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26 days in Japan - which rail pass?

hachikuro
hachikuro
over 10 years ago
2 responses

Hi there,

I was wondering if someone could please advise which JR Pass would most suitable for the following itinerary. We'll be spending a total of 26 days if I counted correctly, so a 21 days pass would not cover the whole trip (or at the very least it seems like we would need to purchase an Osaka → Tokyo ticket separately.

I'm just wondering which would be a better option between:
1. Purchasing 2 x 14 days pass
2. Purchasing 7 days + 21 days pass
3. Stick with 21 days pass and just the Osaka → Tokyo tickets on top

Here's how the itinerary is looking like for your reference:

December 17(火)Tokyo (late arrival) 18(水)Sapporo *Start using JR Pass* 19(木)Sapporo  20(金)Hakodate 21(土)Aomori 22(日)Aomori → Hachinohe → Kuji 23(月)Sendai  24(火)Nagano (Yudanaka → Shiga Kogen)  25(水)Nagano (Yudanaka → Shiga Kogen)  26(木)Nagano (Shibu Onsen)   27(金)Nagano (Shibu Onsen) 28(土)Tokyo 29(日)Tokyo 30(月)Tokyo 31(火)Nagoya 

January 1(水)Nagoya → Mie  2(木)Shirakawago 3(金)Shirakawago → Kanazawa 4(土)Osaka  5(日)Osaka 6(月)Osaka → Kyoto (Uji) → Fushimi  7(火)Osaka → Kurume (day trip) *21 days pass expiry* 8(水)Osaka → Kobe  9(木)Tokyo 10(金)Tokyo 11(土)Tokyo  12(日)Tokyo

Any advice would be much appreciated!

avatar
Daniel-san
18835 posts
over 10 years ago
Expert

Hi there!

You have a very nice you are planning!

Looking at options I do think that a 21 day JR Pass + a ticket from Osaka - Tokyo is the best option. When looking at prices getting an additional JR Pass is actually pretty expansive compared to the price of an upgrade. For instance a 21 day JR Pass + one way ticket Osaka - Kyoto would be ¥ 57,700 + ¥ 13,950 = ¥ 71,650 but 2x a 14 day JR Pass comes down to 2x ¥ 45,100 = ¥ 90,200.

You could also use a night bus for your last part Osaka - Tokyo, this way you can save some extra money.
Night busses start around 3,500 yen one way and you can also save money on accommodation costs, usually I would not recommend using Night Busses as it can be hard to sleep on them and you may lose the next day to fatigue, however you have a long time in Japan, so I think that it would be alright.

On a side note, why do you plan to visit Kurume? I've been there but I can't recall anything of special interest and I do know its a well knows spot for Yakuza.

I hope this helps!
Daniel

hachikuro
hachikuro
2 posts
over 10 years ago
avatar
Daniel-san
18835 posts
over 10 years ago
Expert

That's just awesome!

Enjoy your Ramen trip!

Also do tell me if you find some really amazing Ramen!
-Daniel


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