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Haneda Airport to Osaka (Namba)

hellolaurenzo
hellolaurenzo
over 6 years ago
1 answer

Hey Daniel,

You're so helpful! I've read through a majority of your responses for this exact itinerary. However, they all seem to be a bit longer (5-6 hours total travel time) I'm wondering if there is any other slightly faster options or shortcuts we could take by using the Suica or Passmo cards to get us to the Shinkansen line that will take us to Osaka.

I understand we can use the Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsucho and from there to Tokyo Station, I'm just wondering if we could pay to make that trip faster. As I see the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Shin-Osaka on Google shows me taking the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen and it only being 2.5 hours. I'm wondering why you're route takes much longer. I don't see anything for the Hikari Shinkansen on Google Maps. It's a little confusing. If it gets me to my destination a bit faster, the entire trip doesn't have to be JR. Does the JR Pass not cover the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen?

Thank you in advance for all your help. I'm scared about traveling, this will be my first time out of the country, so the easier and quicker I can make the trip, the better.

-Lauren

avatar
Daniel-san
19067 posts
over 6 years ago
Expert

Hi Lauren,

Google maps does not show the Hikari options and is a pretty bad option to planning with the JR Pass :( I've actually contacted the Google Maps team a while back to add a special JR Pass option but they did not want to do it. Instead you can use tools like learning to plan with Hyperdia and Navi Time.

While the Shinkansen only takes 2.5h-3h from Tokyo - Shin-Osaka, this is point to point only. Getting to Tokyo station from Haneda takes 40-60 minutes and the same applies getting from Shin-Osaka to JR-Namba. You may be able to shave some minutes off here and there using the metro or alternative transport but it will also depend on transfer time, you may just lose those extra few minutes waiting on the next train to get. I would focus on getting the route right, it is not really a difficult route to travel but it helps to have it written out before hand.

If you use the JR Pass for the full route it would be:
Haneda Airport -> Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsucho -> JR Yamanote line to Tokyo station -> Hikari Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, Haruka Express to Tennoji and finally the JR Yamatoji line to JR-Namba.

You can maybe shave some time off using the Osaka subway from Shin-Osaka to Namba using your Suica card which takes 280yen on the Midosuji line.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

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