You’re making out with a chick and want to take her home to seal the deal. For that to happen she has to get on the train and get off at your station, which is nearby because you planned it that way.

You never mentioned what’s going to happen next. Is she going to go home alone, or come to your place?

As you approach the ticket gate she moves to go buy a ticket. This is the moment of truth: either she’ll buy a ticket to go back to her place or a ticket to go back to yours.

Don’t leave it in her hands! Don't try to convince her at the last minute either. Instead simply hand her a rail card and head through the ticket gate yourself with your own card. She has no choice but to follow you through the ticket gate. Now she's locked on course and must exit at your station.

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Did this sink in? Do you realize how big of a logistical battle you just one at the cost of 150 yen? If not, please post a Q.

Explanation of why this works:

Suica: Card that lets you ride all JR lines without having to buy a ticket each time.
Passnet: Card that lets you ride all non-JR lines. (all prices are same as normal)

I live along a Tokyo subway station, so I always carry an extra Passnet card. Most people don’t know about these cards – they still stand in line and buy tickets every time they ride the train. If you still do this, you might consider trying these cards out, especially with this tactic being so useful.

Here are the steps.

1) Hand her the card right before go through the ticket gate and she'll take it. (She may even be taking a different line home and just thought you were bringing her to your line to say goodbye at the ticket gate. But then…Surprise! Confusion! Suddenly she’s back at your place!)

2) Go through the gate and she has no way to return the card to you except by following you through the gate. Since her only alternative is an abrupt goodbye and running off with your card, she is bound by Japanese social norms and has no choice but to follow.

3) Now that she is through the gate, she has to exit using that card, because without a ticket she will face the wrath of the station attendant when she gets home. If she exits at her own station with the card, she will be obligated to give it back to you sometime, besides which you might need the card yourself in the meantime. The norms of Japanese society prevent this possibility, especially since you were so kind as to let her use your card in the first place. Therefore she must exit at your station.

4) If she really wants to go home after that, she has to exit at your station and buy a new ticket back to her place. This is awkward.

Analysis: You started with you and her at a different station, facing an awkward situation in trying to get her to buy a ticket to your place instead of to hers. Now you and her are at your station, momentum is built, and you have the excuse to show her around a station she may never have been to before. Most importantly, it's now much less awkward for her to stay there and more awkward for her to buy another ticket to go home right away.

Reversing the situation so that going home with you becomes the less awkward alternative is the holy grail of logistics in the close. If it seems like a small thing, let me tell you, it ain’t. It is life or death in many cases.

Think you could just lay her on another day? Things were going so well, right? Nope. It doesn’t work that way. Your chances of laying a girl on a later day are greatly reduced. We can go into the reasons why this is true in a future post if there is interest. Anyway, try out this tip!