Is the rail pass worth it?

Hello there,

Here's a quick breakdown of normal ticket prices.

Tokyo - Kyoto ¥ 13,600
Kyoto - Osaka ¥ 560
Osaka - Narita AIrport ¥ 16,700

For a total of ¥ 30,860 the 7 day JR Pass is ¥ 29,110 so you would be making savings, be in small. Additionally the JR Pass can be used for local travel in Tokyo/Osaka, possibly adding more. What you may also like about the JR Pass is that it's basically one ticket for all your travel, so it's easy to get around, especially if you travel in a group.

Hope this helps!
Daniel

Thanks for the reply Daniel-san. Im just wondering where you are getting the prices you've worked out from. Im looking on HyperDia.com and the prices its giving me are:

Shinjuku - > Kyoto 8210 Yen
Kyoto -> Osaka 560 Yen
Osaka -> narita 9610 Yen

Thats a total of 18,380 yen which at todays exchange rate is £1 = 165 yen that equates to £111 which is considerably cheaper than the £165 for the JR pass for 1 week.

Im guessing ive miscalculated here somewhere?

Many thanks
Martin

Hi Martin,

Now I am curious where you got the prices from :)

When looking at ticket prices in Hyperdia, have a look at the route Tokyo - Kyoto. Which has the following line Total: ¥13,600(Fare:¥ 8,210 Seat Fee:¥ 5,390). The total is the price which you pay for the trip. This is made up of two costs. The fare, which is the price you pay for the distance traveled and the Seat Fee, which is a charge paid for traveling on high speed trains such as the Shinkansen and other limited express trains. Only local trains don't have a seat fee. Lastly you can also see a reserved seat fee on the right side, this is between 200-800yen depending on the route traveled and is the fee you pay for making a seat reservation in advance. Generally you don't have to worry about these fees as the JR Pass covers them all. However I hope that this short explanation help you with calculations.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Hi Daniel

Wow i had not spotted that at all they should prob make that line a bit more prominent that the 'fare' figure that really stands out. Many thanks you just saved me from making a huge mistake :)

• Martin