Let’s try to use Coin Locker.
Written by Hafizah Khusni San
Travelling can be troublesome if you bring many luggage together with you. With itinerary to fulfil, hopping from place to place with bulky luggage is something that we are not favored of.
Japan being a convenient country, normally you can find coin lockers at airports, train stations and subway stations to solve this problem. Some tourist attractions also provides you coin locker to make sure tourists can travel with ease. The concept is actually the same with lockers found at swimming pool or schools around the world. The coin lockers will rarely got pried by someone else so you can feel secure enough to store your belongings, contrary to how you feel when travelling in other country.
Most of the coin lockers in Japan use 100 yen coins to pay the fee so always keeping 100 yen coins with you is convenient if you are a frequent coin locker user. However, some of the latest model are equipped by electronic payment method, such as Suica or Pasmo.
Coin lockers that can be paid using electronic system
Other than normal type of locker, Japan also has innovated coin locker with refrigerator function as well. This means you can shop foods that need to be chilled such as meat, fish, sweets and put them in the coin locker and go shop again with free hands! Such a convenient innovation!
Coin locker at Aeon Sano New City. 8 lockers at the right are coin lockers with refrigerator function while another 8 are just the normal type of coin locker.
You can find kanji characters written as「冷蔵」at the coin locker with refrigerator function. Functioning just the same like a refrigerator.
Money changer machine also being placed just beside the coin locker to allow customer change their money to smaller change (especially 100 yen).
So now I would like to explain how to use coin lockers. Basically all types of coin lockers can be used by the same method. What differs is only how you pay (via coins or IC card) and the fee.
1.Find a locker that is not being used. The one with key hanging means it’s empty inside. Open the locker’s door and place all your item inside the locker. It won’t lock until you’ve paid the fee and taken the key out.
Coin locker at Sano Station Palport
2.Insert 100 yen coin to pay the fee. You can find the fee on the front of the locker or near the key beside the locker’s door. Turn the key to lock the locker’s door and remove the key.
Fee depends on the size of the locker you want to use. For example, (from left) 300 yen for a large locker, 200 yen for a medium locker and 100 yen for a small one.
3.When you want to take back your belongings, just insert and turn the key to unlock it. Usually the key will have number on it to detect which locker you’ve used.
Some helpful tips to share
•Remember the location of the coin locker that you’ve placed your item. Some stations can be confusing with so many exits and sometimes you can lost where you’ve put your belongings. Taking a photo of where the coin lockers are will surely help you in case you forgot the location.
•Place the key somewhere safe. If you’ve lost the key, payment have to be made to compensate the lost key. Usually the key comes with a tag on it, so attach the key somewhere you can remember.
•Some coin lockers can be used in limited time only. For example, the one located at Sano Station Palport can be used from 9 am until 10 pm only. Please note that if you exceed the limited time, you will have to pay the fee again per extra day to unlock the door. However the time varies at different place so be sure to check the sign at the coin locker before use.
Precautions of using the coin lockers on front of the locker’s door in Japanese.
•If you are travelling using trains, most of the coin lockers are located near to the exit.
Coin lockers (in pink box) at Sano Station exit.
•If you exceed the limited time, (mostly 3 days but it varies so please check) the chances that your belongings will be collected by the management are high. If this happens you can collect your belongings at the management office or other specific place (usually written on the precautions on the coin locker).
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