Suica and Pasmo

JR and other rail companies started out a new service with Suica and Pasmo. Japan is really good at this kind of cool technology. But, the problem is... I still need to have two commute passes even with their sophisticated technology because I need to use three diffrent rail services. Life is strange...

According to Wikipedia:

Suica (Japanese: スイカ) is a rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on train lines in Japan. Launched in November 2001, the card is usable currently in the Kanto region (on JR East, Tokyo Monorail, and Rinkai Line), at JR East stations near Sendai and Niigata, and in the Kinki region on JR West. The card can also be used interchangeably with JR West's ICOCA card in the Kansai region. The card is also increasingly being accepted as a form of electronic money for purchases at stores and kiosks within train stations.

Suica stands for "Super Urban Intelligent CArd", and the pronunciation is also a pun on the Japanese word for watermelon, "suika". In the logo, the "ic" is highlighted, as the initials stand for integrated circuit, the technology inside the smart card, in common Japanese usage. An additional meaning comes from the expression "sui sui", meaning "smooth" and an abbreviation for "card", "ka", intended to highlight the smooth simplicity of using the card compared with traditional train tickets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica

PASMO (パスモ, Pasumo?) is a rechargeable contactless smart card ticketing system for public transport introduced in Tokyo, Japan from March 18, 2007.

PASMO CardPASMO is a development of the Passnet (パスネット, Pasunetto?) system used by many non JR railway lines in the Tokyo region. The system offers interoperability with the JR Suica system, as well as integrate private bus companies into the existing Passnet network.

The technology is based on RFID technology developed by Sony corporation known as FeliCa. PASMO will be available as a credit-card sized card. It is also expected to be available as a service for mobile phone users with handsets equipped with FeliCa chips.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PASMO