FAQ
The JR Pass includes using the whole Japanese rail network including the bullet train connecting most major cities and the islands of Honshu and Kyushu at up to 300 Km/h. The pass also includes the Narita Express – connecting Narita airport to Tokyo, The Yamanote line, surrounding Tokyo, free use of circle lines that run between the main attractions in Hiroshima, ferry rides from Hiroshima to Miyajima, and a free travel guide based on railways.
It's often worth buying a JR pass, since travel costs in Japan are very high, but it's important to plan your route in advance and calculate the cost of every individual ride and the overall number of rides. Such a calculation can be done via Rome2Rio. For example, if your plan is to make one ride from Tokyo to Kyoto, your costs would be 100-150$, which are cheaper than a 7 day pass (265$), However just one more ride would make purchasing a JR pass more sensible.
After you’ve received the Japan Rail Pass you must carry it with you. In order to validate it, you’d need to present the voucher that you’ve gotten in the main registery on the first train station you visit and convert it to the pass itself. The pass will be stamped and dated, after which you can start using it. The pass is valid from the time it was stamped and up to the number of consecutive days you’ve ordered, it is impossible to split the traveling days per need. From the moment you’ve received the pass, you can show it at the entrance of each train station of the national rail network and travel freely on all the trains. Additional JR transport is also included in the ticket, such as roundabout busses in Hiroshima, the shuttle to Miyagima and the subway line Yamanote, which circles inside Tokyo. The full details of what the pass includes are in the tour guide that comes with the pass voucher. Note that the pass allows unlimited train entry dependent on available space. In order to ensure you’ll have a seat on the line and at busier time is it very important to order seats in the train station, preferably in advance. All seats can be booked at once for all the train journeys if everything is planned and of course everything is subject to railway changes.
Aside from the popular Japanese train company JR, which encompasses most of Japan, there are local and cheaper passes. The feasibility of which should be checked when focusing on visiting a certain area. For example, if the Kansai area pass includes Kiyoto, Nara and Osaka, Hokkaido area pass, Shikoku Island pass, Eastern Japan pass and more… It could be beneficial to calculate the exact cost of those travels in advance, check the prices of the individual passes and decide accordingly whether to purchase the local passes or the all railway networks inclusive pass.
Planning your trip in advance allows to minimize train travel time. It’s recommended to plan the trip in one of the cities so that you wouldn’t need the Japan pass, validate it from the moment you finished the visit in a city so to shorten the pass period, If you’re finishing the trip in a big city or use the pass for daily travel from the big city and then dedicate the rest of the time to visit the cities attractions at the end of the trip. For example, you can start your trip with 3 days in Fukuoka and stamp your pass on the third day, on the day of travel to the next destination, and use it for the rest of the planned time. So that at the end of your trip, if you go to Tokyo for instance, you can use the rest of the pass to travel freely on the Yamanote line that circles the city, visit the main attractions and even leave the city and go on day trips to Kamakura and Yokohama.
Yes, the days that the ticket will be in use have to be consecutive and for that reason should make sure that you’re starting to use the pass only when you travel a few days in a row. We’ve started our trip in Fukuoka and only at the end of our visit to the city, after four days in Japan, we’re converted our voucher and started using the pass. We’ve planned our trip this way in order not to waste any days on our pass.
Yes, and it is very recommended. Ordering the pass doesn’t grant seats on the train. On busy lines or at busy times, it’s better to order seats prior to arriving to the train station. You can pre-order your seats for all your trips in order to save times and not stand in lines, which can be long, especially in peak times and at the large and busy stations like Tokyo or Kyoto.
No, the JR Pass ticket includes the use of the national railway network of Japan- JR, which covers most of the areas in the country. With that, there are areas that are covered by local trains, such as the trains traveling from Tokyo to Nikko, from Matsumoto to the Kamikochi Nature Reserve, from Fukuoka to Yanagawa Canal Town and Dazaifu Tample City and other private lines. Keep this fact in mind when calculating the feasibility of purchasing a train ticket.
