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3 month trip to Japan - two JR Passes required(?)

yolatengo
yolatengo
almost 8 years ago
2 responses

Hello,
I'm planning a 3 month trip to Japan, from end of this month to end of Sept, most of which will be spent in Sapporo studying. I will have time to travel during the first week of August and the last three weeks of Sept. It's likely I'll want to buy two JR Passes for my trip - assuming this is possible - and I've a few questions about how this will work:

  • Firstly, can I buy two JR Passes for one trip?

  • From what I've read, JR Passes have to be activated up to one month from purchase, but they also have to be purchased before you enter Japan. The 3-week pass I plan to use from Sept 7th, but I'll be travelling to Japan on June 28th. Can I buy a pass now and still activate it for travel in Sept when I arrive in Japan? Will there be any complications I should be aware of?

  • In the first week of August, I hope to travel from Sapporo to northern Tohoku region to see the summer festivals in Aomori, Sendai, Morioka, etc. Would a standard JR pass be the most cost effective way to do this or would one of the regional passes like the new East-South Hokkaido Pass or the JR East Pass be a better option?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

avatar
Daniel-san
18835 posts
almost 8 years ago
Expert

Hi there,

1.) Yes, just keep in mind that every JR Pass has to be activated within 90 days after purchase. At point of activation you can select a day up to 30 days in the future, effective extending this period by an other 30 days.

2.) The East-South Hokkaido Pass does not include travel between Hakodate - Sapporo, therefore a JR Pass would generally be the better option. A JR East pass is limited to Tohoku and Nagano and would also not be helpful.

You can also use our Fare Calculator to find ticket prices and the cost of an itinerary.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

yolatengo
yolatengo
2 posts
almost 8 years ago

Thanks, Daniel. I'll probably go for a 1-week and a 3-week pass in that case.

Just to clarify, if I were to buy my 3-week railpass today, I could activate it in mid-August for use from Sept 7th and it would be valid until Sept 27th?

And I just activate the 1 week pass separately for use in August - I don't need to activate them together or use them consecutively?

avatar
Daniel-san
18835 posts
almost 8 years ago
Expert

Hi again,

Just to clarify, if I were to buy my 3-week railpass today, I could activate it in mid-August for use from Sept 7th and it would be valid until Sept 27th? Yes, you could purchase your JR Pass now. Just keep the 3 month exchange date in mind (sorry I wrote 90 days before but its actually 3 months).

And I just activate the 1 week pass separately for use in August - I don't need to activate them together or use them consecutively? No, you can activate each JR Pass separately and they don't have to be used in consecutive order.


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