One of the things I love about Japan is the crazy technology, I have been using a Suica pass card for years, it is a credit card sized pass that you can either add money to it as you need it or you can buy a say 3 month pass which saves you some money if you use it everyday. At the train station as you go through the ticket gates there is a pad, you just touch your card on the pad, it deducts the correct fare and off you go, you don't even need to take the card out of the case - brilliant. A couple of years ago vending machine companies and convienice stores started to add the Suica pad so that you could pay using your card, great when you are in a rush to catch the train and you don't want to fumble with a pocket full of change.
I think many other countries are introducing something similar now, in Japan you can buy all kinds of cute cases for your cards and I managed to mislay mine last week, last time I lost it was when we went to Summer Sonic, it was handed in and returned to me by the police, I fear no such luck this time! So, I made my own and I am giving you the pattern to use too, here you are.... (if you have any problems downloading let me know, I am not 100% sure I am doing this PDF embedding thing correctly!)
I will have a go at the card case, thanks!
ReplyDeleteKate xx
Just wanted to let you know I linked to your blog here:
ReplyDeletehttp://simplymontessori.blogspot.com/2010/05/giveaway-and-color-tablets-to-make-at.html
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Sharon, Simply Montessori
Thanks for that! Melbourne is starting a card system on their public transport system (it's been a bit of a disaster though). I always loose my paper ticket in my purse when we're out and I was thinking how much of a pain getting my wallet out all the time is (to take out my smart card). This little case is the perfect solution.
ReplyDeleteWe were in Hong Kong recently, and they have Octopus cards which work in buses, trains, ferries - any public transport I think, plus at grocery stores and restaurant chains. You can add value at a number of places - too numerous to mention on their website, so as a tourist I had this problem of not knowing exactly where! I was always scared I'd be caught in a situation where I didn't have enough left, especially as on each swipe the value shown is before the transaction, so you have to do some mental maths to figure out how much left after it. Not an easy task while trying to climb up a double decker bus with a 4 year old in a bus on a winding uphill road, and trying to count the number of bus stops at the same time. That said, it does make life easy for residents, doesn't it?
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