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Hello!
My family is planning to go to Japan.
We want to know if buying the 7-day pass is worth it.
If we want to ride the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo and also use the ordinary trains to travel within Osaka area and Tokyo area, is it worth it?
For example, our host said that from Kansai airport we need to ride the airport express and get off at Tenkachaya station then ride a train and get off at Nagahoribashi station. Is that covered by the JR pass too?
Or if we want to visit the Umeda Sky building, we need to ride the train. Is that also covered?
We're so confused because we don't know which areas are covered by the JR pass. I know that only JR trains are allowed but my question is how will we know which areas in Osaka and Tokyo have them or are there JR trains everywhere? Please help us :( Thank you!
Hi there,
I see you have a lot of questions, let's dig right in.
The value of the JR Pass is best measured when traveling longer distances. These cost by far the most. For instance, a return trip Tokyo - Osaka is nearly the cost of a 7 day JR Pass. That said, the JR Pass can be used on local JR lines too. Which is very convenient, such as the local JR network in Tokyo and Osaka, which includes the Airport express mentioned by your host.
The Umeda Sky building is within walk able distance from Osaka station. Most of both cities can be reached using the JR. Google maps can be really helpful with this. Just search the place you want to go to and see if there is any station closeby.
Hope this helps,
Daniel
Hello Daniel!
Thank you so much for your reply. Sorry about the questions. I just want to make sure we make the best decision in choosing which ticket/pass to use. I do have some clarifications and I hope it's okay.
So we'll be staying in Osaka for 4 days and go to Tokyo. We won't be going back to Osaka so I thought it would be better to just buy the one-way ticket. But since we can use this pass with ordinary trains within Osaka/Tokyo and if I understood correctly, we also get to use this pass for the airport express, then would you recommend we buy the 7-day pass instead? Airport express is included right?
Thanks so much!
Looking forward to your reply,
Katie
Oh! By the way, how do we go to Mt. Fuji? Can we use this pass too? I also heard we can use the pass for riding the bus. Thank you so much! :)
Hi Katie,
1.) I think it would be better to buy normal tickets if you travel just one way between Tokyo - Osaka. Local travel is is not that expensive and you've have to do a lot of local travel for the JR Pass to be worth it.
For Fuji see:
https://www.jrpass.com/blogs/itinerary-tip-mt-fuji
Ohh ok. Thank you very much, Daniel! :)
