Planning a ski trip From Narita to Niseko and then from Niseko to Hakuba. I originally was considering flying but decided to see the country and take it slower. Need advice if there will be any fees or surcharges that I should be aware of on top of my JR 7 day pass which I plan to purchase as long as these routes don't come with any hidden surprises. Also, any tips to make the journey faster and smoother would be much appreciated as I've never traveled with a pass before or in the winter in Japan so I'm a little worried if there are commonly any delays that occur during winters as I hope not to miss any of my connections given how tight some are.
1. First trip Narita to Niseko: Here's the exact route I'm selecting on Hyperdia: Route 3:
https://tinyurl.com/y9345h72 NARITA AIRPORT TERMINAL 1:
1A. LTD. EXP NARITA EXPRESS 54
to TOKYO:
1B. SHINKANSEN HAYABUSA 1
to SHIN-HAKODATE-HOKUTO:
1C. LTD. EXP SUPER HOKUTO 9
to OSHAMAMBE:
1D. JR Hakodate Line
to End in KUTCHAN
2. Need the same advice on the route from Niseko to Hakuba
Here's the exact route I'm selecting on Hyperdia: Route 1:
https://tinyurl.com/y8g8ak6b KUTCHAN:
2A. JR Hakodate Line
to OSHAMAMBE:
2B. LTD. EXP SUPER HOKUTO 2
to SHIN-HAKODATE-HOKUTO:
2C. SHINKANSEN HAYABUSA 16
to OMIYA(SAITAMA):
2D. SHINKANSEN HAKUTAKA 565
to ITOIGAWA:
2E. JR Oito Line
to MINAMI-OTARI:
2F. JR Oito Line
to End in HAKUBA
3. Return from HAKUBA to HANEDA
Here's the exact route I'm selecting on Hyperdia: Route 1:
https://tinyurl.com/ybnad32h HAKUBA:
3A. JR Oito Line
to MINAMI-OTARI:
3B. JR Oito Line
to ITOIGAWA:
3C. SHINKANSEN HAKUTAKA 572
to TOKYO:
3D. JR Yamanote Line(Outer loop) for OSAKI
to SHINAGAWA:
3E. Keikyu Main Line Rapid Ltd. Exp.
to KEIKYU KURIHAMA:
3F. Keikyu Airport Exp.
to End in HANEDA AIRPORT INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL
Comments
You can see a list of train lines that incur a surcharge on:
http://www.japanrailpass.net/en/about_jrp.html
I hope you are looking at the travel times of the routes you are planning. You will certainly see the country - on your first trip, you cannot complete it in one day. You will have to overnight somewhere. If you were to leave at 6AM, the whole trip would take over 9½ hours of sitting on trains, completely murdering the day. Going to Hakuba would take about 12 hours. Are you sure you want to spend such time doing nothing on trains?
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6090.html
For going to Haneda, you cannot use Keikyu trains. You'd need to take JR trains to get to Hamamatsucho, and then take the monorail to Haneda.
I strongly urge you to consider flying to Sapporo - you can do so dirt cheap on some low cost carriers like Jet Star and Peach, and you can get up there in about 90 minutes.
http://www.jetstar.com/jp/en/home
http://www.flypeach.com/pc/en
Even with that, it would still take you some considerable time to get to Niseko.
Hope that helps.
1. Yes, I did notice that I would need to sleep the night somewhere along that journey no matter which route I picked so I went ahead and opted to stay close to Tokyo Station to catch the 6:30 AM Shinkensen HAYABUSA 1 the next day.
2. At Tokyo Station I'll try to reserve the seat for the Shinkensen at the office. With that come 2 questions since I've never had the JR pass before.
A. Any possible idea how much time would you suggest I need to give myself to process my seat reservation at Tokyo Station, reason I ask if I have no idea how busy they might be on a weekday and if there are crowds that line up to get service/assistance. Having not been there I'm guessing to arrive at 6AM to the station? If you have any thoughts please let me know.
B. Do you know if they will allow for me to reserve seating for the entire journey even the return trip as long as I tell them which train(s) I'll be taking?
3. Thank you for informing me about the Keikyu trains being a separate fee, I won't mind paying them the petty 450Y fee after checking the full cost from Tokyo Station.
I was mainly concerned about the other trains like the shinkansen since those are the expensive trains and after having checked the surcharge link you provided it doesn't appear that any of the trains I plan to take are subject to any additional surcharge fees or any additional costs so looks like the JR National Pass is going to pay off nicely for this journey despite the lost time which I don't mind much as I would like to see the country along the way.
P.S.
I carefully considered flying on my arrival day but my arrival to NRT (Narita) on Jan 23rd is at 15:40, assuming there is no delay, and the last flight on Jet Star, ANA and the others seem to be at 18:05 to CTS. I will be bringing my ski gear via checked baggage so I don't think I could make the connection and meet the Jet Star luggage check-in cut-off period knowing it might take about 1.5 hours to fully clear customs and pick up by baggage and transfer it to another airline like Jet Star, in time.
Unless Narita has some sort of express transfer option that you might be aware of, I think I'll play it safe rather than risk booking a flight and completely miss it. The next time I visit Japan I'll have to safely account for the arrival time to take another budget airline.
The assignments themselves only take a few minutes. But Tokyo Stn is busy and depending on the time you go there, you could wait in line 20 minutes.
Seat assignments are free with the full JR Pass and you can get them done one at a time or all at once at any JR office.
You can see regular fares, routes and schedules on Hyperdia.
http://www.hyperdia.com
You can ride the Hayabusa train (prior seat reservations are required) up to Hakodate.
Very few ski resorts do not require additional fees other than trains. I confirmed Niseko Hirafu could be reached by bus with 360 yen on 24 Jan, but there would be no buses for the early morning train on 27 Jan. The cost for a taxi would be 28-35k yen for JR Kutchan.
http://www.nisekobus.co.jp/pdf/2016-17winter.pdf
Hakuba Happo is nearer to the station. The taxi fee would be 15k yen. The bus would be 180 yen. No timetables for buses are available for the coming winter yet.
Your current plan puts Hakuba on the weekend. I prefer to go to Hakuba on weekdays. Hakuba is more prone to crowds with its closeness to major cities. How about doing Hakuba first?
6700 1/23 T NRT 2105-0653 Nagano (bus)
1800 1/24 W Nagano 0825-0935 Happo Happo
1/25 T Happo
6080 1/26 F Hakuba 0700-1412 NRT
10440 NRT 1600-1755 CTS
1030 CTS 1912-2020 Sapporo Sapporo
2600 1/27 S Sapporo 755-1101 Hirafu Hirafu
1/28 S Hirafu
2600 1/29 M Hirafu 800-1132 CTS
----- CTS 1325-1510 NRT
1630 NRT 1610-1808 HND
https://www.jorudan.co.jp/norikae/cgi/nori.cgi?eki1=成田空港&eki2=白馬&eki3=&via_on=1&Dym=201801&Ddd=23&Dhh=18&Dmn1=0&Dmn2=0&Cway=0&Cfp=2&Czu=2&C7=1&C2=0&C3=0&C1=0&C4=1&C6=2&S.x=65&S.y=12&S=検索&Cmap1=&rf=nr&pg=0&eok1=R-&eok2=R-&eok3=&Csg=1#bR2
https://www.alpico.co.jp/access/express/nagano_chiba/
https://www.alpico.co.jp/access/express/nagano_hakuba/
https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/?p=0&from=Hakuba+Happo{Highway+Express+Bus}&to=Narita-Airport[Kokunai]&date=01/26/2018&time=13:11&ft=2&ic=0&ut=0&up=0&us=1&nzm=0&sub_lang=ja
https://www.google.co.jp/flights/flights-from-tokyo-to-sapporo.html#search;f=HND,NRT;t=CTS,OKD;d=2018-01-26;r=2018-01-29;sel=NRTCTS0GK117,CTSNRT0GK106
https://www.jorudan.co.jp/norikae/cgi/nori.cgi?eki1=新千歳空港&eki2=札幌&eki3=&via_on=1&Dym=201801&Ddd=26&Dhh=19&Dmn1=0&Dmn2=0&Cway=0&Cfp=2&Czu=2&C7=1&C2=0&C3=0&C1=0&C4=1&C6=2&S.x=68&S.y=15&S=検索&Cmap1=&rf=nr&pg=0&eok1=R-&eok2=&eok3=&Csg=1#bR2
http://www.chuo-bus.co.jp/sightseeing/ski/sap-niseko.php
http://www.chuo-bus.co.jp/sightseeing/ski/chitose-niseko.php#SkibusSchedule
https://www.jorudan.co.jp/norikae/cgi/nori.cgi?rf=top&eok1=R-&eok2=R-&pg=0&eki1=成田空港[国内]&Cmap1=&eki2=羽田空港国際線ターミナル&Dym=201801&Ddd=29&Dhh=16&Dmn1=0&Dmn2=0&Cway=0&Cfp=2&Czu=2&S.x=74&S.y=14&S=検索&Csg=1#bR7
The total costs for the above is 32880 yen. It is slightly more then 29110 yen for one Japan Rail Pass 7 days, but it includes a first night on the bus, and the use of ski buses could eliminate a need of taxis.
You could take another night bus from Shinjuku, after some sightseeings there.
https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/?p=0&from=Narita-Airport&to=Hakuba+Happo{Highway+Express+Bus}&date=01/23/2018&time=18:00&ft=0&ic=0&ut=0&up=0&us=1&nzm=0&sub_lang=ja
https://www.alpico.co.jp/access/express/hakuba_shinjuku/
If you still want to take a Japan Rail Pass, utilize the dedicated planner by Jorudan. Here is a case for Hakuba first. In order to catch the last bus to Hirafu, you would need to stop at somewhere between Happo and Hirafu.
1/23 T NRT 1815-2230 Itoigawa
1/24 W Itoigawa 603-745 Hakuba
1/25 T Hakuba 2052-2216 Itoigawa
1/26 F Itoigawa 813-1812 Kutchan 1825-1840 Hirafu
1/27 S Hirafu
1/28 S Hirafu
1/29 M Hirafu 1109-1125 Kutchan 1235-2117 HND
https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/japan-rail-pass/?p=0&from=Narita-Airport&to=Hakuba&date=01/23/2018&time=18:00&ft=0&ic=&ut=&up=&us=&nzm=&sub_lang=ja
https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/japan-rail-pass/?p=0&from=Hakuba&to=Kutchan&date=01/26/2018&time=18:25&ft=1&ic=&ut=&up=&us=&nzm=&sub_lang=ja
https://world.jorudan.co.jp/mln/en/japan-rail-pass/?p=0&from=Kutchan&to=Haneda-Airport+Terminal+1&date=01/29/2018&time=09:15&ft=0&ic=&ut=&up=&us=&nzm=&sub_lang=ja
http://www.nisekobus.co.jp/pdf/2016-17winter.pdf
Or, do you consider JR East-South Hokkaido Rail Pass? 26000 yen for flexible 6 days within 14 days. Niseko and Hakuba could not covered with this, but Niseko and Zao could. Niseko and Hakuba are top two in Number of Resort Reviews, while Niseko and Zao are top two in Number of Photos at Snow Japan. Snow Monsters in Zao could be in a season in late January. Japan Alpes could be more photogenic from outside.
http://www.jreasthokkaido.com/e/
http://www.snowjapan.com/japan-ski-resorts/search
If you plan to come again, you could do Niseko and Hakuba separately. Niseko and other Hokkkaido resorts; Rusutsu, Kiroro, ... Hakuba and other central highland ones; Shiga Kogen, Nozawa Onsen, ...