Should I buy JR Pass?

My trip is Nagoya - Kanazawa - Shirakawago - Takayama - Nagoya

Should I buy JR Pass?

If I don't by JR Pass, Where can I buy the Train ticket: Nagoya to Kanazawa and Takayama to Nagoya. ( I have to go to Shirakawago and Takayama by bus )

If I don't by JR Pass, would it be problem for my trip?

no.

Where abouts are you flying into? Tokyo?

I'm flying to Nagoya.

Can I buy the train tickets at tickets office in Centrair international airport or I have to buy the tickets at JR Nagoy?

[Japan Rail Pass]

Should I buy JR Pass?

If you do not have another long-distance JR ride, a Japan Rail Pass would not pay off.
You can travel
Nagoya [JR: Shinkansen "Hikari"] Maibara [JR: Limited Express "Shirasagi"] Kanazawa
and Takayama [JR: Limited Express "Hida"] Nagoya
with your Ordinary-Class seat reserved in each of the three trains
at 13250 to 14250 yen (depending on dates),
i.e. paying about the half of the price of a 7-day Ordinary-Class Japan Rail Pass.

[Access from Centrair]

If you fly into Central Japan International Airport [NGO, Centrair],
you can travel on one train to Nagoya by lines of Nagoya Railroad (known as Meitetsu), which is a non-JR company.
- japan-guide.com: Central Japan Airport
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2431.html

Platforms of Meitetsu Nagoya Station are on the 2nd basement. You can go up via elevator to the concourse on the 1st basement, pass through West Ticket Gate and go up via escalator to a walkway on the ground around Hirokoji Ticket Gate of Nagoya Station of JR.

[JR regular tickets]

Where can I buy the Train tickets: Nagoya to Kanazawa and Takayama to Nagoya.

- JR-Central: Map of Nagoya Station
http://english.jr-central.co.jp/info/station/_img/nagoya_L.jpg
: You find Hirokoji Ticket Gate in the upper right of the map.
You can purchase JR regular tickets at a counter in one of the following offices in Nagoya Station.
: The branch office of JR Tokai Tours near Hirokoji Entrance
: Nagoya Branch office of JR Tokai Tours along Central Walkway
: JR Ticket Office along Central Walkway (roughly below Shinkansen Track 16)

[Highway bus tickets]

The highway bus line Kanazawa -- Shirakawa-go -- Takayama is co-operated by the following two companies.
: Hokuriku Railroad (known as Hokutetsu)
: Nohi Noriai Jidosha (known as Nohi Bus)
All highway buses running on Kanazawa -- Shirakawa-go and some highway buses running on Shirakawa-go -- Takayama require reservation.
You can try making the reservation on the phone to one of the reservation centers of the two operating companies. (A time limit will be set for you to purchase the highway bus ticket(s).)
http://www.nouhibus.co.jp/english/shirakawago_kanazawa.html

Platforms of Kanazawa Station of JR are on the 2nd floor. You can go down via elevator to the concourse on the 1st floor (= the ground floor), pass through the nearby ticket gate, turn right, walk to East Exit and see a bus terminal in front of you.
Then you can walk along the left half of the bus terminal to the end and find a Hokutetsu office called Hokutetsu Ekimae Center.
Counters for highway bus tickets of this Hokutetsu office are open from 6:15 to 20:00.

Thank you very much for the good information.

I would like to make the tickets reservation from Thailand for Nohi Bus and Hokutetsu (from kanazawa to Shrirakawa-go and from Shrirakawa-go to Takayama). I can not call them. Can I make the reservation by email? What is the email which I can contact them?

Recently I noticed a new travel pass, Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass. If you travel after 1st Oct, you might better consider it.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361_takayama_hokuriku.html

http://touristpass.jp/en/takayama-hokuriku/_pdf/takayama-hokuriku.pdf

This pass is 10500 yen for one adult and covers most of your trip except for Nagoya-Kyoto trip, probably by Shinkansen. With this pass, you can reserve highway buses (included in the pass) in your country (via a travel agency where you buy the MCO (exchange voucher for the pass).

Thank you very much for your reply.

I have 1 free day left in Kanazawa. Where should we go around Kanazawa?


How about Kagaonsen? Where should I go from Kagaonsen station? How to go there? Do you have any the attraction to tell me?

Before planning trip in Kanazawa or Kagonsen, you must decide the entire itinerary.

I wrote you will change train at Kyoto, but other option is taking Nagoya-Maibara-Tsuruga-Kanazawa route which in general takes less time. If you use Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass, it does not cover Nagoya-Maibara-Tsuruga, so you must buy the ticket separately. In fact you will exchange the MCO (voucher) at JR Nagoya station where you can reserve the JR limited express seat. At this time you will be able to reserve JR ticket for Nagoya to Tsuruga. With the pass, you will have unlimited ride within the covered area for unreserved seat of limited express trains, and further you can use four trains with reserved seat. You should think carefully for which trains you will use this reservation.

For example, if you do not use Shinkansen,

http://www.hyperdia.com/en/cgi/en/search.html?dep_node=NAGOYA&arv_node...

your pass will cover Nagoya-Gifu and Tsuruga-Kanazawa, so that you need to purchase Gifu-Tsuruga part.

http://www.hyperdia.com/en/cgi/en/search.html?dep_node=GIFU&arv_node=T...

If you use Shirasagi reserved seat, the total fare is 3360 yen, which I think is rather cheap and fast way of travel.

Alternatively, you can choose Shinkansen to Maibara and change to limited express Shirasagi, which is somewhat faster, but you must change train at Maibara, and the fare is somewhat more expensive. Further, you can go to Kyoto by shinkansen and then change to Thundrbird limited express. It is detour and expensive, but you can get off at Kyoto, the most touristic place in Japan.

Are you get tired :)? But, firstly you should decide what route to travel. If you do not need to go to Kyoto, I recommend you to take direct Shirasagi, but the problem should be you must make three reservations on the same train (because the Pass does not cover Gifu to Tsuruga) which might confuse the person at the ticket counter, since this Pass is quite new and he/she might not be used to it.

Thank you very much foryour reply.
I hope this is the final itinerary.

Day0 Bangkok-Nagoya
Day1 Nagoya-Gifu-Takayama
Day2 Takayama
Day3 Takayama-Shirakawa-go
Day4 Shirakawa-go-Kanazawa
Day5 Kanazawa-Toyama
Day6 Toyama-Takaoka-Amaharashi coast-Toyama
Day7 Toyama-Tateyama Kurobe Alpine route-Matsumoto
Day8 Matsumoto-Nagoya
Day9 Nagoya-Bangkok

1. Have the coin locker (leave my luggage) at Gifu JR station? I would like to visit Gifu before go to Takayama.

2. For this trip, I should not buy JRpass, right?

3. Can I buy the rail ticket point to point on the day which I want to go? or should I buy all in advance at JR Nagoya?

Please suggest my itinerary

Waiting for your reply, Thank you.
Apinya

1. Yes.

http://locker1.exblog.jp/22510442/

2. No, you should not buy Japan rail pass. Also I checked Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Kippu, however this ticket does not allow stopover at Gifu. You should buy separate tickets:

Nagoya to Gifu 470 yen, 20 min JR

Gifu to Takayama 2590 (fare) +2350 (Limited express reserved seat) yen 2 hrs JR

Takayama to Shirakawago 2470 yen 50 min Nohi bus
Shirakawago to Kanazawa 1850 yen 75-85 min Nohi/Hokutetsu bus

Kanazawa to Toyama 970 yen 55 min or 970+1700 or 1180 yen (Limited express reserved or non-reserved seat fee) 35min

Toyama to Amaharashi (transfer at Takaoka) 580 yen 50-60 min Amaharashi to Toyama (transfer at Takaoka) 580 yen 50-60 min

Toyama to Shinano-Omachi (Alpine route) 10850 yen
http://www.alpen-route.com/en/transportation/timetable-fares

Shinano-Omachi to Matsuomoto 670 yen 55-65 min JR

Matsumoto to Nagoya 3350+2680 yen 130 min JR

Total 29410 yen. Note that if you buy Japan rail pass, it does not cover bus and Alpine route transportations.

3. You should decide first what trains/buses you will take and buy the reserved seats ticket. But as for the "normal" train, you do not need reservation (you can not reserve it), so just buy it at the train station from the vending machine. I do not know the situation in Amaharashi station. It might be better to buy round-trip ticket (no discount though) at Toyama station.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip!

My husband and I will fly into Tokyo on 10 November. Our itinerary is as follows:
10-12 November - Tokyo
12-14 November - Kyoto
14-15 November - Fujiya Hotel, Hakone
15-17 November - Tokyo
before flying out of Tokyo on 17 November

We would like to catch the Bullet Train to Kyoto, however I believe we must catch a different train back to Hakone? In our case, is it worth buying a Japan Rail Pass or should we just buy tickets as we go?

Thanks in advance for any answers from more experienced travellers in Japan.

Keran

We would like to catch the Bullet Train to Kyoto, however I believe we must catch a different train back to Hakone? In our case, is it worth buying a Japan Rail Pass or should we just buy tickets as we go?

In Tokyo-Kyoto-Odawara (nearby JR station to Hakone)-Tokyo Bullet train trip, you can choose three types of trains, Nozomi, Hikari and Kodama. Japan rail pass users cannot use the fastest and most frequent train Nozomi. This is the drawback of Japan rail pass.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361.html

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2018_tokaido.html

In you trip, Kyoto-Odawara-Tokyo sections do not need to take Nozomi, since Nozomi stops at only major stations such as Nagoya, Shin-Yokohama and Shinagawa. In Tokyo-Kyoto leg the fastest and most frequent Nozomi cannot be used by Japan rail pass which results in 30-60 min of additional traveling time.

You can check the exact time and cost using hyperdia.

http://www.hyperdia.com/en/

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2323.html

Roughly speaking, Tokyo-Kyoto costs 13600 yen, Kyoto-Odawara 12080 yen, Odawara-Tokyo 3740 yen, and the total is 29420 yen which is slightly higher than the cost of Japan rail pass (I think you can buy it on US dollar base, maybe 275 dollars).

Further, assuming you fly in-out to Narita, you may be able to use the Japan rail pass for the trip to Tokyo-Narita (you should activate the pass on the 2nd day) which saves 3020 yen. You can also use some JR trains in Kyoto/Tokyo and even on some side trips.

In your case, I would take the Japan rail pass, but it depends on the personal preferences. If you do not mind the cost, buying individual ticket may be time-saving.

Enjoy travel planning!

Thank you very much,frog1954.
That's very kind of you.
You are in my beautiful trip.

Have a nice day.
Apinya

Dear Apinya,

I am happy to hear from you. It is just my pleasure.
Have a nice time in Japan!