JR Rail Passes Info, and Kyoto to Tokyo Disney Travel Info
So today I was doing some research into train tickets for our trips between cities in Japan. The cheapest option, if you are travelling to multiple cities within Japan on the train, is to buy a JR Railpass. Note the JR Railpasses cover more regional trainlines, and do not cover the metro lines in each city, i.e. the Tokyo Metro, the main subway system in Tokyo. There are some JR lines within each city that will get you around but they are usually not as extensive as the metro/subway lines (well at least in Tokyo they aren't).
We will be booking our JR Railpass from the this
website, which will charge us in AUD for the passes. The Economy Class passes are about $370 for a 7 day pass per person, $586 per person for a 14 Day pass, and $750 per person for a 21 Day pass.
Apparently once you order the passes you are expressed/register mailed a “Exchange Order” which is like a reservation I guess, which you will need to exchange for your actual pass/ticket. When you get to Japan you just need to go to the nearest JR Exchange office . Apparently you also need your passport with your Japanese visa (provided on arrival in Japan) to exchange the pass for your ticket.
Information on how the passes work can be found
here
There are Exchange Offices at all major train stations and both airports in Tokyo as well as Kansai Airport, which is where we will be flying into in Osaka. This
link outlines all JR Exchange Office locations.
You also need to select a starting date for our pass, which will be the date from which we have 7 days in which we can use it.
Note that your vouchers are only valid for 3 months once purchased so make sure your start date for the ticket is less than 3 months away when booking your voucher. Since we need the pass to cover from the 20 January 2017 (day of our train trip to Kyoto from Osaka) through to the 23 January 2017 (day or arrival at Tokyo Disney), but it’s a 7 day pass which we could use in and around Osaka as well, our start date will probably be the 17 January 2017 (day of our arrival in Osaka).
The pass covers the following Trains/Train Lines:
- JR Sinkansen/Bullet Trains (not NOZOMI and MIZUHO trains)
- JR Limited express
- JR Express
- JR Local
- The Narita – Tokyo Express (NEX)
- Tokyo – the JR Yamanote, JR Chuo and JR Keihin-Tohoku lines
- Osaka – the JR Osaka Loop Line – this could be good for siteseeing in Osaka
It also covers various buses which we probably won’t use. A full list of all lines/bus routes covered can be found
here. It doesn’t covers the Tokyo Metro (subway) system in Tokyo proper anyway (different company I believe) and even there are JR rail lines (as you can see above) in Tokyo the metro is much more expansive and gets you more places so it’s preferable to use anyway. This JR Pass we are getting is mainly to cover our big trips between cities, and as those tickets between cities are so expensive if you buy them one off it does make sense.
You can reserve seats on the Shinkansen (bullet train) only. During busy periods it’s recommended to book these tickets 3 days before your travel date, but during quiet periods you can usually do this at the station right before your train departs. You can reserve your seat at a Travel Service Centre or JR reservation Office, and I'm sure there is also a way to do it online but I haven't worked that out yet.
You can find information on how to use your pass and reserve seats here -
Use your pass /
reserve seats.
This website also advised that
HyperDia is the best website (which includes information in English) to use for finding routes/timetables etc for trips in Japan, and book tickets (if you are booking individual routes).
I'm really excited to be going on my first Shinkansen (bullet train) from Kyoto to the Tokyo. We can’t take the NIZOMI Shinkansen (the quickest option at 1 hour 40 mintues) because it’s not available on our JR Rail Pass, so it looks like we will have to take the HIKARI Shinkansen, which is a 2 hour journey. Still the best part about the bullet train is not necessarily the time saved on the trip, but the fact it is direct and there are no transfers. The bullet train will only take 2 hours instead of 2 and a half hours (of travel time), but we will have no transfers as opposed to 6 transfers (and however much time that would take)!!
We will then have to transfer to the metro to get to the Tokyo Disney Station though, which will likely be a pain – especially with our luggage and what I've read about the Tokyo Metro Station and getting to the Keiyo Metro Line to Maihama Station to get to Disney. Last time we didn't take the train from the city to the Disney resort, as I read something once about a staircase of doom and a hallway of despair when trying to transfer to the line that goes to Disney. If we do take the Metro we will have to transfer 2 times, and deal with the stations and their lack of escalators and lifts with all our luggage, so we may just end up getting a cab. In addition, we will have to pay for the metro routes not covered by the JR Rail pass, but though shouldn’t cost much.