UPDATE SEPTEMBER 23 : WE FINALLY RECEIVED OUR SUICA CARDS VIA MAIL. A SEVEN MONTH WAIT!

UPDATE FEBRUARY 17, 2015 : Over 4.99 million orders for SUICA cards, will take over a year for delivery in phases!!!

UPDATE : Jan 30, 2015 : we have booked our two SUICA cards. Order can be maximum 3 cards per application.

Completed application for SUICA card

The Yamanote train as we saw on the 1st of December 2014 at Osaki Station had this sticker pasted on its door 1914 – 2014 commemorating the 100 years of operation of the Tokyo Station. JR announced that they will also have a special SUICA card commemorating the event and will sell the same at the Tokyo Station exclusively. We went there on 20th and very disappointed when they abruptly terminated the sale of the card due to the commotion and heavy crowds which gathered there ending up as the top headline on news channels and newspapers the following day.

A lesson well learnt, JR woke up to the fact that we live in a world with “Internet connectivity” and they should make use of a online website to get the orders for the SUICA card rather than have people physically show up at the Tokyo Station. GREAT! Many of the original Suica cards subsequently showed up on auction sites at crazy prices.
The JR has put up a website specifically for this and will take orders from tomorrow until February 9, 2015. You can get one card for 2000 yen (500 yen deposit and 1500 yen charge). Access the site (sorry in Japanese) here http://www.jreast.co.jp/suica100/

The card which will go on sale will have the same date of December 20, 2014 ensuring no change from the original card, and we will apply for a card and hoping that the website does not go down with heavy load….On a passing note, we show you a few snaps we took towards the end of 2014 of the Tokyo Station 100 Years Memorial Light-up.