To buy JR Pass a not

Hello there,

I am not sure how much the Kodama plan would add up to with all your travel. However there are two points you should take into consideration when going for this option.

1.) Availability, the Kodama flat plan is open to anyone, including every Japanese person. There's only a limited amount of these tickets available and they can be sold out long in advance. Generally this is not a problem on week days but it will be hard to buy a Kodama flat ticket in the weekend or busy travel periods.

2.) Travel time, the Kodama stops at every Shinkansen station, meaning it will add up a lot of extra travel time. For instance it takes 1H more to get from Osaka - Tokyo with the Kodama than with the Hikari (which is covered by the JR Pass).

You won't have these problems with the JR Pass.

As for travel in Tokyo, the JR Pass will cover travel to almost all the places you will want to visit in Tokyo. The exceptions are Tokyo Skytree and Asakusa. Although both can be reached within 20-30 minutes walk from the closest JR station.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Hi Daniel-san,

Many thanks for your explanation.

For the Kodama plan, added up, it will cost us 18200 yen from Nagoya - Tokyo - Kyoto. May i know please if this is not purchase able via online?

Thank you.

Hi again,

It is only purchasable online if you understand Japanese writing enough to book the tickets. Otherwise the only other option is in person at a JR travel agency.