Hi everyone, I will be leaving for Japan for 3 weeks on March 31st. I was wondering if I should buy a 3 week JR pass or if it would be cheaper/make more sense to buy a ticket each time I use the JR. From the JR website it looks like a 3 week pass will be over 700 dollars! :/
Here is my itinerary:
-Landing @ Haneda Airport
-taking train (unless theres better transportation) to Tokyo (staying 3 nights)
-taking train to Kyoto (staying 7 nights)
-taking train to Osaka (staying 3 nights)
-taking train back to Tokyo (staying through the rest of my trip)
I'm assuming that I will be using the train quite a bit while in Tokyo but I'm not sure about Kyoto or Osaka. Can I get some opinions on whether or not I should buy a 3 week JR pass or just buy a ticket every time?
Thanks in advance!
Libby
Reply to this Hi Libby,
Use
jorudan.co.jp and
hyperdia.com to calculate roughly what you'd pay if buying tickets each time. Jorudan is the site I used most when I was living there.
Keep in mind you may find it more convenient to not need to buy tickets each time you get on, but there are other options such as regional JR passes, and daily passes within the Tokyo metropolitan area etc.
Reply to this The other option is to buy a 14 day rail pass and use it for your Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Tokyo route. However, on reading your itinerary I suspect you will not get value from even the 14 day pass, let alone the 21 day version. When calculating the 14 day version, I found that going from Fukuoka-Hiroshima-Takayama-Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto made this pass worthwhile, but if I dropped the Fukuoka-Hiroshima-Takayama sector it was not.
Reply to this I always used hyperdia while I was in Japan and it worked really well for me. Jorudan and hyperdia are basically the same thing.
My parents used the JR pass and it was worth it for the amount of train travel we were doing. We went all the way into Hokkaido from Tokyo and back again. If your really going to make it to all the way down to Fukuoka, then you SHOULD buy one.
Reply to this Thanks for the info. I appreciate it! Due to the situation in Japan right now I may be postponing my trip. My main concern is the nuclear reactor situation and the risk of radiation. What do you all think?
Reply to this Your heading to the Southern part of the country, so you shouldn't be affected by the earthquake or the tsunami. Bt you should be monitoring the news to see what they are saying about travel. Make sure they you'll be able to land where you need to.
Reply to this Kyoto and Osaka were unaffected and are a long way from the problems. It is possible for Tokyo to be impacted by aftershocks, but as for radiation, the wind would need to blow in the wrong direction and the situation would need to get worse before this would impact on your travels there.
I could undesrtand you wanting to postpone your trip, but if you dropped Tokyo from your itinerary maybe and added a place like Takayama or Hiroshima instead, then you could still enjoy your Japan experience.
Reply to this Thanks Kathryn and Shane. I will definitely take your opinions into consideration! 😊
Reply to this Rolling 3 hour power blackouts in the Kanto area are possibly going to be in place until late April. Will add more info when I find out.
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