Hi All! <BR> <BR>I have a couple questions about Japan Rail: <BR> <BR>1. Where can I obtain the train schedules for Japan Rail? From JNTO office maybe? <BR> <BR>2. I know I can go from city to city using JR Pass, but can I use it locally? i.e. can I use it to get around within Kyoto? or will I have to purchase local train passes on top of my JR Pass? <BR> <BR>3. How do I take a bus with JR pass? Do I simply show it to Mr. Busdriver? <BR> <BR>any help is very much appreciated!

Hi savannah. I can answer your first questions: you don't really need a schedule for JR lines. They run so frequently--sometimes every 2 or 3 minutes. So just show up and a train will come along soon. You should know about the "last" and "first" trains. Most trains run until around 12:30 or 1:00. Then they stop running until around 4:30 or 5 am. The subways stop a little earlier and start up a little later. At every station there are big boards up on the platforms with the specific time table for that station. I'm sorry, but I can't help you with your other questions--but I'm pretty sure that a timetable for every station and every JR train doesn't exist.

Hi Savannah and Erin, <BR> <BR>Yes, you can find all train schedules for Japan Rail on www.jnto.go.jp, in their travel database, or of course at their local offices. <BR> <BR>You can use the railpass only on JR lines, which covers quite a lot of public transportation in Tokyo, but you'll have to buy tickets or day passes for Kyoto busses and subways. <BR> <BR>Just showing up for the next train is OK if you just want to go from point A to point B, and you know exactly where you're going. On the smaller lines, knowing the timetable means that you're less likely to miss your station because you couldn't read it's name on the wall during the brief stop there , been there, done that... Of course, once you can read hiragana, it becomes lots easier. <BR> <BR>

Hey guys--Florence--thanks so much for the info. I've been living here for years and never knew about the timetable!! I guess I'm so used to going to work during rush hour and having a train come 2 minutes after the one I missed!!

Hi again--I just went to that site you gave, Florence, and maybe I'm not looking hard enough but does it only give times for express and shinkansen trains? I couldn't find the basic JR system on it. Let me know how to do it because it's something I would like to know, too!

Hi Erin, <BR> <BR>Once in the travel database, go to "railway timetables" and click on the portion of the map you want to go to, then choose your city of destination and, if you know it, the name of the train. Then click on the arrow in the direction of you travel, et voila ! <BR> <BR>There's a lot of things Tokyo residents don't know, and it's why their advice is not always the best for tourists ;-).