First time travelling to Japan

Hi there,

The JR Pass is designed mainly to provide savings for national rail travel rather than for local transport. This is because a) national rail tickets, especially in regards to the Shinkansen bullet trains, are significantly more expensive than any local/public transportation tickets, and b) because the national rail system is operated by one parent company, Japan Rail, whereas local transport is often operated by several private railways/companies. The JR Pass does cover the Osaka Loop Line and the Tokyo Yamanote Line, the main/central metro line in each city, respectively.

If you plan on using a lot of local transport, my suggestion would be to pick up a prepaid travel card, such as a SUICA or a PASMO card; more info can be found in our blog which I linked. The good thing about these cards is that the credits can be spent in coffee shops, gas stations, airport shopping etc. meaning nothing has to go to waste.

Hence, if you aren't planning on going to Tokyo, a regional pass would likely suit your itinerary more, as it seems you'll be staying within the JR-West area. Unfortunately because I don't know how frequently you'll be travelling so I can't recommend a regional pass for you, but I can link our regional pass page and our JR Fare Calculator so that you can input your itinerary and cross-reference the price of your itinerary with the price of a regional pass that suits your itinerary. If it's the case that the time frame of the regional passes don't suit you, then the only viable option you really have if you want to minimise costs is to purchase your tickets individually.

Kind regards,

Alexis