visiting Japan for a period longer than your Rail Pass is valid

[miyakoji]

jrhorse98 posted the link below on the jtrains mailing list, and I got to thinking: if you stay in Japan longer than your pass is valid, for whatever reason, what did you do about transportation?   Buy regular tickets, buy a domestically-sold special ticket, buy a second rail pass before arriving in Japan, some other option?  The link below says that 600,000 Rail Passes were sold in fiscal 2014, it seems like a wise decision to sell them domestically to anyone with the proper visa.  Not sure if any of you have been in this enviable situation :), just wondering.

 

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/01/national/jr-rail-pass-available-japan-ending-frustration-tardy-tourists

[railsquid]

Plan accordingly, that's what I used to do. I usually spent a couple of weeks of intensive travel, and the rest of the time in Tokyo, with any additional trips at normal prices. Of course all prices are normal for me now...

[Taxman]

My wife and I have been to Japan together twice.  Once with a JR Rail Pass (7 Days) and once with a JR East Rail Pass.  We were there longer than the pass both times (or for the JRE Pass, more than 5 days).  We just planned our days so that we did our big travel days on the days the passes were valid, and then for the other days we could not/did not use our passes we did shorter trips. 

 

Using the first trip as an example, days 2 - 8 were spent traveling from Tokyo to Hiroshima (Day 2) then Osaka and Kyoto and back to Tokyo.  Days 9 - 12 were spent in Tokyo, so we used Toei and the Subway more.  If you are not doing a long distance trip in that time, we found the JR Pass isn't the best bet cost/benefit wise.

[katoftw]

Plan accordingly.

 

Depending on a regular JR passes (not company offered regional passes), they as a per day costing range from 2800 to 4100 yen.  As Taxman example above - if you travel a short distance, they they aren't cost effective.

 

A 7 day pass is 29,XXX yen.  A shinkansen reserved seat on a Hikari Tokyo to Kyoto is 14,000.  So unless you do a return trip, the passes are not cost effective.

 

A JR passes just seems to be a shining light to tourists.  I'm guessing for the ease of use and the availability of English help info to go along with it.  But I think many visitors overpay compared to other options available to them for their train tickets.  Places like Tokyo and Kyoto are serviced much better by private railways and subways.  Which render the JR pass useless.

 

I was help someone plan a trip recently.  Cost they were obsessing about buying and using their JR pass.  They wanna to go from Osaka station to Arashiyama and back.  Hankyu offer Umeda to Arashiyama for 400 yen one way.  And you are dropped off right in the middle of Arashiyama, not almost 1km away like JR Saga-Arashiyama.

 

I'm pretty sure on my trip in 2014 I wasted some money not using the best option available to me for the same JR pass obsessing reason.

 

Back to the original questions.  If they do allow the JR passes to be sold inside Japan.  They will just to what the JR companies do and charge an extra 1000 yen to buy in person.  And those whom stay longer than their passes do just buy regular tickets and other various passes.  Regular tickets tend to be a lot cheaper than passes for everything except Shinkansens.

 

I don't really see a need for it to be purchased in person when online options are available.  But I understand some plan trips last minute and cannot await the mail to arrive.  Or just total have a brain fart and forget to buy one before jetting off.

 

I find the 600,000 passes sold for 2014 quite low.  I'd be curious to know how many for 2015, since visitors number increase almost 50% compared to 2015.

 

In the month October 2015 alone, 1.85 million visitors arrived in Japan.  Hence why 600,000 total JR passes sold for 2014 seems low to me.

 

edit//  Japan had 13 million visitors in 2014, so 600,000 passes is only 5% of the total visitors arrived.

Edited April 9, 2016 by katoftw

[kvp]

I've read quite a lot of group trip descriptions and most of them include at most a single trip aboard a shinkansen and the rest is by bus and plane. They seem to be more cost effective for most travel agencies.

 

On the other hand i would like to ask for the price of tickets and total travel time for a Tokyo-Osaka trip on the old Tokkaido mainline with local trains and changing at JR border stations. (these are the same conditions as travelling in Europe on an eurail/interrail pass)

[katoftw]

I've read quite a lot of group trip descriptions and most of them include at most a single trip aboard a shinkansen and the rest is by bus and plane. They seem to be more cost effective for most travel agencies.

 

On the other hand i would like to ask for the price of tickets and total travel time for a Tokyo-Osaka trip on the old Tokkaido mainline with local trains and changing at JR border stations. (these are the same conditions as travelling in Europe on an eurail/interrail pass)

8750 yen total for only rapid and local services.

 

Tranfers at Atami, Shizuoka, Hamamatsu, Toyohasi, Maibara.

 

9 hours travel time including transfers.

[kvp]

Thanks! I'm rather surprised that it's not substantially cheaper than taking the shinkansen.

 

ps: this is a trip i would like to take one day

[railsquid]

Time your trip for one of the Seishun 18 kippu periods and you can do it for a couple of thousand yen.

[nartak]

Time your trip for one of the Seishun 18 kippu periods and you can do it for a couple of thousand yen.

 

Yeah, it is the primary option if you are young...

I used to travel from Tokyo to Okayama once I was a high school student with no money, but don't want to try it again....

 

For now, when I go to Shizuoka Hobby Show, I use "Platt Kodama" ticket as it is very reasonable and including a voucher for a can of beer.  Nice.

http://www.jrtours.co.jp/kodama/en/?scid=jtt_kepEng001

[katoftw]

Seishun 18 Keppu is 11,850 yen. Or 2370 yen per person per day.  Pretty good if you are traveling 500km or so per day.

 

Someone put me onto Platt Kodama a few days ago.  Kanto to Kansai for 10,000 was a good price.  Sure is takes 1.5 hours more than Hikari, but is 4,000 cheaper.

[railsquid]

Yeah, it is the primary option if you are young...

I used to travel from Tokyo to Okayama once I was a high school student with no money, but don't want to try it again....

 

I did Tokyo-Kyoto and back overnight when I was a student, not something I'd do these days. However when my son is a bit older it might be useful for taking him on train-orientated day-trips.

[cteno4]

On my first trip to Japan in 84 I had a rail pass and based a lot in Kyoto (after going to a week long conference there and getting use to it) I would pop up to Tokyo for the day. I was a crazy grad student and by myself so I could just wake up and decide what I wanted to do and go. I got a huge value out of my three week Jr pass, but I was not the usual traveler.

 

Jeff

[Kitayama]

Everything depends on how you travel.

My wife and her friend will have JR Rail Pass 7 days for one single trip. Osaka - Kushiro.

They will fly out of Hokkaido, but I will do one week of noritetsu travel, so I bought 21 days, even if I don't use six days in the middle when we go by car in eastern Hokkaido.

[westfalen]

Depending on how heavily you are going to use it I'd buy the next pass up from the period you are going to spend in Japan.  I often have a day or two in Tokyo or Kansai using a local area pass or card at the start or end of the trip if the length is just over the period covered by a JR Pass but if I could only stay 11 or 12 days I'd get a 14 day pass because I'd get my money's worth out of it two or three times over, but then I'm not your usual foreign tourist who travels from Tokyo to Kyoto, has a look at a couple of temples and then travels back to Tokyo.

 

In the UK last year I paid $1770 for a one month Britrail pass and got in $6642 worth of travel so I didn't mind that I didn't use on about three or four days.

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

Most of my later trips to Japan have been 14 day ones, with a 14 day Rail Pass.

I would fly out of Melbourne on a Friday o/nighter to Narita, arriving there after the end of the curfew, on Saturday morning, just after 6 a.m.

Validate my Rail Pass to begin on the following Sunday.

This means that wherever I am on the last Saturday of the R.P., I can get back to Tokyo for the flight home the next day, Sunday, again o/night back to Melb.

On the Saturday of my arrival I buy a Suica Card to get me into Tokyo and to J.R. Tabata for the JR Tabata Hotel there.

From Keisei Narita I use an ordinary train , with appropriate changes into Tokyo with my Suica, there is no hurry, 

I cannot get into the hotel until 10 a.m., so leave my bag there and spend the rest of the Saturday travelling around Tokyo on the Suica.

Back to the hotel in the evening, then on Sunday the serious travelling begins with the JR Pass.

The last Saturday of the trip still has  the R.P. valid, so if on that day, If I'm off in Osaka or somewhere away from Tokyo, I can still get back there for my last night in Japan.

Sunday morning, check out of hotel, Suica or Pasmo for local travelling, then in the Arvo. back to Narita, maybe by an N EX, seperate ticket bought for this, and off back home.

This seems to give me the best use of the 14 day R.P.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.