Japan Rail Pass

Hello everyone!
This year I will visit Japan for the first time in my life so I'm really exited and I want to prepare for everything. So my question is will be Japan Rail Pass (Green pass) good choice? I will stay mostly in Tokyo so I will be using lot of trains there but I want to go to Kyoto, Nara, Mt. Fuji, Awaji Island, Naoshima and etc. So please could someone tell me if that Rail Pass can be used to those destination?
Thank you very much!
Have a great day
Tery

Green pass is for if you wanna travel in the fancy green cars. Eg 1st class.

While you can use a japan rail pass to travel to most of those destinations. 7 day day pass will barely pay off. And a 14 day will most likely not.

It depends on your actual itinerary. A pass can save you money or it can not, it's very itinerary specific.

Good luck!

Whether Japan Rail Pass pays off depends entirely on your itinerary. It is good if you make a lot of long-distance travels (inter-city, like between Tokyo and Kyoto) within a relatively short period of time, but not if you stay in a place.
Also note that it is �gJapan Rail�h Pass, good only for Japan Rail (company�fs) trains.

Enjoy planning!

No need to buy the Green Pass either - the normal shinkansen cars are already very roomy and comfortable. But as others have said, before you buy any rail pass build your itinerary, and then compare the cost of individual trips to the cost of a pass to make sure it will be cost-effective.

Having a JR Pass also saves you the trouble of buying each ticket individually. Even if it does not completely pays off, it might be worth getting it.

Roughly, for a seven day pass to save any money you have to travel more than 1,000 km, essentially a round trip Tokyo to Kyoyo/Osaka. A 14 day pass you have to do more, like Tokyo to Hiroshima round trip, before you save any money. Long distance passes are not a good use of money when staying in a city like Tokyo - the local fares are simply too cheap.
Using a rail pass has downsides too - while it can add flexibility to your trip, you still need to get it, and for Green Car reservations are mandatory. For my business, we moved away from rail passes because the savings on many trips were not enough to compensate for things like longer travel time, extra transfers. But, if you are going long distances (Tokyo to Haikkaido or down to Kyushu, then they can save a lot of money.
Green car is nice (has some plus points), but most people are happy with ordinary class.

Hello!
Could somebody tell me if there is app or something in Japan where you write where you are and where you need to get (like stations) and it will show you the possible ways and if you could use Japan rail pass? Because I don't really know how that work.
Thank you for the answers
Tery

Hyperdia.com

With Hyperdia, make sure you unclick the button for Nozomi/Mizuho if you are taking the shinkansen between Tokyo and Kagoshima with a JR nationwide pass. (there are JR West and I believe JR Kyushu passes that include Nozomi and Mizuho.) You can take the Hayabusa with the rail pass so you can leave that button licked if you are going between Tokyo and Shin-Hakodate.

Also be aware that what is termed a "seat fee" is a translate of a Japanese term which I can not remember exactly but it doesn't mean you can subtract that fee if you don't want a reserved seat on the train. If you are taking any express train, you are paying that fee. The reserved seat fee is a different box located in a column and not having a reserved seat generally saves you only 300-500 yen.

You should also look at regional passes, sometimes, depending on your itinerary they make more sense than getting a nationwide pass.

The advantage of Green Car passes is that they allow you to ride in the Green Car on any JR train that has such cars (all shinkansen and tokkyu trains). As mentioned above, Green Car seats are more comfortable and spacious. The Green Cars tend to be quieter than ordinary cars. They also tend to be less crowded. They are useful everywhere. Hence there is no doubt and issues using green pass in japan.

Also with Hyperdia, you need to de-select "private railways".
For trip planning, work out that FIRST, then work out what trains/transport you need. A JR pass might help, it might not.

If you are plan to spend all of your trip around Tokyo then you don't need a national JR pass. You might want a regional JR pass.

Re MaciZorb I have travelled extensively on Shinkansens and have never felt the need to travel Green Class as the regular carriages are absolutely comfortable and the only noise generated is when the doors open and close. (or maybe when taking the top of an Asahi, Sapporo or Kirin beer can!)

I beg to differ on the noise factor; I agree with MaciZorb. Families with children, groups of people traveling for pleasure and drinking alcohol, and foreign tourists more often than not travel in regular cars, and those three populations have more of a tendency to be noisy than the people who take green cars, where you will find more individuals (singles) traveling on business, senior couples, and others who have more of a tendency to not be noisy.

That said, it�fs not like the regular cars are filled with zoo animals or anything. Most of the time they are pretty quiet. But the do tend to be fuller (I have been the sole occupant in a green car a fair number of times but never in a regular reserved car), and in my own experience definitely noisier (on average). The green cars are often deathly quiet.

I used regular JR passes for many years and was completely happy with them until I got to the point where I started to have more margin in my budget. Now, I almost always get a green pass, and for me it is worth the extra money. But back when I didn�ft really have the extra money, the regular cars were plenty good enough. Nothing wrong with them.

I would say if you normally fly first class and stay in four-star hotels, then you are probably going to want a Green pass (that is, if you even get a pass; you might not need one). Otherwise, you�fre probably better off using the money you save on something else.

One thing that I actually dislike about green cars on the shinkansens is that they have a stupid footrest that takes up a lot of room and actually isn�ft very comfortable in my opinion. I hate those things. But on the whole the green seats are more comfortable.

I forgot to mention another downside of green passes: you ALWAYS have to reserve seats if you ride in the green car. So if you just want to hop on the shinkansen (or other train with reserved and nonreserved seating) without getting a reservation, even if you have a green pass you will have to sit in a regular (non-reserved) car, which is kind of a bummer if you paid the extra money for green.

Many people on these forums cannot understand why someone who has a rail pass allowing unlimited free reservations would NOT always sit in the reserved cars, but there are some compelling reasons.

A further point about riding green car.
For most travelers, regular car is fine. However, if you are doing A LOT of train travel, then the green car definitely has an the advantage. In normal times I travel a lot around the country, often many weeks (months) in a row. In general, there is more space/larger seats, quieter and nicer cars, and a few other small items people might not appreciate like the location of the car with regards to access in the station (that's why often they are in the middle - close to the exits/escalators).
A couple of years back I had a tour where the guests were travelling Green (their choice) and after six weeks of riding ordinary cars around the country, it was a slice of luxury that I certainly appreciated - a little thing that made work a bit easier/relaxing.
Doing bookings is hardly a big issue. And if the price isn't a factor, it isn't actually that much more compared to the total cost of a trip.

A seldom commented advantage of the Green Car pass comes into play when you have tight connections at stations. The reason it is an advantage is that Green Cars tend to be right next to the platform exits at most stations, making tight connections a bit easier because you don't have to walk the length of platforms, which with 16 car train sets can be quite a distance if one is in a hurry.

You can consider Japan bus pass 7 day=15300 yen,its economical

In my opinion, if you are going to visit more than 2 cities, the JRailPass already worth it! It's the more economic and comfortable way to travel in Japan to me.

When I visited Japan I travel to like 5 or 6 cities and did all of them with my jrailpass.com and had an amazing experience!