Hi,
My wife and I are travelling to Japan and arriving on the 25th of January 2018. Are you only able to book first class tickets when buying a JR pass? When I've calculated individual fares it seems to come out a lot cheaper - I assume these fares are standard/economy tickets?
Our itinerary is:
Thursday 25th Jan - Fly into Tokyo Narita airport (Travel in to Tokyo city)
Friday 26th Jan - Tokyo
Saturday 27th Jan - Tokyo
Sunday 28th Jan - Tokyo
Monday 29th Jan - Travel to Nozawaonsen
Tuesday 30th Jan - Nozawaonsen
Wednesday 31st Jan - Nozawaonsen
Thursday 1st Feb - Nozawaonsen
Friday 2nd Feb - Nozawaonsen
Saturday 3rd Feb - Nozawaonsen
Sunday 4th Feb - Nozawaonsen
Monday 5th Feb - Nozawaonsen to Nagisa (Gifu)
Tuesday 6th Feb - Nagisa (Gifu) to Kyoto
Wednesday 7th Feb - Kyoto
Thursday 8th Feb - Kyoto
Friday 9th Feb - Kyoto to Koyasan
Saturday 10th Feb - Koyasan to Osaka Konsai airport (depart at 6.55pm)
My other questions are:
1) Does the JR pass cover any travel from Narita airport into Tokyo?
2) Are we best to buy standard fares for travel around Japan, rather than the JR pass? Are you able to buy standard/economy fares prior to entry into Japan?
3) Are you able to travel from Koyasan to Osaka Konsai airport with a JR pass (it didn't come up with any route when I entered it)?
4) If all of those trips are able and we only bought a 14 day pass, would it be more cost efficient to use it at the end of our journey or the start (ie around Kyoto/Koyasan or use it around Tokyo?
Many thanks,
Ben