Japan Rail Pass

The Japan Rail Pass is the best thing since sliced bread !!! Well it is if you are a tourist anyway - residents cannot use it. You must be visiting as a tourist only and also purchase this BEFORE you leave for Japan. On arrival at the airport, or wherever you would like to start using it, you present your receipt and collect your pass. Your number of days starts counting from that time. Prices shown are in Yen and the amount you pay will of course vary depending on the exchange rate with your local currency. The number of days travel is consecutive, except as shown below. JR East, JR Kyushu and the Sanyo and Kansai areas of JR West also have a similar pass just for their own lines.

The Japan Rail Pass is valid for all JR trains (except Nozomi Shinkansen services), and some JR bus services.

* 4 day pass from JR East is NON-consecutive days.

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Front and back covers (with conditions in English - note condition 11 !!!).

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Inside (with conditions in Japanese).

If you do a lot of rail travel, and lets face it, even if you are not a rail enthusiast it's the easiest way to get around in Japan, then the Pass will save you a lot of money. For the cost of a 7 day pass, you have paid as much as your fares to and from Narita airport and ONE ride on a Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya. Using my two week pass that cost ¥45,100, I clocked up nearly ¥150,000 worth of tickets, and that was just on the Narita Express to and from the airport, one trip on the Super Hitachi and various Shinkansen trips. It DOES not include the numerous suburban services in the total calculation.

Other than the overall fare cost saving, there are many other advantages ...

1. You can reserve seats (see below) on nearly all services for free, which means you save time not having to queue at the doors of the non-reserved cars, and you save money as a reserved seat usually costs around ¥500. You can reserve a seat for as many trains as you want, for any time in the future.
2. You save time by just walking through the gate with an attendant and flashing your card, and not having to queue at the turnstiles.
3. You also save time by not having to queue at the ticket machines (and trying to work out how to use them!!!).

TRANSLATION Reserved seat ticket. Tokyo to Sendai 20th January leaving 9:36am arriving 11:53am Max Yamabiko #117  / Car 5  / Seat 28B  / non-smoking   Purchased at Narita Airport on the 20th January

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All contents copyright Doug Coster 2004