Metro Pass or Pasmo?

I will be spending 7 days in Tokyo, and plan to travel all over the city, as well as make several day trips to outlying areas. I am trying to decide if I would be better off using a Pasmo card or buying the multi-day metro passes (1500 for 3 days). I know that neither would cover my travel outside Tokyo, but I would still need to travel a short distance on the metro to get to a major station from my hotel on those days.

It looks like it will cost me about 4000 yen to buy metro passes for my whole time there. So I guess my question is how likely is that just using the subway to get around Tokyo with the Pasmo card for the week will add up to 4000? If the costs are similar, which one is most convenient to use?

Pasmo can use other than Tokyo.
I guess you can get to almost anywhere in Japan useing Pasmo.

https://www.pasmo.co.jp/en/faq/#ancFAQUse13

You have to pay 500 yen deposit on it.
But it will be refunded when you return it.

Pasmo is more convenient to use as it works on all trains in Tokyo, while the subway pass only works on subway lines and not all trains in central Tokyo are subways.

If the day pass pays off or not totally depends on how much, how far, how often you use subway lines. So not possible to answer on general terms. I�fd suspect that for days where you do a daytrip it won�ft pay off. As you�fll be maximum using twice that day to get to a major train station to take a train out of Tokyo. For two trips a day it is unlikely to pay off.

Enjoy your trip to Tokyo!

Google MAPs knows, you can calc and compare like this.
https://goo.gl/maps/V5ZHHYPidqS2

In Japan, the subway is not called "Metro", and in Tokyo, subway companies are only
"Toei(means Bureau of Transportation. Tokyo Metropolitan Government.)" and
"(Tokyo) Metro", called only "Metro" usual as nick, let's memorize it bc it is often misunderstood.
https://www.kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp/eng/
http://www.tokyometro.jp/lang_en/index.html
But only the subway is not a way of traveling in Tokyo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_in_Greater_Tokyo
It is not necessary to memorize all the route map of railways,
but it is safer to know the positional relationship of the major/main stations.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kzaral/3373021846/

PASMO can be used by most transportation in Tokyo and major big cities in Japan
and convenience stores and more as e-money, but even if buy both you will not lose.
PASMO is very convenient as without extra cashes(coin,bills), but it will not be a big discount.
https://www.pasmo.co.jp/en/use/

And, that subway pass is not 3 days, "72 hrs" is.
https://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/value/travel/index.html
If the start of use of the first day is late, you can use the fourth day.
Personally, I think that it will remain in my memory even if I move while looking at the scenery.
The Japanese subway is safest in the world, but it is not worth more than that.
(Although it seems interesting if you are a one of big railway/train fan.)

The traffic network in mid Tokyo is more complicated than you can imagine,
but the actual distance traveled is not so long also the fare is not high.

Hey,

My advise on the Metro Passes are that they are definitely worth it if you are staying within the Tokyo area where they are covered, as u mentioned going further away will cost you a bit more, and will not be covered by the Metro.

But from my experience, the metro passes are worth it, I remember using the metro Allot when I was in Tokyo 2016 as I purchases the Skyliner/Metro Combination Ticket when I arrived, it definitely saved me a couple of yen, and then metro takes u to most places within Tokyo, if u want to do trips to Yokohama or Nara, then that will only be covered to a certain point, and then the extra u will have to pay in.

But if I were u, I would buy a metro pass the 72hr one, and see how it works for u, get the pasmo aswel depending how long u staying and see how much money u spend on that, u can only end up trying both to see which one is going to work best for you.

Hope you have fun in Tokyo, Im already planning my next trip back, cant wait to visit my fav place in the world.

Thank you for the replies.

I will be buying a JR East Nagano/Niigata pass which is good for 5 out of 14 days. So I intend to use that for any trips outside of Tokyo. (I have a long day trip to Matsumoto and Nagano planned, so it pays for itself there)

I will most likely be taking the Keisei Skyliner in from the airport, since I am staying in between Ueno and Asakusa. So adding the 72hr subway pass is only 1100 yen.

Ok great, the combination ticket for the Skyliner and subway is a good price, u cant go wrong there.

if you are connecting to another station, don't activate the subway pass just yet, rather pay the 170yen odd for that connection and start fresh the next day with the pass otherwise u lose out on precious time depending when you activate the subway pass.

happy travels.