15
01/09
23:17
Japanese watermelons
西瓜 (suika) is the Japanese word for watermelons. Suica in Japan comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Even thin ones that you can slip into your pocket and use to buy stuff. ^^. Just like the JR Suica rail stored value card.
I suppose I can write what I know about the suica card system, but… wikipedia just has a better description. ^^.
Suica (スイカ Suika) 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 Kantō region, 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 and also will be used with JR Central’s TOICA starting from spring of 2008. The card is also increasingly being accepted as a form of electronic money for purchases at stores and kiosks within train stations. As of April 2007, over 20 million Suica cards were in circulation.
Since Suica is completely interchangeable with the Pasmo card (see for the complete listing of companies and lines that accept Suica) in the greater Tokyo area, it is supported on virtually any train, tramway, and bus system (excluding various limited and shinkansen trains, as well as a few local buses as the system is still in the process of being extended to all routes).
I found the etymology of the word SUICA pretty interesting. Lots of hidden puns.
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.
What shapes do you like your melons to be?
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k Reply:
January 19th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
it should taste the same. ^^.
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