Japan Rail Pass
(February 9, 2015)
If you are heading to Japan on a tourist visa (a visit of 90 days or less), you can purchase a Japan Rail Pass (or multiple passes) to give you a good/great deal on rail travel. I just purchased mine today: three 7-day passes and one 14-day pass.
Check out the Japan Rail Pass (English-language) site for information. In their own words: "The JAPAN RAIL PASS offers an incredibly economical way to travel throughout Japan by rail." Of course, that will depend on how much travel you plan to do, but it doesn't really take much before it pays off. I'll explore that aspect in a little more detail later.
Some key information to keep in mind
- You cannot buy the rail pass in Japan. You must buy a rail pass "Exchange Order" before you come to Japan. Once you get to Japan, you will hand in the Exchange Order at a JAPAN RAIL PASS exchange office in a major JR station to get the rail pass. There are also exchange offices at Narita, Haneda, and Kansai airports.
- If you are a foreigner visiting Japan, you must enter with "Temporary Visitor" status and have the official stamp in your passport. If you are staying longer than 90 days or entering Japan as something other than "Temporary Visitor", you are out of luck.
- There are 7, 14, and 21-day passes for both ordinary and "green" (superior class) cars. The timer begins on the date the pass is first used.
- Depending on the length of your visit, you may need to pay attention to the "validity period":
- "Within three months from the date the Exchange Order was issued, you must turn in your Exchange Order to obtain your JAPAN RAIL PASS." Note the word "within". They go by calendar date rather than a set number of days such as 30/month. If your exchange order is issued on September 15, you must exchange it by December 14 to be within three months.
- "At that time [the date you make the exchange], you have to specify the date that you want to start using the PASS. It can be any date within one month from the date the PASS is received." Note another instance of "within".
- There are some limitations as to which trains the pass is valid for. Check the web site for details.
The "validity period" information is important for me because I will be in Japan for 87 days. That makes the timing of my purchase and exchange of the Exchange Orders critical. For example:
I want to start using my last pass, a 7-day pass, on May 23, so I should exchange the order on April 24 or after. I will give myself a week of cushion to be safe. That means I do the exchange on April 30.
Now I need to count backward three months to get the earliest date I can purchase the exchange order (the "issue" date). Going just by the calendar, three months before April 30 is January 30. Make it January 31 so that April 30 is "within" three months. Again, I would give myself a week or so of cushion - which brings me to February 6.
So I should purchase the rail pass exchange orders any time between February 6 and my departure date at the beginning of March. Most locations selling the rail pass exchange orders use FedEx or some other fast delivery service so I wouldn't expect it to take more than a couple of business days from the date I make the purchase to when I have them in hand. As noted already, I made the purchase today, February 9.
Is it worth it?
As of Feb 9, 2015, a 7-day ordinary pass has a stated official price of ¥29,110 (about $250 at 117 ¥/$). Most sites selling the exchange orders had them priced around $240 (about ¥28080 at 117 ¥/$).
For the following example, I used the HyperDia site to get the times and prices for rail travel in Japan. It is a great tool. (They also have an app for iOS and Android which is free as a 30 day trial but then you must pay $3/month or $26/year to continue. That part doesn't seem worth it.)
To go round trip from Nagoya to Tokyo via the Shinkansen bullet train shows a round trip price of ¥21,760. If all you are doing is going to Tokyo and staying, then it doesn't look like it is worth it (¥29,110 vs. ¥21,760). Now, the rail pass is also valid for all Japan Rail lines within Tokyo but that would still allow for a fair number of rides in order to be cost effective.
However, for my first side trip, I am going from Nagoya to Tokyo, then to Oarai, back to Tokyo, then to Kawaguchiko (Mt Fuji), back to Tokyo, then back to Nagoya (with a possible brief stop at Toyokawa Inari). Yes, all within 7 days. Let's see how that adds up: (all prices are round trip as of Feb 9, 2015):
| Nagoya to Tokyo | ¥21,760 |
| Tokyo to Oarai | ¥ 8,900 |
| Tokyo to Kawaguchiko | ¥ 8,760 |
| Total | ¥39,420 |
Without the rail pass, I would end up paying ¥39,420. With the rail pass, I can do all of that and more for ¥29,110 (official price). Definitely worth it.
Where to get the Japan Rail Pass Exchange Order
A simple google search for "japan rail pass" will get you a bunch of web sites. I looked at several but narrowed it down to the following three based on price, speed of delivery, and the look of their web pages (clarity of information, navigation, etc). I'm not saying the others are bad, just that the following three appealed to me more.
-
Japan Rail Pass by Japan Experience (japan-rail-pass.com)
7-day adult ordinary pass $238 14-day adult ordinary pass $380
- Based in London, Paris, Tokyo and Kyoto.
- "We ship all our Japan Rail Passes from our office in Paris."
- Delivery is $11 for 1 day delivery to U.S. (free for orders over $600 - some restrictions apply depending on location).
- Various conditions (including cancellation policy) are clearly given on the main page.
-
Explore Japan (jrpass.com)
7-day adult ordinary pass $239 14-day adult ordinary pass $380
- Based in London.
- "All our deliveries are carried out using Royal Mail and FedEx Express."
- Delivery is $9 for 1 day delivery to U.S.
- Various terms and conditions (including cancellation policy) are given on the Terms and Conditions page (listed as "T's & C's" at the bottom of each page).
This is who I purchased my rail passes from for my trip to Japan in 2012. Back then, a 7-day adult ordinary pass cost $356 + $14 for delivery = $370!!
-
JTB USA (jtbusa.com)
7-day adult ordinary pass $241 14-day adult ordinary pass $384
- Based in Torrance, California but with several branches throughout the U.S.
- "We deliver JR Passes by fast & reliable Fedex couriers"
- "Ship to US 50 states only."
- 4 price options are available for shipping depending on how fast you want it.
- Terms and conditions were difficult to find (buried under Legal -> Travel Terms of Use) and did not clearly address cancellation policy for rail passes.
In the end
I chose option 1 (Japan Rail Pass by Japan Experience). The price for the passes was virtually the same as with option 2 (Explore Japan) but I qualified for free shipping and that made the difference.
Here are a few observations from filling out Japan Experience's online shopping cart form:
- Page 1 (Your Shopping Cart):
For Date of Departure to Japan, the date format is: dd/mm/yy
This is different from the standard U.S. format of: mm/dd/yy - Page 2 (Your Details):
You enter the name of each traveler and then your shipping/billing info. The font on this page is rather narrow and while that allows them to fit more information in a given width, it also makes it more difficult to read and check for errors.
- Page 3 (Payment):
The font on this page is better but the normal paste operation (cntl-v) was disabled for the credit card fields. I could still do it by right-clicking on the entry field and selecting paste from the popup menu.
The confirmation in the top right part of the page shows traveler names as:
Mr <family name in capital letters> <first name>
This was rather confusing and made me wonder if I had filled in the form incorrectly (I hadn't).
After completing the transaction, I received an email confirmation pretty much immediately. All names were in the expected order: Mr <first name> <family name in capital letters>. A FedEx tracking number was provided with estimated date for delivery (in two days).
Update: The Exchange Orders arrived in three days. Here is what it looks like (identifying data blacked out):
