Japan trip - JR pass or not?

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The IC cards expire 10 years after last use. I've had my Suica and ICOCA cards since 2008 and both are still usable.
Good to know đź‘Ť

I figure that in 10 years you'll probably just be able to tap with a standard cc anywhere like they are starting to do here with trains now... I made my decision purely for the Astro Boy card though, the non-expiry part sounds cool, even though it may not really be by the sounds of things :)
 
Good to know đź‘Ť

I figure that in 10 years you'll probably just be able to tap with a standard cc anywhere like they are starting to do here with trains now... I made my decision purely for the Astro Boy card though, the non-expiry part sounds cool, even though it may not really be by the sounds of things :)
hey where'd you find the astro boy design? I only have the standard design
 
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Another tip is to look into booking Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen tickets early using Smart-EX to get their various discount products.

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My favourite is the Hayatoku-Green 3 Wide, which lets you book a Green Car incl. Nozomi for a good discount (near that of a regular ordinary car) 3 days or more in advance (although in practice it's often sold out if you wait until 3 days prior before booking). There's also discounts for ordinary tickets booked 7/21/28 days out.

The full list of discount tickets is here: Fare Overview | Tokaido Sanyo Kyushu Shinkansen Internet Reservation Service

There's also discount tickets on the JR-East shinkansens called Tokudane tickets, but I've never tried them myself. Seems instructions are only in Japanese.
 
early using Smart-EX
yeah, but for what seems like most people - it won't accept your credit card to register for a Smart-ex account before you leave to Japan (I was able to register when I was physically in Japan, same card that was previously rejected when I tried in Aus).

The discounts can be quite good (especially on green car tickets), but it locks you into a specific time and if you're going between Tokyo-Kyoto/Osaka then a Shinkansen leaves every 10 minutes and 95% of the year you don't have any issues with cars being full... so a trade off between locking in a saving and getting to Tokyo station at the right time, or just letting your day unfold and get it when you get there. Before we left for Japan I wanted to go the Smart-ex route... when we got there I appreciated the 'get the when you get there' option more.
 

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