This is a special 101 series that does not follow the usual Memoji format. It aims to educate and share more in detail of life living in Tokyo.
Today’s topic is on Student Commuter Pass 津学定期券（tsu-gaku-tei-ki-ken）。
The idea is straightforward –
Students gets discount from commuting between home and school
Choose between one, three or six months
Pay a fixed price
These are my three main pointers learnt:
Specific stations only
Student ID card required (with address at the back)
Specific line’s ticket office
Specific stations only
One point that was different from Singapore’s student commuter pass that was confusing for me and a fellow-Singaporean was that you had to enter and exit from the specific stations. Anything apart from that, you’d have to pay the usual commute fee.
In Singapore, we pay a flat fee of S$85~S$90 (9,300~9,800JPY) for one month and can use it across buses and trains. There are bus and train only options at around 45% of the above price. Then, again, Singapore is small…
Student ID card required (with address at the back)
I tried to apply without the address behind as the wrong address was printed for me, but I really wanted to make the student ID card fast. However, the companies required I have the seal with the address behind it to confirm the stations I am commuting from.
Specific line’s ticket office
Initially, a friend and I didn’t check and we queued at JR Line when we should be queuing at the Tozai Line’s ticket office. By rule of thumb, it’s better to just go to the office of your ‘home’ train station’s line. Then you just google “津学定期券” + the line you take to find the process. The forms differ for the lines, but the overall process is the same!
a physical card!
BONUS: Japan announced they were going to stop giving out PASMO and SUICA physical cards due to global semiconductor shortage. However, because I didn’t have a card or the app downloaded, I got the physical card!! YAY!!