IC cards, top-ups, and working out which train is actually yours

By the Wabi-Sabi Japanese team · Last updated: July 28, 2026

Japanese stations are efficient in a way that quietly assumes you already know how they work. The gates open before you have finished thinking about them, the board reshuffles every forty seconds, and the train in front of you may or may not stop where you want. Most of that needs no Japanese. The two or three moments that do — the machine that will not swallow your banknote, the gate that shuts on you, two different trains queued up on one platform — are what this page is for.

An IC card takes the language out of most of it: tap in, tap out, the fare comes off, nobody asks you anything. What it does not solve is the top-up, which at station machines is a cash transaction in yen, and the question of which train.

So this page is the edges — what the signs mean, what to ask when your map app cannot answer it, and the lines staff say back to you. The IC-card counter script itself is free and appears in full further down, so it is not repeated here.

Which IC card should I buy, and will it work in other cities?

Buy whichever card the station in front of you sells. The ten major IC cards are mutually accepted, so a Suica bought at Narita taps you onto the Osaka subway and an ICOCA taps you onto the Yamanote Line. The card is also money: konbini tills, vending machines and most coin lockers take it.

Coverage is not universal, though. Rural JR branch lines, some small private railways and plenty of country buses sit outside the IC network, and there the gate is a person and a paper ticket. Part of a standard card's price is a deposit you get back on return; the tourist Welcome Suica has no deposit, no refund, and an expiry date (28 days, as of 2026).

How do I top up an IC card if the machines only take cash?

Station charge machines want yen in notes and coins and are unmoved by your credit card. That is the most common surprise of day one, and the answer is usually not the machine at all.

Hand your card and your money to the clerk at any 7-Eleven, Lawson or FamilyMart and they will load it at the till. Or keep a Suica in Apple Wallet on an iPhone or Apple Watch and top it up with a card issued at home — most overseas cards are accepted there, though not every one is. On Android it needs a FeliCa chip, which in practice means a handset sold in Japan, so check yours before you fly rather than at the gate. At a machine, check the note slot first — a 10,000-yen note is the one most likely to come straight back out.

What do 普通, 快速, 急行 and 特急 mean on the board?

This is what catches people: the platform number is right and the train is still wrong. On many lines the fast trains and the slow ones share a platform, and the difference is a word on the front. Read the type first, the destination second, the time third.

• 普通 / 各駅停車 (futsuu / kakueki-teisha) — the local. Stops everywhere, so it will always stop where you want.
• 快速 (kaisoku) — rapid. Skips the quieter stations.
• 急行 (kyuukou) — express. Skips more; 準急 (junkyuu) sits in between.
• 特急 (tokkyuu) — limited express. Skips nearly everything, and on JR it costs a supplement.
• 〜行き (-iki, but announced as -yuki) is "bound for", ◯番線 (-bansen) is the platform track, 乗換 (norikae) is a transfer.

One exception is worth memorising. On JR, a 特急 always costs extra and an IC card alone will not cover it. On several private railways — Keikyu, Hankyu, Hanshin — a train labelled 特急 is included in the ordinary fare and is simply the fast one.

How do I ask whether a train stops where I'm going?

Your map app has the route, so the questions worth learning are the ones it cannot answer while you stand on a platform: whether this particular train needs an extra ticket, whether you have to change, and how late you can leave the bar.

One trick beats pronunciation. Put the destination on your phone screen in Japanese, point at it, then ask. The place name is the hard part for both of you, and once it is solved the rest of the sentence carries.

What do I do if the ticket gate closes on me?

Step sideways out of the flow and stop. Nobody behind you is annoyed — this happens hundreds of times a day and the queue parts around you. There is a staffed booth beside every bank of gates, and the person in it is there for exactly this.

Three things cause it: your balance ran out mid-journey, you tapped in on one company's line and tried to tap out on another's, or two of you travelled on a single card. Staff will ask you something before they fix it, and it is nearly always the first line below.

None of this has to be fluent. A destination name, a question word and a pointing finger get you a real answer from a real person, and station staff are unusually good at meeting a traveller halfway. The free IC-card scenario below is the whole counter exchange, staff replies included — read it once on the plane and the first gate you meet will feel familiar.