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Can JR Rail Pass be used to travel on Shinkansen

Jacelizmike1
Jacelizmike1
over 10 years ago
18 responses

Daniel-san,

Thank you for the suggestion. We like the idea of staying in Kyoto and Osaka. Can the JR Rail pass be used to catch the Shinkansen. For some reason, I thought the people in Hawaii at the Travel Bureau said that Shinkansen was not included in the JR Rail Pass. The other question is will the JR Rail Pass allow us to catch sub-ways and buses while we are traveling between Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and Hakone in case we get tired of walking and want to use some form of transportation.

avatar
Daniel-san
18835 posts
over 10 years ago
Expert

Hi!

Oh yes! The Shinkansen is completely covered by the JR Pass, only some type of trains are off-limits these are classified as Nozomi/Mizuhou. Other types of train such as the Sakura / Hikari however will take you everywhere too!

The JR Pass does cover local JR Lines in both Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe and around Kyoto, also local JR buses are included. What is not covered is transportation run by other companies such as the metro and non-jr buses. The JR Network in both Tokyo and Osaka is amazing and will get you pretty much everywhere but you may have to buy additional tickets for other transport methods in the other cities, these however won't cost that much.

I hope this helps too!
Daniel


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