Ever since I first came to Japan way back in March last year, I've been seeing people entering and exiting train station gates using some sort of proximity card. The system that is used down here in Kansai is called ICOCA. It's similar to the Smartrider system in Perth. When I got here, I thought about getting one but found out that they didn't give you any sort of discount, so didn't bother. Nate showed me how to get discount tickets (10% off) which was enough for me. One day though I was racing for a train with my friends and some of them shot ahead through the gates. A couple of us had to buy tickets and we missed the train because of it. So I figured it'd be a good idea to get one.

I ended up buying one in Himeji, on the spare of the moment, just because I had some time to kill. It was really easy, too. I just pressed the ICOCA button, randomly guessed which kanji to press, shoved some money in and hey presto, out came the card :) It's really convenient, too. Unlike the Smartrider system, which was a) buggy and b) required the card to be ridiculously close to it to work, this one a) works and b) has some decent range on it. So you can just throw your wallet on the panel and push it forwards as you walk through the gates. Sweet. No more missing trains while scrambling for tickets or coins, not JR trains anyway.

The only downside I can see is that you don't seem to be able to link your card to your bank account, like you can with the Smartrider system. That was one of the best things about the Smartrider system. It automagically topped the card up every time your funds ran low, so you never had to worry about buying cards/tickets/credit. I'll have to see if it can be done, and if not, I'll suggest it :D Anyway, I feel a bit more like a local now, with my sexy card. I still get funny looks all the time, but I especially get funny looks when I use the ICOCA to go through train station gates, hooray! :)