Japan Rail Pass (JR pass) the cheapest deal. Review on Japan, General

I have travelled several times to Japan and I can write a huge book about my experiences (all lovely and unforgettable) in this fascinating country. But I want to write something very informative.

I have observed that many people who travel to Japan are not aware about the Japan rail pass. JR pass is the most cheapest deal you can ever expect in this most expensive country.

You cannot buy this pass in Japan, so the moment you get your Tkt n visa, don't forget to buy JR pass. Actually you need to buy an exchange order of this pass in your country and after reaching Japan you need to convert it to the pass.

In india, you can rely on JTB travels for this exchange order. JTB travels has its offices in almost all main cities (Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Banglore etc.) Now let me tell you some cases how I used it, what mistakes I made for the 1st time and how much money it can really save

In my first visit to Japan I didn't have much knowledge about the Japan rail system. I had purchased my exchange order in India and I was staying in a small Village called Shinshiro near Nagoya. Before returning to India, I wanted to do sightseeing in Tokyo, Kyoto and Nara. First I decided to go to Tokyo because I had a friend there and I was going to stay in Tokyo for 4 days. I got my JR pass for 1 week and started my Journey from my place Shinshiro. I was very happy that I was saving lot of money. At that time (in 2004) this exchange order costed me 12, 000 Rs (=28, 300 yen). I did a simple calculation to check whether JR pass is really worth.

Without this Paas the tkts would have costed me as below

Shinshiro to Tokyo- 8000 Yen

while trvelling in tokyo for 4 days - 4000 yen approximately

Tokyo to Kyoto- 15000 yen

Kyoto to tenri- 1500 yen

Tenri to shinshiro-8790 yen

So total 37290 yen means I was saving almost 8990 yen (=3812 RS)

Wow I was so glad, I reached to my friend's place in tokyo and we decided the sightseeing places for the coming 3 days, but to my surprise I could not use my pass for all these 3 days because within Tokyo most of the times you need to use Sub way trains and 90% of these subway trains are not operated by JR company, therefore I ended up spending money from my pocket. I also wasted this pass for these 3 days. But once I left Tokyo for Kyoto I made the best use of this pass. So what I I learnt from this experience is if you want to travel only to the local places in Tokyo like Ginza, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Tokyo bay, Disneyland. This pass is not of much use. But if you are travelling from Tokyo to Yokohama, Hakone, Nikko or Mt. Fuji you can use this pass.

In my second visit to Japan I had much better knowledge of the Japan rail system, so I decided to plan my journey without wasting a single day of this pass. I had bought a seven day's exchange order in India for 12000 Rs. After finishing my japanese language course, I was going to stay in Tokyo for one whole week. My cousin was going to join me in Tokyo. From Tokyo we had decided to go to hiroshima, Hiroshima-Miyajima-Kobe, Kobe-Osaka, Osaka-Kyoto, Kyoto-Tenri, Tenri-Shinshiro. So I wanted to use my Pass only for this journey. To reach tokyo I was not willing to spend 8000 yen on the bullet train, so I opted for bus which costed my 4000 yen. It was a safe overnight journey. I reached my friend's place, she and her hubby both were working so I decided to roam around alone. My cousin was going to be in Japan only for 6 days. So I made my pass valid just one day prior to his arrival and roamed in Hakone. Let's see how much difference it made this time.

Without this pass, the journey would have costed me as below.

Tokyo-Hakone-Tokyo 11000 yen approx

Tokyo(Myoden station)-Hiroshima 20000 yen approx

Hiroshima-Miyajima 500 yen approx (This pass also covered the cost of the Ferry from Miyajimaguchi station till the actual island)

Miyajima-Kobe- 10, 000 yen approx

Kobe-Osaka 800 yen approx

Osaka-Kyoto 1380 yen by bulled train or 500 yen approx by local train

Kyoto-Tenri 1500 yen approx

Tenri-Shinshiro -8790 yen approx

The journey of almost 53970 yen, I covered in 28300 yen with the help of this pass. Unbelievable right?

53970 yen is still at lower end because within any city you need to travel from one local destination to other local destination by train or bus and that time also you can use this pass if you are using a JR line.

After this visit, I bought this pass every time I visited Japan and made the best use of it.

You can contact me if you need any information about travel in Japan. I will try my best to help you.