We didn't know which one to choose, if you did some research on the public transportation in Japan before you would understand why. They are just too many choices for me to choose from ! Although I studied free maps from what we got from Matta Fair, it was still quite hard to decide.
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1) Tokyo Metro - Unlimited
So right after we arrived at Haneda Airport, there was a counter for foreigner where you can take as much maps and travel guides all around Japan. There were also helpers to help you with your planning. We went to the next booth that sells Subway tickets (Tokyo Metro & Toei Subway lines) for an unlimited 1-day (800 yen), 2-days (1200 yen), or 3-days (1500 yen) use. We weren't quite sure about how we were going to use the trains, we bought the 3-days version for 1,500 yen ( RM 53 ).
This ticket can be purchased at Narita & Haneda airport and several Big Camera outlets. So it is a bit hard to find if you decided to buy it afterwards. Don't forget to take the guide map!
It covers all the main cities in Tokyo :
Ikebukuro, Asakusa, Ueno, Ginza, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara and Roppongi.
PS : You need to show your passport, as it is only available for foreigners.
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It is exactly like our Touch & Go card and it can be used in almost all train/bus lines and certain shopping eg : vending machine *just check out for their logo on places. You can buy it at the machine in front of the train station at the airport. It took 500 yen for the deposit and we added 4,500 yen more to be used for other trips that can't be used by Tokyo Metro card.
I highly recommend the use of their IC card, so it's easy for you to go to places without needing to buy tickets each time.
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Note :
There are 2 things you need to consider when you are deciding on which card to buy :
1. Your location - If you are staying in the city itself and you know you want to travel around the city area listed in Tokyo Metro list, I recommend buying the unlimited 3 days card. It is much cheaper this way.
2. If you are living in other places outside the city area : In this case, like me, I'm staying in Asaka and going to the city daily and outside of the main city several times, I think it's safe to have only the Pasmo card. It is undeniably much expensive this way, but I was living outside of the city anyway. Other than transportation in the main city, we went back from Tokyo to Asaka every day, spent a day in Mitaka as well, visited the Tokyo SkyTree tower and the transportation to and fro from Haneda Airport *we spent quite a lot on those farther journeys.
By the end of our escapism, we understand the train & subway. It's undeniably huge and very structured. No wonder people said it's one of the most structured train lines in the world.
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Cost :
For all of this, we actually spent 6,000 yen (RM 210) for Pasmo *twice topup and 1,500 yen (RM 53) for Tokyo, Metro. Plus minus, we spent around RM 260 for public transportation in 8 days.
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