00:00:01 John Daub: I'm at Tokyo Station. Welcome everybody. Now the IC cards here, I've got two of them in my hands. One of them is a Welcome Suica. This is what you would get at the airport for tourists only. And this is a PASMO card. And we're going to see if these are available in this episode today. I'm actually in front of Tokyo Station for a reason because I want to see if we can get these actual PASMO Suica cards.

00:00:31 John Daub: Now JR East, which is the one where I'm at right now, has Suica, which is one of the many IC cards that you can get from all around Japan. There's just so many of them. You can see here the list. You don't have to just get it in Tokyo actually. If you go to Niigata, they also have Suica as well as up in Tohoku. If you go to Hokkaido, you get the Kitaca card. If you go down to Nagoya, you can get the TOIKA card, the manaca. There's actually more than this because the local transportations also have their own. I even have a Kumamon card from Kumamoto City. So like the only places with the chip shortages were the places where there were a great many tourists, which was Tokyo.

00:01:01 John Daub: Apparently Osaka has not had this IC chip shortage at all. And I would scratch my head like I've been able to get them. You just go over to Tokyo Station at the North Tower, go into the tourist information booth, you give them 2,000 yen and they give you one. It's 1,500 yen of travel and a 500 yen deposit just over there at the North Tower. But now you can get them at the vending machine. So they say according to the article here, and this is the Mainichi, JR East and other firms to restart personalized IC card sales after the semiconductor shortage and we're actually going to try to get one in about a minute right now.

00:01:36 John Daub: That's what a Suica card looks like a JR company and other transportation companies announced August 20th that they would resume the card sales on September 3rd and apparently this would be completely issue over with in 2025 but right now you can actually get them so they say. Now this is where things get interesting so I want a PASMO. I already have a PASMO just showed it to you but I went down into the basement of the Metro and I wanted to go get a PASMO card so this was my experience at more than one ticket vending machine here.

00:02:09 John Daub: You can change it to English I'll do that for you so you can understand a little bit better. I don't even see the option for PASMO. PASMO's for the subways in Tokyo but you can use them interchangeably to any of the transportation so I saw other. All right no you can't actually do that. I said create a personalized PASMO wait no you actually need your PASMO to create the personal one they don't have the PASMO cards yet at this machine so I said well wait a second there are other machines in the station like there's just no option I gave up.

00:02:52 John Daub: So I went to another machine I found one over here with one of them has really big easy monitors in English for tourists. I change it to English here and I was a little bit more hopeful with the PASMO button was available but I didn't see anything where you could actually get one. I even went to these select other IC card services and yet you can only personalize one that you already have. WRX turbo in the house I saw that Ohtani just stole base number 46 and the home run number 44 he's gonna do the 50-50 he's gonna do it WRX turbo he's gonna do it go Dodgers Ohtani fan.

00:03:32 John Daub: All right so we've set that up for you now I've got a thousand yen right here I can't get the new one I can only get the old ones so although I do like that view of Mount Fuji the new ones have that the Shizuoka wave kind of design. All right so let's go inside to South exit here and see if we can get one. Bradshot Studios in the house the inside of the Marunouchi building is just so beautiful. I'm gonna pan up here just coming in here and looking at it is worth it they put nets up there to keep the pigeons out by the way and tourists with very long selfie sticks perhaps. All right here's a ticket gate let's go give it a try.

00:04:43 John Daub: Alright so we can do it name inscribed Suica put our name in here they're not politically correct they only have two genders oh no someone's gonna get in trouble my phone number here I put my phone number in it looks okay they give me confirm here here the amounts ¥1,000 you get the deposit back I want a receipt it's making it am I gonna get a Suica? Oh my god! Oh my goodness. Oh my. Alright. Dudes and dudettes. Mission accomplished. That's what I'm talking about. And look, it even has my name on there. How you doing? How you doing little buddy? You coming with me?

00:06:27 John Daub: Yours truly has got himself a personalized Suica. Now you can only get them personalized. You have to put a phone number in. I don't know whether or not, they don't actually confirm if your phone number is right or wrong, but I'm going to tell you this right now. I have lost my card before and the police have called me and said that they found my IC card. So registering your information and having your name on it is proof that it's yours and they will be able to get it to you, which means like if you lose 20,000 yen, which is the most you can put on this, you're going to be able to get your card back because your phone number is registered on there.

00:07:10 John Daub: So if you do have like an IC card or a SIM card for Japan or something, you can put in a Japanese phone number or the phone number of a friend. Even your hotel, I don't know, but if the card is found, they will return it to you. Don't put in 1-800-DIAL-A-JOKE. Who wrote that? Back in the city. I'm going to time you out for that. That's awful. Time out. All right. You've been blocked for five minutes. Sorry. It's a joke. 1-800-DIAL-A-JOKE. You get it?

00:07:31 John Daub: All right. So that's all it takes to get this. I always get a receipt, business expenses, but it's also good to have some money. So now I have a PASMO, a Welcome Suica. This is the trifecta for Tokyo. I have all three. That's pretty cool. And now I'm going to go and get my deposit back after I use 500 yen of travel because apparently I'm stuck with this card now. We can go to the vending machine and get some drinks. How about that?

00:08:11 John Daub: All right. Part two. Since WRX Turbo is in the house and was so kind to give us a super chat, I want to say thank you to you. So let's go downstairs. We're going to extend this live stream by a couple of minutes. If this video is useful, share this video with everybody because I think it's important that you can see how this process is done. But again, if you have a telephone number, I would highly put that in and at least put your name on the card. If you do lose it, again, I have been called by the police to pick it up at a certain police station close to usually where I lose it.

00:08:56 John Daub: But at Tokyo Station, if you need a vending machine, you go underground. You walk on the left, down on the left, up on the right. Everybody does it. See how orderly Tokyo is? The funny thing, the signal underground in Tokyo Station is stronger than it is above ground. Don't ask me why. All right. Let's go find a vending machine to utilize this Suica card. We got some capital.

00:09:21 John Daub: All right. There's some cooler vending machines over by the Marunouchi side here. So Suica card is like a Metro card. So if you're going to the Metro or the subway for Tokyo, we have what's called a PASMO. That's the one that they give. For the JR, it's called a Suica. They're the same things. They're just different companies. But you can use them interchangeably. So if you get a Suica card or an ICOCA card or whatever, you can use them in Tokyo. You can use them in Kyoto. You can use them in Hokkaido. It doesn't matter, which is really odd.

00:10:03 John Daub: But a lot of people like Suica because it's a Tokyo thing. Right? It's got a little penguin on there. If you like penguins, you're going to want a Suica. They've done some work down here. It's real nice. It's also really easy to get lost underneath the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station. I don't bring you in this side very often, but you can see here the signs are pretty good. We're going to the Marunouchi line. So let's go in this direction. You can even go underground from here to Ginza or the Imperial Palace. It's just crazy. So on a day like this where it's raining outside, you're going to have a lot of fun.

00:10:40 John Daub: Here is a vending machine. Oh, you know, if Gachapon took IC cards, I'd be able to take advantage of it. Oh, look at this. You can get little trinket things. Oh, look at this. They got little Metro lights. Whoa. That's pretty cool. They have the Hibiya Yurakucho. Should I get one of these for Leo? Boy, easy come, easy go. Wait, what else they got? Whoa. Oh. I don't want them. They got a coin. There it is. Whoa. Whoa. Those are mini games you can just get with the Metro light. What do you guys think Metro light or drink?

00:11:24 John Daub: Metro light or a drink that's a big decision. Let's see what they have for the drink vending machines I'll let the chat chime in here. Oh, I see there's a Gachapon Center down here. There's also a Uniqlo. I don't see the vending machines. They must have taken them out. People are saying both. Alright, you know what? I don't think I can afford both. There's only 500 despite putting a thousand yen on it there's only 500 yen on that card and I'm 10 yen short for a drink although I could put 10 yen in there.

00:12:09 John Daub: All right, let's just go let's just stick with this because I think this is kind of cool. I don't know what we're gonna get. I don't know. Alright ready three two one. I got 100 yen remaining. Oh did it come out? Oh, I got it here. All right. It's in a mysterious box this is more like it could be one of these which one do you think it is? You guys vote here the sign the logo Marunouchi Tozai or Ginza line there's six possibilities here. This is kind of fun.

00:13:01 John Daub: Well, it even has like an official seal like this is a big deal. PR access rights in the Tozai line fung fighter rates in Ginza with sir Lance go Travel and Tasmania says Marunouchi guess what? It's a Gachapon. Oh wait, if they said it's a light hold on a second. They said it's a light. Okay, you have to pull this out. How do you light it up now? How do you light it up? Oh, there it is did you see that? That's kind of cool. So we've got the Ginza line here.

00:13:51 John Daub: I haven't put in the box I'm gonna take it to my son Leo. David Kimura and WRX turbo thank you guys both. That's so kind of you I will get David. I'm gonna get something nicer gotcha, punk. There's actually above ground above ground there is a French cafe and I'm gonna get a couple of croissants with that. I don't wanna I don't want to get people's faces if I can try to avoid it. I'm gonna go and get some French croissants with that David Kimura. Thank you so much for the snack for lunch. I appreciate it very much.

00:14:30 John Daub: There you go, so the Suica adventure is over. This is the Marunouchi side of Tokyo station and I tried it a couple actually before this I tried to get the personalized Suica cards at other vending machines and you can just like right here. So all you got to do is see the black the black ones usually are the ones to get them at. You can switch it to English if you want a very annoying this is the English narrator will let everybody know that you're a tourist purchase new Suica card name inscribed or charge you cannot get one without your name at this time, but agree and then there you go right in your name Joe Montana one of the greats female 1955 I'm just doing this an example.

00:15:37 John Daub: Alright, so that's what we have here and then you push ok and it will ask you for how much you want to put on it again a 500 yen deposit we're not going to do that Joe Montana. I'm sorry I'm sorry, Joe. A great 49er, a legend I'm Martin's brother! Down is female. The guy could take a sack. It's football season. I hope you're getting excited.

00:16:14 John Daub: Sir Lance, Lance go. Your trip is coming up. You'll be down here lost with me too, but you'll have free wifi. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you in another live stream. Thank you guys for making me do this episode. I keep getting people asking me to go get a Suica card or are the Suica cards available? And the answer is yeah, but not the PASMO cards.

00:16:35 John Daub: And if you do go to, if you are in Nagoya or one of the other places, why don't you just get it there? It's kind of cool. And I do think it's kind of cool to get the Kitaca card in Hokkaido. I love the flying squirrel. I'm partial to that one. Oh, look at that. Oh yeah. That's the uh, Jonathan gold from Albuquerque. Uh, drinks. It's too much sugar. All right, everybody. That's all I got for you.