Help with JR passes
 

We are currently going to Japan for 10 days. National JR passes are good for 7, 14 or 21 days, consecutive. We will travel by train throughout the country but will be within JR East territory for the first half of the trip (Tokyo, Nagano, Matsumoto) before going west to Kyoto. Paying retail (ticket by ticket) is ludicrously expensive, especially because we'd prefer limited express trains or shinkansen (where available, and I know the Nozomi aren't covered).

All that said, would we be wise to get a 3 or 5 day JR East pass for the first part of the trip and then a JR national pass for the remainder (a JR West pass is a no-go: we fly in and out of Tokyo -- we have to suffer some inconvenience for flying on miles)? Any other suggestions for structuring this?

In addition, how can and should we seek reservations in the shinkansen trains that we will use for major intercity stretches?

Thanks in advance.

Considering your total stay is 10days and I assume that includes arrival/departure days, my first impression would be that you'll be wasting some days by getting 7day national pass and additional JR east pass.

Depending on how your itinerary works, you can either get (A) 7day national pass, or (B) JR East pass supplemented by Tokyo-Kyoto promo fare on JR Tokai. This is JPY27100 for round-trip (the advantage is you can use Nozomi), which comes with one day Kyoto bus/subway pass (valued JPY1200).

As for shinkansen reservation, I'm not aware of a system that you can reserve online. I just go to the ticket office and book on spot. Doing a preliminary search on hyperdia helped though to identify the train # and departure time. I just made a list and gave to the guy at the JR ticket counter.

post your itinerary and we can see if a rail pass is for you

Aloha!

HT -- you asked for it, you got it.

Here's the basic itinerary idea (we're about 6-8 weeks away from the trip):

Friday - arrive Narita, L'Ex to Tokyo
Saturday - tour Tokyo, hopefully see Giants' game (they're in town that night, I checked)
Sunday - Tokyo and side trip to Tokugawa Shrine, theater or sumo in Tokyo at night
Monday - to Nagano area
Tuesday - Matsumoto-jo and poss hiking
Wednesday - to Kyoto
Thursday - tour Kyoto or Himeji
Friday - tour Kyoto or Himeji, poss wander around and dinner in Osaka
Saturday - Hiroshima, Miyajima, back to Kyoto (long day)
Sunday - more Kyoto
Monday - train to Tokyo, L'Ex to Narita

I think there's little question that a 7-day JR pass is necessary for the latter half of the trip, unless the retail prices on trains Kyoto-Hiroshima RT and Kyoto-Tokyo-Narita are less expensive than I thought.

Thanks again.

I would get a 7day JR pass, and activate on Monday when you go from Tokyo to Matsumoto.

Depending on where you're staying in Tokyo, you can either take limousine bus to/from the airport, though the overall cost of Narita Express (JPY2940) is not much different.

W9 -- that seems perfectly sensible except it raises a question: can I use the 7-day JR pass on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday?

I count 8 days. But if the JR counting means that activating on say the 24th means the pass is good 24th-31st, then your plan is golden.

BigRuss is planning to go from Kyoto to Narita Airport. Activating the pass on Monday makes sense if staying in Tokyo on the last Sunday night.

The difference between 14-day and 7-day pass is about 17,000 yen.

If going from Kyoto to NRT you absolutely would want to use a JR Pass, so that is at or before the end date.

It's about 3,000 for NRT-Tokyo and 8,000 to get from Tokyo to Nagano. You might spend 1000 yen on JR in Tokyo. That's 12,000 yen. So you can save about 5,000 yen by purchasing those tickets separately and then using a 7-day pass with activation on the day that you first use it to go from Nagano to Matsumoto. It will then get you to NRT.

Frequent flyer awards typically allow an open jaw, for example flying into NRT and returning from KIX or ITM.

I'm trying to figure out the same thing for our trip. We plan to use the trains as follows:

Narita to Tokyo on arrival
Tour around Tokyo for 3 days
Tokyo to Kyoto
Tour around Kyoto for 4 days
Kyoto to Hakone (overnight)
Hakone to Tokyo (overnight)
Tokyo to Narita

Our total days is 10. Would it be better for us to get the 7-day JR Pass and then just buy individual tickets, or just buy individual tickets for the whole trip?

Does the pass allow travel within the cities or just city to city?

We just activated our JR 7 day passes on a Tuesday afternoon with their last possible usage on the next Monday afternoon (August 5-11). The fellow behind the counter at Narita actually went over with us whether we should wait a day before activating the pass. JR had very helphul staff everywhere.

Statia - sorry I meant to add that if you delayed activating the pass until leaving Tokyo, the 7 day pass might be worthwhile for the rest of your trip. It sounds borderline without actually adding up the numbers. You can use the pass on the JR train lines in Tokyo but I don't think they will help you get around Kyoto, unless you are visiting a nearby attraction such as Nara.

Thanks, colduphere. When I calculated the costs of individual trips, it seems we would save a bit with the pass...by activating the 7 days pass when leaving Tokyo. Thanks so much for the help!