JR pass (all) for Takayama

phoebekent

Hi,

We are travelling from Tokyo - Nagoya - Kyoto - Osaka - Tokyo over 3 weeks, we are spending the first 5 days in Tokyo and plan on activating the pass when we depart for Nagoya. Once in Nagoya we plan on travelling through to Takayama, Shirakawago and Kanazawa over 5 days, before moving on to Kyoto. Would we be better:
- purchasing a 3-week JR pass (all) for the whole trip?
or
-purchasing a 2-week JR (all) pass and a Takayama-Hokuriku and not activating the JR pass (all) until we go to Kyoto

Does the JR-pass (all) cover all that the Takayama-Hokuriku pass does (including buses to Shirakawa-go)?

Also, when we are in Osaka we will be doing day trips to Hiroshima and Himeji

Thanks for your help!

Tenjin

Hi,
Ideally it would be best if you used a 14 day JR Pass to go from Tokyo down to Hiroshima and back. The buses from Takayama to Shirakawago, and Shirakawago to Kanazawa are not covered by the pass.
Since you are already seeing Tokyo, you can largely skip Osaka during the day. After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg and Abeno Harukas Bldg are wonderful.
Instead, take at least half a day and see Nara - it has some of Japan's best sights. On another evening you can also go see Kobe.

I'd also suggest getting a Tokyo Wide Pass and take a day trip or two from Tokyo to some nearby places like Nikko, Kamakura, Karuizawa or Izu. It's good for 3 consecutive days, so if you're landing at Narita you could use it for the Narita Express into Tokyo. For Tokyo, 3-4 days is quite enough.

You can see some videos of the places you'll probably go to see on
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos

phoebekent

Great thank you. So just to confirm a Takayama-Hokuriku pass will get us around Takayama to Shirakawago, and Shirakawago to Kanazawa on the busses and the trains in that area?

Tenjin

Hi,
Yes, you can. That regional pass is also one of the few that must be purchased outside of Japan. Complete info is at:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361_takayama_hokuriku.html

phoebekent

Okay thank you I will purchase both before I leave. My last question - We need to buy a one way train ticket from Tokyo - Nagoya (as we won't have activated our JR passes yet). Is it more convenient and cheaper to buy online before we leave Australia or is it easy to purchase this ticket once we are in Tokyo at the train station?

Thanks

Tenjin

If you are talking about buying a regular train ticket, I have not seen where you can do that from outside Japan, except as part of some package. There is no savings anyway so to avoid any last minute problems, it'd be better to get it in Japan.
There is one other option if you want to save some money, called the Platt discount ticket.
http://www.jrtours.co.jp/kodama/en/
You save about US$28 in price and need to buy the ticket at least a day before, but you'd need to ride the Kodama bullet train which stops at every single bullet train station. So it would cost you an extra 45-60 minutes. Normally since vacation time is short I don't fully recommend this way, but it is an option to save a little if you want it.

It's unclear what you want to do regarding the full JR Pass. If you buy a ticket to Nagoya, and use the Takayama-Hokuriku pass to get up to Kanazawa, then a 14 day pass isn't worth it for the rest of the way, unless you use it also for a few long distance day trips out of Tokyo. If you used a 7 day pass to go from Kanazawa to Kansai, then Hiroshima and back to Tokyo, it would pay off though.
You can see regular fares, routes and schedules on Hyperdia.
http://www.hyperdia.com

phoebekent

We start in Tokyo for 4 days
20/11 - Tokyo-Nagoya (one way ticket which we will buy once in Tokyo)
21/11 - Nagoya-Takayama (activate Takayama-Hokuriku 5-day pass)
25/11 - Kanazawa - Kyoto (Using Takayama-Hokuriku 5-day pass)
26-28/11 - Kyoto (without a pass, just exploring Kyoto city)
29/11 - 5/12 - activate 7-day JR pass in Kyoto (day trips to Nara and Himeji; visit Osaka, Hiroshima, Mt Koya etc)
5/12 - back to Tokyo for international flight home on 6/12 (using 7-day JR pass)

Does this sound like a good itinerary?
My last question: once landing in Narita to start the trip, do I exchange the voucher for my 7-day JR pass there at the airport (even though I won't activate it until I'm in Kyoto on 29/11) Or can I take the voucher to Kyoto and do the exchange and activation at the JR ticketing office in Kyoto?

Tenjin

You can either activate your pass at Narita with a future date set as your first day, or do it in Kyoto. Probably at Narita there may be a lot of people trying to activate their pass to start using it right away though, so there could be quite a line and wait - probably not what you want after an exhaustingly long plane ride. Once the date is set, it cannot be changed, so it might be safer to do it in Kyoto in case some unforeseen problem crops up.

For getting around Kyoto, there is also a 500 yen bus day pass that can save you some money. The subways are rather pricey and don't go to a lot of popular sights, but if you find one you want to go to, they are very efficient. If short on time, and there are 3-4 in your group, a taxi becomes a good alternative as well. The costs are shared, and they are the fastest way to get exactly where you want to go.