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I am in a quandry on whether I should get a JR pass or not. Here's my itinerary.
April 19th - Arrive in Tokyo
April 20th - Tsijiki Market and nearby area
April 21th - Hakone and My Fuji day tour (packaged)
April 22nd - Nikko day trip (packaged)
April 23rd - 25th around Tokyo (Ginza, Shinjuku etc)
April 26 - Travel to Tokyo
April 27 - Travel to Nara
April 28 - Travel to Osaka
April 29 - Around Kyoto
April 30 - return to Tokyo
May 2 - Home
From my research using Hyperdia.com it doesn't look like I will benefit from a 7 day JR pass (Y37,800) since I will only use it for the Kyoto - Nara Y690 each way, Tokyo - Kyoto Y7,980 each way using the Shinkansen, Kyoto to Osaka using the JR rapid Y540.
Help, please let me know if I'm missing anything.
Thanks
JR or not to JR that is the question.
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You are not reading hyperdia correctly - you need to add in the seat fee - one way is about ¥13,500 on the Nozomi (can't be used with JR pass) and ¥13.200 on the Hikari so that makes it probably worthwhile if you use it a few other times such as Kyoto to Osaka, etc....
Mara is right on the price for tix in ordinary cars, but since you mentioned the price of a Green car JR Pass it would be good to compare it with the price of of a ticket in the green car. The "seat fee" in a green car seat from Tokyo to Kyoto on a Hikari shinkansen is 9880 JPY. That one-way price is 17,860 yen.
April 29 is the start of Golden Week. Maybe because of that it is worth it to go in the green car on the 30th, which I normally would not do (and would get a JR Pass for the ordinary cars which are comfortable.
I would skip the package tour, move the Nikko trip to the 24th or 25th and use the JR Pass for that trip.
What I would probably do would be to get a voucher for an ordinary pass. Pick up the pass at Narita airport having it validated to start on the 24th. Then, still at Narita Airport station and holding the pass, get reserved seats for the shinkansen trips on the 26th and 30th. You can skip Osaka to spend more time in Kyoto.
You could even get the pass validated to start on the 26th and then use it to get to the airport on the 2nd.
Thank you so much. I am travelling by myself and this is my first time in Japan, I was wondering what the seat price meant I thought it was for reserved seats.
mrwunfrl, thanks for the tip. Unfortunately I will be arriving late at night (9PM) and will be in a mad rush to catch the last limo/bus to my hotel (stops in front so its more convenient than taking the train). I will have to validate it somewhere else and make arrangements to get the reserved seats.
I also made a mistake I didn't realized I gave the green car price I would just take the ordinary JR it's cheaper.
I suppose you know that you can get your reserved seat when you turn in your exchange order for the JR Pass. You can do the exchange at Tokyo, Ueno, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Shinagawa stations in Tokyo. And you have read this:
http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en007.html
Thank you mrwunrfl. I am so busy reads tour books and anything I can get on Japan it's overloading my brain. Thank you for the tips.