working through the holiday again. I feel really sorry for Peter-san as he’s on every show. Perhaps Peter should work on finding a deputy anchorman/women. I’m sure it’s more difficult to do than it is to say though
Alan
Alan says:
July 18th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Daniel-san,
Nice and dry here in sunny england Only problem is that we have a water shortage.
Alan
Peter says:
July 18th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Mina-san, apologies for not posting recently; we’ve been swamped over here! Will be back to address all the posts soon.
よろしくおねがいします。
Nate says:
July 18th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
I agree with Daniel Beck-san - the Nagasaki Connection rocks! I love their voices and their humor. They can dish as well as take Peter-san humor and that is quite an accomplishment. Ganbatte kudasai!!!
Great lesson.
ネイト
Nate says:
July 18th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
BTW - arigato gozaimasu for the info on the rail passes. Very helpful.
ネイト
cloneofsnake says:
February 1st, 2007 at 6:42 am
Got to write a comment about this lesson! I was inside the elevator when Yoshi said “Who cares”… I burst out laughing! There was another guy in the elevator with me, I didn’t dare to look if he was looking at me. Then Peter told Takase-san to “remind me to get Yoshi off of these cultural classes”… I burst out laughing again! Man, Nagasaki Connection is the best!!!
As for coin lockers. I actually have a good experience to share. I was going to Hakone for an overnight Onsen Ryokan trip, my gf and I had luggages with us but since we’ll be doing sightseeing when we get to Hakone, we wanted to leave the luggages in Shinjuku. Well, turns out, Odakyu-sen’s Shinjuku station didn’t have lockers big enough for luggages! The gate attendant told me to use JR’s. I went over to JR’s side, the lockers were inside the gates. So, I asked JR’s gate attendant, if i could just do in and use the coin lockers… and he let me in! 
So, my suggestions, just ask!
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