Hi everyone! My husband and I are headed to Japan for the first time in November and I’m a bit nervous about the transportation. We’re both well traveled and usually have no problem with international public transportation. However, it seems like there are so many special passes in Japan!! I want to make sure we’re prepared with the right tickets.
Mind gut checking my plan?
Day 1
– NRT to Tokyo Edition Hotel via subway (IC card)
Day 2 + 3
– explore Tokyo by subway (IC card)
Day 4
– Shinjuku station to Hakone (IC card + pre-reserved romancecar tickets)
– Explore Hakone (Hakone free pass)
Day 5
– Bus to Odwara (Hakone free pass)
– Odwara to Kyoto (Shinkansen. But the fastest route on google maps is showing me to take two different Shinkansen trains. Would we need two tickets or one?)
Day 6 + Day 7
– Explore Kyoto (IC card)
Day 8
– Kyoto to Tokyo station (Shinkansen)
– Tokyo station to NRT (narita express)
Questions
1. Does that transportation plan look right?
2. Generally how much $ should we put on the IC cards with this plan?
3. Do we need to reserve Shinkansen tickets? Do I need two tickets if maps is showing me to transfer to another Shinkansen on the way to Kyoto?
4. Would a JR pass be worth it for us?
5. Do we need to reserve Narita Express tickets?
Appreciate any help!
2 comments
>Odwara to Kyoto (Shinkansen. But the fastest route on google maps is showing me to take two different Shinkansen trains. Would we need two tickets or one?)
One ticket no matter how many Shinkansen you are connecting to if you are not leaving the paid area. Just ask the station staff for ticket to Kyoto. Depend on the time, you may not need to change the train.
>Does that transportation plan look right?
It does.
>Generally how much $ should we put on the IC cards with this plan?
Hard to say how many subway you are planning to use.
>Do we need to reserve Shinkansen tickets?
Depend on the time. During the evening the Kodama/Hikari you needed from Odawara might be very crowded so you might want reserved seat.
>Would a JR pass be worth it for us?
If you prioritise using the local JR line for sightseeing in Tokyo and Kyoto and take Shinkansen instead of Romance car, maybe.
>Do we need to reserve Narita Express tickets?
Narita Express required reserved seat ticket.
> Generally how much $ should we put on the IC cards with this plan?
Hard to say how much you should put on a IC card. The cards can be used for more than just transit. You use it to pay at lots of places, conbini, vending machines, usually any store inside a station, arcades etc. I can go several days by just paying for stuff with a suica card.
> Do we need to reserve Shinkansen tickets? Do I need two tickets if maps is showing me to transfer to another Shinkansen on the way to Kyoto?
While you don’t normally need to reserve the Shinkansen ahead of time if your journey involves transfers it’s easiest to goto a ticket office and tell the agent what you want to do. They’ll get you all tickets you need, and they will have more payment options available. Buying tickets from a machine is good if you’re just taking a direct train with no transfers, but I’ve had cases where a foreign credit card doesn’t work at machines.
> Would a JR pass be worth it for us?
Maybe, but you’ll have to remember that you’re excluded from the fastest Shinkansen services. This would change your plans when getting from Odwara to Kyoto as you wouldn’t be able to transfer to the Nozomi service. In this case you’d just take a Shinkansen directly to Kyoto.
The Tokyo -> Kansai Area -> Tokyo route is hovering around the break even point just on pure shinkansen travel. Since you’re leaving from Odawara the rail pass will be probably be slightly more expensive. You’d need to offset that with local train trips or another short shinkansen trip like to Himeji castle.
> Do we need to reserve Narita Express tickets?
You do not need to buy Narita Express tickets ahead of time. You will probably need a reserved seat ticket though which is basically an assigned seat. There are non-reserve tickets (no assigned seats), but those are limited to select dates and times.