Which JR Pass to buy

Hi there,

You've got a very active planed, with a lot of train travel included. Looking at just all places you plan to visit, a JR Pass should certainly come in handy. Certainly a 7 day JR Pass from day 3-9 would already pay of as a normal return Tokyo - Kyoto by Shinkansen is the same price as a 7 day JR Pass.

An upgrade to a 14 day JR Pass may also be worth it but what I am wondering about is why you write Nagoya Jigokudani? Did you mean Nagano instead, as travel to Jigokudani via Nagoya is adding a good amount of time to an already long trip. I would recommend traveling from Tokyo via Nagano and then to Jikokudani and Yamanouchi. Also see this website for more information on how to access the area.

Let me know what you think,
Daniel

Daniel-san,

Thank you very much for the reply (^^)/

You are correct. It is supposed to be Nagano. Do you think there's too much train travel involved? What places would you recommend to skip to make the trip more relaxing? I think I got greedy in the places I want to visit since this is my first time going to Japan.

As for the day trips from Tokyo, do I need the JR 7-day pass? or JR East?

Thanks again for replying. I truly appreciate your help :)

Hi Again!

Don't worry about beeing too hasty, I actually think it all works out well.
Going to Jikokudani via Nagano is a good idea, however I just thought it would be odd to add a detour to Nagoya on the same day. Either way, if you do go to Nagano and Nikko, than I would recommend upgrading your JR Pass from 7 days to 14 day pass. The cost for the upgrade is 16800 yen but a return Tokyo - Nagano alone is 15,940yen so it is very easy to make good savings with it.

While you are being greedy why not make the most of your trip and try to see as much as possible. You could skip going back to Tokyo on day 10 and head to some other place before going to Jikokudani. You could for instance had to Hakone and stay there a night.

Hope this helps too :)
Daniel

ダニエルさん！ ありがとうございます！

Can't thank you enough for all the useful information :) Thank you again!!