JR pass or no JR Pass

Liman

about 3 years 전

10 답변

Hi Daniel-san,
I recently asked for your help to check my itinerary and turns out, buying the JR Pass might not be the best option for me.

However, I am very confused on how I should travel without the JR Pass.

I am going to re-type my itinerary briefly.. and could you please let me know which ticket(s) should I purchase or pre-purchase (because I know that most trains can also be used by taping the suica card only, which is very convenient!)

So this is my full list:
Day 1 to Day 3: full Tokyo (3 days metro pass)

Day 4: tokyo - nagano - matsumoto

Day 5: full matsumoto

Day 6: matsumoto - narai - kyoto - shirahige jinja - kyoto

Day 7: kyoto - amanohashidate - Ine

Day 8: Ine - amanohashidate - kyoto

Day 9 to Day 11: full kyoto

———————————————— If my planning was right.. then i will only be using 2 shinkansen on this trip, which will be on:
Day 4: hokuriku shinkansen Tokyo to Nagano

Day 6: tokaido-sanyo shinkansen Nagoya to Kyoto (from matsumoto)

Is that right?
———————————————— And for the others… there are plenty of trains that have the ‘JR’ icon on google maps, such as:
1. Nagano to matsumoto: using JR Shinano/Shinonoi
2. Matsumoto to Narai: using JR Shinonoi/Shinano/Chuo Line
3. On the way to Kyoto from Matsumoto:
- Narai to Shiojiri: Chuo Line - Shiojiri to Nagano: JR Shinano

Kyoto to Shirahige Shrine:
Kyoto station to and from Katata station: Tokaido-Sanyo Line
Kyoto to and from Nara: using Nara Line

Was wondering if I also have to prepurchase/reserve a ticket for these? Or can I just use my IC card on the go for all of these rides?

Thank you very much beforehand, Daniel-san!

Daniel-san

19375 올리기

7665 좋아요

about 3 years 전

Hi again!

Good to see your planning is coming together, to answer your questions:
* If my planning was right.. then i will only be using 2 shinkansen* - This is correct.

Google is not always the best tool to plan your trips with, as it misses train details. In general, you can reserve seating on Ltd. Express trains and Shinkansen, but not on local trains.

The Shinano ltd. express, is such a train, and same for the Tokaido Shinkansen. So if you'd want reserved seats, then you could do so for these. For these trains, you will need to buy a ticket ahead of time, and a Suica card would not be enough.

Kind regards,
Daniel

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Liman

10 올리기

0 좋아요

about 3 years 전

Thanks for the detailed reply, Daniel-san!

For the Ltd. express trains (shinano ltd and tokaido shinkansen) - if i am not looking to reserve a sit, should I still buy a separate ticket?

Thank you

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Liman

10 올리기

0 좋아요

about 3 years 전

okay, after making some adjustments...
I ended up with this:

Buy a ticket ahead of time:
- hokuriku shinkansen (tokyo to nagano) - shinano ltd express (shijori to nagoya) - tokaido shinkansen (nagoya to kyoto)

I changed the train option from kyoto to the Shirahige area by using the Local train (Kosei Line), so I believe an IC card will be enough for this.

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Daniel-san

19375 올리기

7665 좋아요

about 3 years 전

Hi there,

Seat reservations only cost 500-1000 yen. Personally, I like it because you always know you can have a seat, but this is something to decide for yourself.

Rest looks good :)
Daniel

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