Traveling without a JR pass

Hi!
Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question or has already been answered etc.

I'm planning to travel to Japan for the very first time after studying the language for 7 or so years. It will be a dream come true! I am in real need of advice on travel!

I have a concern on whether or not I should actually get a JR pass, I plan to stay in Tokyo for most of the visit, but I am dedicating time to travel to Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and Sapporo, to see friends and my family member's old home stay family (and also to see the beautiful sights of Japan!)

Can I actually use a JR pass to get from Tokyo to Fukuoka? Or would it be better to catch a plane from Osaka? I'm thinking I might get a 7 day pass, but I feel 7 days might not be enough time. Although the 14 day pass might be too much time. I'm honestly really not sure what the better option would be. I've been contemplating various plane, train or bus trips but maybe it would be more cost efficient to get the rail pass.

Also I hear that there are special travel cards (Australia has similar travel cards named go-cards) that have prepaid amount of money to catch trains with etc? Or to use at the ƒRƒ“ƒrƒj?

Sorry for the long message!

How long will you be in Japan?

You tell them when you will start using the Rail pass, so you can save it for when you are doing your heavy traveling. Then just use an IC card for rest of time.

Can I actually use a JR pass to get from Tokyo to Fukuoka?

Yes. Fukuoka is on the shinkansen route. It takes five or six hours to get there from Tokyo. For more information (and comparison with flying) see here:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4802.html

Thank you for the advice! I am going for about 3-4 weeks,

I'm thinking I could either get the 7 day pass and do Osaka, Kyoto and Fukuoka in a week, but I feel I would want to spend more time at these places, but the 14 day pass costs alot more from what I've heard. But maybe 1 week will let me atleast experience some cool sight seeing for south Japan.

A seven day pass is 28,300 yen, which works out to 4075 yen/day. It is hard to justify the pass for days that you are staying near a major metropolitan area.

Take Kyoto for example. You may want to visit Nara. The JR rapid service from Kyoto to Nara cost 590 yen, so the round trip is 1180 yen. This is much smaller than the 4075 yen/day that the JR Pass will cost you.

The Shinkansen ride from Hakata Station (Fukuoka) to Tokyo Station costs 21,720 yen, which pays for 77% or the pass. The Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Hakata is 14,590 which is 51% of the cost of the pass. just these two trips pay for the pass.

What you are going to find is that the JR Pass DOES pay off for long train rides, but it does not pay off for a day of a short train ride.

If you want to spend more time away from Tokyo, I would advise you to either take a bus, or use a discount Shinkansen ticket (Puratto Kodama Economy Plan) to get to the Kyoto/Osaka area. I would then use the Suica card (a prepaid train card that you will use in Tokyo) for local travel, and then activate a 7 day JR Pass when you leave the Kyoto/Osaka area. The bus will cost you 5000+ yen, depending on the type of seat you get. But if you plan to spend say three nights in Kyoto, this is a lot more cost effective than buying a 7 day pass, using the first day, and then letting it sit unused for two days.

You don't have to go directly to Kyoto either. Should you want to go to say, Takayama, take a bus to Takayama, and then take a second bus to Kyoto to start you trip away from Tokyo. The bus far from Tokyo to Takayama is 5700 yen, and then the bus to Kyoto is 4000 yen. This is around the one day cost of the JR Pass, and if you plan to spend two nights in Takayama, then it becomes more cost effective to use the bus.

It's fairly easy to come up with a week of travel around southern Japan. Hiroshima, Miyajima, Hakata, Beppu, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Okayama are all worth visiting. You would want to finish the week by traveling back to Tokyo. It is also possile to use it to travel north of Tokyo, so Sapporo is also possible.

I hope this helps.

Well, I don't think the per-day price is that relevant. What really matters is whether the pass will cost more than the total of all your journeys.

How important is it to you to visit all of Osaka, Fukuoka and Sapporo? (I'm leaving Kyoto out because it's close to Osaka and won't affect the calculations very much.)

Let's say you definitely want to get to all of them. Without a pass, that would cost:

* Tokyo to Shin-Osaka: 13750
* Shin-Osaka to Hakata: 14590
* Fukuoka to Sapporo: 40060 (by train; plane would be about the same)
* Sapporo to Tokyo: 23170

Compare this with the cost of a pass:

7-day pass: 28300
14-day pass: 45100
21-day pass: 57700

So clearly, even the 21-day pass would pay off. And having the pass gives you the advantages of flexibility, and being able to add daytrips to other destinations without increasing the cost.

But then, if you're staying in Tokyo for most of your trip, it's better to get the 14-day pass and fit all the long-distance trips into those 14 days. I really wouldn't try to squeeze them into 7 days if I were you, but it's your call.

Thank you guys!

Aoi you explained it so well, do you know how long it takes to get from Fukuoka to Sapporo roughly? I might leave Sapporo out, but I would really love to go there!

I'm thinking maybe I should just get the 21 day pass so I don't have to worry about extra travel expenses, like you said if I did end up going to Sapporo aswell, it covers the cost of the 21 day pass.

And then I can also use the 21 day pass while I'm in Tokyo and can go to neighbouring city/towns around also without the worry.

Also when exchanging the voucher for the pass I read it may take a while, by a while do they mean a couple of hours or more than a day? I don't mind waiting at the airport.

Hakata to Sapporo will take you 15 hours by train. http://www.hyperdia.com is very useful for train timetables and as a journey planner

Rail pass decisions can be complicated, but in your case it sounds like the 21-day pass is a very good choice. Unlimited travel on JR trains is an incredibly nice thing to have, if you want some flexibility for spontaneous trips and not cram all of your long-distance rail travel into a short time frame. The cost difference between the 14-day and 21-day passes is not very much, making those additional 7 days a real bargain.

I personally would probably not try to go to both Kyushu and Hokkaido in a 3-week trip, but if you don't go to Sapporo then consider going up to Tohoku at least. The Tohoku shinkansen is really scenic and speedy, and there are some nice day trips out of Tokyo. It's a good way to get value out of your pass and have some enjoyable but not terribly long train days.

The delay in exchanging the voucher is just when you get stuck behind a large number of other people doing the exchange, or behind some people who are also trying to make a lot of reservations or ask a bunch of questions of the agent. If there is no one ahead of you, the exchange takes only five minutes or so. Two hours would be a very extreme case. It would never take overnight.

Aoi Ninami:

Well, I don't think the per-day price is that relevant. What really matters is whether the pass will cost more than the total of all your journeys.
How important is it to you to visit all of Osaka, Fukuoka and Sapporo? (I'm leaving Kyoto out because it's close to Osaka and won't affect the calculations very much.)

Let's say you definitely want to get to all of them. Without a pass, that would cost:

* Tokyo to Shin-Osaka: 13750
* Shin-Osaka to Hakata: 14590
* Fukuoka to Sapporo: 40060 (by train; plane would be about the same)
* Sapporo to Tokyo: 23170

Compare this with the cost of a pass:

7-day pass: 28300
14-day pass: 45100
21-day pass: 57700

So clearly, even the 21-day pass would pay off. And having the pass gives you the advantages of flexibility, and being able to add daytrips to other destinations without increasing the cost.

But then, if you're staying in Tokyo for most of your trip, it's better to get the 14-day pass and fit all the long-distance trips into those 14 days. I really wouldn't try to squeeze them into 7 days if I were you, but it's your call.

Spot on - couldn't have put it better myself.

Vanagib said:

http://www.hyperdia.com is very useful for train timetables and as a journey planner

I was waiting for someone to reference Hyperdia. Very useful when you know your itinerary and want to check if it's better value to buy individual tickets or a JR pass.

Cheers,

Christian Thurston
JTB Australia

Thank you everyone for your advice!

This has made my travel plans x10 easier and decisions on what pass I should buy will be much easier also!

I am so grateful for the information I have been supplied with!

Thought I would toss another idea into the mix!
I have often bought two 7 day passes where I have being in a metropolitan area in the middle. It sometimes works out even though 2 x 7 is more than the 14 days.