Suica Card: Don’t Leave Home Without It!

In February of 1986, Barbara and I quit our dead end jobs bought one way tickets to Belgium on budget airline, People Express, for $100 per ticket. We began a 16 month journey that would take us around the world.

My ‘tech kit’ for the voyage consisted of:

• A flashlight

• A point and shoot film camera

• A solar powered credit card sized calculator.

Our money management was simple too. An American Express credit card, a checkbook, and $200 in U.S. currency. We didn’t intend to use the Amex Card. There would be no way to receive or pay the bills. Rather it was the gateway to American Express Offices. For card holders Amex would:

• Serve as an address to get mail from friends and family and

• Case a check up to $1,000 and give you travelers cheques in return. We exchanged those travelers cheques $100 at a time (once a week or so) for local currency, and that’s how we paid for camping and food.

To get from place to place we’d turn up at the train or bus station, buy a ticket and catch the next thing smokin.’ (Quite literally. In 1986 many countries were still using coal fired steam engines in their locomotives.)

During the 16 months away, we called home just once. Otherwise we heard from family, and they heard from, us through letters with a delay of a month or more between communications. And if someone had needed to get a hold of us quickly? Well, they couldn’t.

Now we are preparing to head to Japan in a few weeks and I have been forced to come to terms with how the world and moving through it has changed.

I’ve started assembling my tech kit, which at a minimum will include:

• A MacBook Air laptop

• An AppleWatch

• A battery bank

• AirPods Pro

• Outlet adaptors (in case we go to Korea)

• Charging cables and power bricks for all of the above

• USB A to C adaptors

• USB C to A adaptors

• An LED Flashlight

• iPad Mini

• HP 12c Financial Calculator mini clone

• Apple AirTags to track all my stuff

In addition, there are a dozen apps to download and register for.

Japan uses a system of transit cards (called IC Cards) for public transit. Each area in Japan has its own card but thankfully, it appears they are interchangeable. The card from one area is supposed to work in other areas. I decided on the Tokyo “Suica” (pronounced Swee-kah) card and though you can get a physical card in Japan, I opted to go full 21st Century and add virtual Suica cards to each of our Apple Wallets on our phones. Interestingly, only iPhone supports virtual IC Cards. Gaijin Android phones need not apply (though the cards will work on Android phones purchased in Japan).

Once installed on the phones adding money to the cards is easy. Just use ApplePay.

The next thing to figure out is the train system. Japan, as you probably know, has a system of bullet trains known as the Shinkansen. They go up to 300 km per hour and can cross the length of Japan in a few hours. But unlike most European counties, there is not one train system but four, each one owned and operated by a different company! Each line has its own website and app and not all of them support English. Luckily, I think we will only need to travel on two of the four systems. One goes north (confusingly called JR East) and the other than goes west (JR Central).

Once you figure out how to register for the websites, you can purchase your tickets. There is a discount when you purchase 21 days in advance so I wanted to buy some of our tickets before we arrive. Once the tickets are purchased you still need to figure out how to get through the gate and get on the train. You can go to a machine in the station and print your ticket. You can get a QR code on your phone to scan. Or, if you are very clever, you can load the tickets on to your Suica card. That is the option that I wanted, but it is not easy. You need the 17 digit serial number of the card - and the card in the Apple Wallet only shows the last four digits.

Turns out you need to download the Japanese only Suica app. The app is impossible to navigate unless you know Japanese (spoiler: I don’t), however there is an easy to spot info button (little “I” in a circle). Tap that and it displays the full number. I entered the number into the JR Central website and boom — Bob’s your 伯父. Then I did it all over again for JR East.

When Barbara and I were traveling 40 years ago, we established a division of duties. She figured out where we should go and what we should see and I figured out how to get there. In India there was a train timetable for the whole country. India has a mind-boggling train system and the timetable was the size of an old style phone book. I no longer remember how it worked but we always found the right train and we never missed one. Today, the old ways are still the best. Barbara has put together a rough outline of where we will be when, and I am figuring out the transportation.

Buying Shinkansen tickets on a Japanese website is mostly easier than the Indian timetable book but with some odd quirks . For example if you want to go from Tokyo to Sapporo up north, you can’t buy a ticket all the way through. Instead you have to buy one ticket to the end of the Shinkansen line in Hakodate and then book another ticket from Hakodate to Sapporo on the slower “Express” train. I managed to get our tickets to Sapporo booked (I think) opting for the business class “Green” car. Hey, you only live once. The Green car has more comfortable seats and a hostess that comes by with a moist towelette. In addition, the electric outlets are at arm level.

Next there is the challenge of telecom. Writing letters home isn’t going to cut it in 2025. We’d be back before the letters arrive. Internet is a must have to buy tickets, refill our transit cards, stay in touch with loved ones, and find our way around strange cities and trekking trails. Fortunately, modern phones can take an e-sim. For about $60 a piece, each of us can get unlimited data everywhere in Japan for our phones and computers. These can be purchased in advance and installed on the phones so that we will have access from the moment we land. Whew! However, they will not work in Korea. If we go there we will need different e-sims!

The e-sim thing is pretty new. As recently as 2019 when I went to Israel, I had to get a physical sim at the airport and swap the chip in my phone. One had to be very careful not to lose ones ‘home’ sim while traveling.

Other apps I’ve had to download include the Japanese “Uber” app GoTaxi, Google Maps (I know, but people say it may work better than Apple Maps in Japan! Forgive me, Tim!) and something called NHK World Japan, which I have already forgotten what it’s for.

Dealing with money is maybe the one thing that has gotten simpler in modern times. No need to purchase traveler’s cheques! Now with a debit and a credit card we expect to have all our cash needs covered. There are ATM machines everywhere (they say the ones in 7-Elevens are best.) Delightfully, the Suica cards are also widely accepted for payment at vending machines, convenience stores, and even some restaurants in Japan. Conveniently, the iPhone calculator app now supports currency conversion and updates the exchange rates automatically. No need to check the exchange rate in bank windows as we once did. Our debit card charges no foreign transaction fees and refunds all ATM fees each month so we don’t have to be concerned with those, and we added a new credit card to our stable that has no foreign transaction fees.

If you can’t buy it from a vending machine in Japan, you probably don’t need it. I am especially curious about the Suntory Coffee Boss!

There are two ways to travel. One is short trips — luxurious, and expensive. This form of travel usually means a guided tour, where someone else has taken care of the transportation, lodging and food. You get to relax, focus on the sights, and enjoy the company of your fellow travelers (at least the ones who don’t get on your nerves). There is much to be said for this, particularly when you are working and you need to see as much as you can in 10 to 14 days.

The other way to travel is the one that Barbara and I have always favored. Long, basic, and cheap. In 1986 we did it that way because we had to. We only had a little money and needed it to last as long as it possibly could.

Today we can afford the other route and in many ways it would be easier but we choose to figure it out ourselves, to live “like the people do down there” as one budget traveler told us many years ago, because ultimately we find it more satisfying. There is something exhilarating about getting to the train station and finding that you booked your ticket correctly, arriving in a strange city hungry and tired and finding a place to stay without breaking down in tears, buying an egg salad sandwich with your transit card at a 7-Eleven in Osaka, solving problems as you go.

There was a time when people said, “Getting there is half the fun!” I am not sure how much I am looking forward to the 15 hour plane flight in economy but I’ve throughly enjoyed downloading the apps and solving the Japanese website puzzles. As they say in the land of the rising sun, “花より団子 hana yori dango — Dumplings over flowers!

The world’s a narrow bridge; fear nothing.

The Cult of Vintage Tech

Every year when the new iPhones are introduced by Apple, as they a few weeks ago, the debate begins. Are they exciting enough to make people want to upgrade? This question will be debated ad nauseam by the tech bloggers. Though I now wait two or three years before updating my device (passing along my old one to other members of my family, I enjoy seeing the new features and designs and considering whether there is something compelling to make me want to upgrade earlier.

This year, I won’t be upgrading my iPhone 15 Pro, which is working well and does everything I want but I did recently upgrade one piece of my tech kit that has been unchanged for more than 45 years.

In 1981 Hewlett Packard computer company came out with a series of calculators called the Voyager Series (after the spacecrafts that were sent to explore the outer planets of our solar system and are also remarkably still functioning today.

There were various models of these calculators targeted at different customers. There was one for scientists (HP 15C), one for computer programers (HP 16C), and the one I have that was marketed to people who worked in finance, the HP 12C.

The distinguishing feature of all of these calculators was their horizontal layout and their use of RPN, Reverse Polish Notation, for numeric entry.

Most of these calculators were discontinued, leaving a cult following of people who buy, sell and collect them on sites like eBay. But the 12C is still being made and can still be purchased new. They are no longer made in the U.S. and the new ones use a different kind of battery but otherwise the layout of the keys and the function is unchanged. You can buy a new one on Amazon for about $35. There is also a another version called the HP 12C Platinum which has a faster processor and can use algebraic entry in addition to RPN but is otherwise the same. It’s around $5 more.

What does it do and why does it have such a fan base that this piece of 45 year old tech is still being sold unchanged? Well, it does all of the arithmetic functions of any calculator, of course (once you learn the RPM input), but the financial functions are what make it shine. You can do all kinds of financial projections, find the return on an investment, calculate the value of a bond when the prevailing interest rate changes, and the amount of a mortgage payment when the interest rate, term, and amount borrowed are known. You can also write little programs for it that allow you to do things like compare whether it may be better to rent or to buy a place to live. You can calculate the number of days between two dates and the percent difference between two numbers with the touch of a key.

Yes, you can do all these things on a computer with a spreadsheet but there is something very enjoyable about having this computational power on a standalone device you can hold in the palm of your hand. And once you go RPN, you’ll never go back.

My 12C is an original model, made in the US in the 80s. I found it in like new condition on eBay with the box and the original manuals for about $40. Shortly after purchasing around 8 years ago , I had to replace the button batteries but it has run ever since on that same set. There was a learning curve to understand how to use all it’s functions (some of which I still don’t understand) but fortunately, it came with the original manual, which I spent hours working my way through.

I also have a 12c emulator app that runs on my iPhone but the real one is more fun to use.

I didn’t think there was any new feature that could tempt me to upgrade my beloved HP 12C until a few weeks ago, when I saw this clone from a Swiss company called Swiss Micros.

Adopted baby sister from Switzerland

Swiss Micros makes clones of all the old Voyager Series calculators including the 12C in a credit card sized model. When I saw it, I knew I had to have one.

In addition to the tiny size, it has a few other improvements including a two line display and the ability to show the time and date. Nice to have but not game changers.

Though thicker than a credit card it fits in my wallet. Now I can carry my HP 12C functionally on a dedicated device everywhere I go and can always be ready to calculate a loan payment or convert a currency whenever the need may arrive or, more commonly, to calculate the tip in a restaurant.

I still love my original HP 12C. Being larger it is easier to use and the keys are more clicky and feel better. It is still the one I reach for when I am at home. It’s the fountain pen of calculators but not my only vintage one. I also have this Walther WSR 160, one of the last and greatest mechanical pinwheel calculators. No batteries needed.

The last and best of the mechanical calculators — The Walther WSR 160 circa 1960 made in the Federal Republic of Germany. I use it as a calendar which gives me a reason to turn the crank every morning.

Is there a piece of vintage that you still use and love? Are you ever tempted to trade it in for a new model? Drop a comment below. No spouse jokes, please!

The world’s a narrow bridge; fear nothing.

The Sweetest Fruit

“Oh the foes will rise with the sleep still in their eyes
And they’ll jerk from their beds and think they’re dreamin’
But they’ll pinch themselves and squeal
and they’ll know that it’s for real
The hour that the ship comes in”

— Bob Dylan

It was at least a dozen years ago, Barbara was getting some landscaping done in our wild, unruly back yard. She asked me if there were any plants or shrubbery that I might like.

“A fig tree,” I replied.

I had visions of sitting under my proverbial fig tree in peace and prosperity and enjoying the bounty of ripe fruit that it was sure to produce.

The fig tree arrived in the form of little more than a stick and I knew it would be many years before it would be large enough to sit under never mind bear fruit. The same year, a neighbor was digging up a more mature (but not by much) fig tree in her yard and asked on the list serve if anyone wanted it. I responded and soon I had it planted next to the other one. Probably too close.

A few of those early years had very cold winters and I was sure that the trees had died but every spring they came back to life. There is an injunction in Jewish law that prohibits harvesting the fruit of a tree for the first three years of its life. Suffice it to say, I never faced any temptation to violate this commandment.

Then around year five, one of the trees produced exactly one fig. I plucked it when ripe and shared it with my wife and daughter and son-in-law who were visiting for lunch. We said the blessing for eating a fruit or doing a thing for the first time in its season.

Blessed are you, source of life, who has given us life, sustained us, and allowed us to reach this moment.

In each subsequent year, the harvest increased a little but very few of the fruits ended up in our larder or tummies.

It turned out that the figs ripened in mid to late August exactly when we are usually away on vacation. By the time we returned home, the trees which had been laden with green fruit when we left had been stripped bare by squirrels, birds, and deer. For a while, we had a groundhog living in a space under the concrete steps that lead to an exit door from the basement. My friend Tom says he sometimes saw the groundhog in the tree happily munching away.

This summer, the trees filled up with the most fruit, I have ever seen on them. Perhaps it was the enormous quantity of rain we got in June and July and the hot humid days we had this summer. I didn’t expect to eat many, however. In late July, with the trees heavy with unripe figs we headed up north for several weeks of biking, hiking and camping on Cape Cod and in the Adirondacks.

Imagine my surprise, when we returned home last week and found the trees full of ripe, purple figs!. Many of them had been nibbled to be sure but there were plenty that were intact. I went out in the cool of the evening and picked a large bowl of them getting eaten in turn by a swarm of gnats sending me running to find the hydrocortisone cream.

The figs were ripe, many overripe and decisions had to be made quickly. A ripe fig doesn’t last long. I though about trying to dry them in the oven but I had bad luck with that last year burning all ten of the figs I got to an inedible crisp.

I decided to make jam, which is easy to do and hard to mess up. You just boil the fruit with water.  I added some lemon juice for brightness and the lemon seeds for the pectin. After fishing out the seeds, I weighed the water and fruit and added the same weight of sugar and cooked it until it got thick with big bubbles and congealed on a plate that had been in the freezer. I got more than  2 pounds of the stuff. I didn’t properly preserve it so it has to be keep in the refrigerator. However, it keeps for a long time because it is basically solid sugar with some fig in it. Still it is very tasty and goes great on a slice of sourdough bread (homemade, of course) with some creamy goat cheese.

I had just finished making the jam when Tom’s wife, Christine, stopped by. She had brought us a gift. It was a whale butter dish like the one I had been tempted by on Nantucket but hadn’t bought. She had found it online at a very reasonable price, she proudly told us. We sent her off with a jar of still-warm jam and half a loaf of sourdough that I had also made that day.

Good things come in the fullness of time though they may not line up exactly with the original vision. I had imagined sitting under my fig trees as ripe fruit dropped into my lap. The reality is sitting on the screened porch (no gnats!) and enjoying fig jam and butter from a blue whale on fresh bread.

And still more figs ripen everyday. As we enjoy these cooler evenings dining on the porch, after dinner I walk out to the fig trees and pick a handful to enjoy as dessert. My patience paid off. The ship has come in. I pinch myself and squeal.

Here is a poem I wrote about figs, jam, and the ephemeral.

Elul

We arrived home to find the tree heavy

with fruit, some rotting,

bees delirious with their good fortune.

Today, we blessed the new month

the year’s farewell.

The sun sleeps in.  Already, it is cooler.

Days feel snug like last year’s jacket.

Fig jam bubbles on the stove —

summer surrendering her sweetness.

***

The world’s a narrow bridge; fear nothing.