Hi all, we are travelling to Japan from 3rd to 16th April. Can someone please help with best/easiest way to travel by public transport (train/bus/etc). Below is the dates and cities we will be travelling to.
3rd to 7th April – Osaka and Wakayama
7th to 9th April – Kyoto
9th to 11th April – Izu
11th to 14th April – Tokyo
14th to 16th April – Sapporo and Hokkaido
Based on what I’ve read and researched so far, it seems to be cheaper to buy individual tickets than the JR pass for the 14 days as the places that we wish to travel to also include transfers such as buses and local subway/trains and we have chosen to fly from Tokyo to Sapporo. However im anxious about the tickets buying process. I have also read the IC cards part in FAQs.
From this I understand that – please correct me if im wrong:
– I will be buying the ICOCA card available in Osaka as I will be landing in Osaka Kansai airport.
– I can use the ICOCA card in Kansai region, Izu, Tokyo, and Sapporo.
– I won’t be able to get the 500 YEN because I won’t be able to return the ICOCA card when I leave Japan from Sapporo city.
– the ICOCA card can not be used to travel from Kansai region (eg. Kyoto) to another region (eg. Tokyo).
So my questions are:
– what do I do when I need to travel from Kyoto to Izu and from Izu to Tokyo?
– I will have oversized luggages with me meaning I need to reserve the seats with oversized luggage space in advance. How do I book and pay for this with the ICOCA card?
– I wish to travel on the Green Cars whenever possible. Is this possible with the ICOCA card? If yes, how does this work?
An additional question please. For the trains that don’t have oversized baggage space to book in advance, can I still take my luggage with me? And where do I store it? Does it cost extra to bring an oversized baggage on board?
Thank you in advance! I’m very excited and looking forward to going to Japan but very anxious about buying and taking the trains!
5 comments
green cars, so the bullet trains? cause i don’t think you can even use the icoca cards on the bullet trains.
For Kyoto to Mishima/Atami – you will need to buy shinkansen tickets via Smart-Ex app, at ticket machines or at the counters.
Since you have not specified, whether you travel to Shuzenji, or somewhere on Izu’s East Coast:
* if you use Izu-Hakone Railway (Mishima to Shuzenji) – you will need to buy a ticket at ticket office, regardless whether you would use Limited Express Odoriko (and its green class) or commuter train as AFAIK this line of Izu-Hakone Railway still does not support IC cards; Shuzenji to Tokyo (Odoriko) ticket would also had to be bought at the station
* if you use Izukyu Railway (Atami to Izukyu-Shimoda), you can either use IC card to use commuter train or buy Odoriko ticket at ticket counter at Atami, you can also reserve Odoriko ticket to Tokyo via Eki-net service for pick-up at Atami station (Eki-net reservations have to be picked up at least a day in advance)
Oversized luggage: it’s only related to Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu shinkansen.
There are not that many commuter services with green car access in Kansai (the liner and some additional services in Kanto and Airport Liner in Sapporo have green cars). For JR East – this is a good overview of using IC card with green cars: https://donnykimball.com/green-car-db0a97e524ff
The IC card is for local transit primarily. You can’t use it to cross between regions. You need to book shinkansen and limited express trains separately. For the tokaido shinkansen the website is https://smart-ex.jp/en/index.php
You can also buy the tickets in person at a JR station ticket office or at a ticket machine.
If you want to ride in the green car you pick the green car option when buying the ticket.
Just want to add on there are no machines at non JR stations to top up IC card(e.g kawazu). If you wish to use IC cards around Izu that is outside of JR please make sure to top up a sufficient amount. For reference my bus from kawazu to Shuzenji was about ¥1720
Luckily IC cards have been updated to not be region specific anymore. So if you have an IC card for one place like Suica for Tokyo, you can use the same card in Hokkaido for their public transport systems.
But that is only for metros and buses normally. If it has the IC sign any IC card should be accepted from what I have seen.
Now Shinkansen are part of the JR companies (which despite being called japan railways is not a public company but all privately owned entities). So the JR pass can work on those lines that are owned by JR. But there are restrictions and the correct pass needs to be used. They are best used for the Shinkansen, but you have limits on which Shinkansen type you can use. You can’t use the fast commuter ones that have very few stops. But mostly it just adds 15 mins on to major journeys which isn’t too bad. But for full
Usage details it is best to consult the JR pass website since it is very complicated.
Green cars can be used with the JR pass, but you need to buy the pass for the Green Car class. Unfortunately you have to pay the full price seat charge for Gran class if you wanted to use that one on a journey.