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7 day JR PASS

HI,
I will be traveling from Tokyo on 3/28/2018 ( wednesday) via bullet train to Kyoto and staying for 7 nights until 4/4/2018 and planning to return back to Narita that day ( to catch a international flight in the afternoon). Does the 7 days for the JR pass count each calendar day as a day or every 24 hours as a day? IF it counts as calendar days then it will be 8 days between 3/28/18 to 4/4/18, meaning I exceed the days for the7 day JR pass. If that is the case, what is the best option for me, is there a 8 day pass or some other option for me so i do not need to buy two separate bullet train tickets ( which can get costly)
thank you

Comments

  • Hi,
    The day you activate it for to use counts as Day One - which starts and ends at midnight. So if you activate it to use it that day at 6 PM, your first "day" is just 6 hours long.
    If you start the pass on Mar 28th, your final day would be the end of Apr 3rd.
    There is no 8 day pass - you would either need to return within 7 days, or get a 14 day pass plus expand your itinerary to make it worth your money. A full day trip to Hiroshima/Miyajima would do it. The price difference for the 14 day pass would be an extra ¥17,280.

    If you don't want to pay the extra money, then returning to Tokyo on the evening of Apr 3rd would make sense. From Kyoto to Narita would take about 4 hours, and since you should to be at the airport a couple of hours before your flight, you'd need to leave in the morning on Apr 4th and really have no time to see the city at all that day.

    You do make a 7 day pass just barely pay off with the Tokyo-Kyoto round trip plus using the Narita Express once, but you could save more money with a japanican ticket
    http://www.japanican.com/en/tour/detail/VJOPENTK1/
    and using the 1000 yen bus for Narita.
    http://accessnarita.jp/en/home/
    or the discounted N'Ex round trip tickets.
    http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/nex_round.html

    If you go beyond Kyoto to other places, like Himeji, Hiroshima, etc, then the 7 day pass makes more sense and you get a lot more savings. You should not miss Nara as well, since it also has some of Japan's top sights.
    Probably you know you will be there at the cherry blossom season, which is very beautiful but also crowded in popular places. Some of the famous ones are on:
    https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2011.html

    You can see previews of some of the best places to see in Japan on:
    https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos

    Hope that helps.
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