Originally Posted by RichardInSF
I love how they allegedly came up with the name. GRUTT is supposed to be an acronym for "Good for Round Tour Ticket [of museums in Tokyo]." I guess they couldn't pronounce GFRTT.
If you're going in the winter, note that the pass expires March 28, 2006, even if it's less than two months after you bought it. They do seem to renew the program every year, though.
Yep - The
real etymology of GRUTT is from the Japanese "gurutto mawaru" which means to go around full circle... i.e. to go around and fully explore Tokyo.
Same thing for other acronyms - JR East's "SUICA" card doesn't really stand for "Super Urban Intelligent CArd." That's just the excuse they came up with after they had already decided they wanted to name their card after a watermelon and use the fact that it sounds like "Sui Sui" - onomatopoeic word which carries the sense of "swishing through," smoothly.