JR Pass: To Buy or Not To Buy

So you are going to Japan in a few months, maybe weeks, or days, and as you are planning your itinerary, you came across this thing called JR Pass; or perhaps you’ve heard it several times from your family, friends, colleagues who have been to Japan, and you are now wondering what that is and should you get one.

Honestly, I’ve never heard of that until my friends asked me about it. Why? Because I live in Japan, and JR Pass is only for travelers with Temporary Visitor entry status, according to Japanese Immigration Law. Simply said, JR Pass is only for tourists. So I’ve never actually used it, but I’ve traveled with people with JR Pass so I roughly know about it.

So what is JR Pass?

JR Pass or Japan Rail Pass is “the economical and convenient means of traveling throughout Japan by rail” according to their website. The description is very vague in my opinion. Which part is economical and convenient about it? And what’s considered throughout Japan?

Well, before I talk about JR Pass any further, let’s start by talking a little bit about JR, the company behind JR Pass.

I’m not sponsored by JR nor working in JR so I’m not going to talk in detail—I’m scared of saying the wrong thing—but simply explained, JR is one of the railway companies in Japan, the company that runs the bullet trains or shinkansen. If you are interested, you can check the Wikipedia page on JR Group.

Does that mean, if I buy JR Pass I don’t need to buy any more train tickets during my travel in Japan?

No. Unless you only use JR throughout your travel in Japan, and that’s probably not very convenient.

There are other railway companies in Japan, a lot in fact, and each has its own “special pass” that’s probably less popular than JR Pass. If you want to visit some places where there’s no JR station, you will still have to buy train tickets from each different company.

How often do you think you’ll have to use other train than JR?

It depends on your itinerary and the places you want to visit. Use google maps to check the closest station to the place you want to visit. In Kyoto, lots of temples are quite far from any train station, so most of the time you need to take the Kyoto City Bus. In Osaka, to visit Universal Studio Japan you can only use JR, but to visit the aquarium, the closest station is the subway. If you want to shop in Shinsaibashi, you can use JR stopping in Namba, or subway directly to Shinsaibashi.

I seldom use JR in daily life. I live in Osaka and work in Kobe. JR train runs from Osaka to Kobe, but I choose another company called Hankyu, because JR often runs late when it’s rush hour, and always too full. It’s a few minutes faster than Hankyu to go to Kobe from Osaka, but I prefer reliability and convenience. But my colleague who lives in Shiga, he always uses JR to go to work in Kobe because JR train goes far. He doesn’t have to change the train from Shiga to reach Kobe, and that’s convenient for him. Shiga is above Kyoto, by the way. It’s like 2.5 hours from Kobe, and my colleague travel every day like that. I’m super impressed.

If you plan to take shinkansen more than twice, you can take JR Pass into consideration.

There are two types of JR Pass: Pass for Green Cars and Pass for Standard Cars. Green Cars refer to the first-class shinkansen seatings, more room, and basically nicer than standard. But even the Standard Cars are super nice. It’s not crammed like a plane seat, trust me. Each type can be purchased for 7 days, 14 days, or 21 days.

JR Pass gives you unlimited access to all shinkansen except Nozomi and Mizuho. Nozomi is the fastest shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka, around 2 hours and a half. Instead of Nozomi, you can take Hikari for around 3 hours of travel time using JR Pass. Mizuho is the shinkansen that goes from Shin-Osaka to Kyuushuu. I doubt that you will travel to Kyuushuu if you are reading this. I think only first-timers in Japan will need this information about JR Pass, but in case you are going to use JR Pass to go to Kyuushuu, instead of Mizuho, you can take Hikari or Sakura using JR Pass. It is true to the statement “throughout Japan” as long as there’s JR railway, but it’s not the fastest.

The most common tourist itinerary is going from Tokyo to Kyoto or Osaka then going back to Tokyo again, or the other way round. Now let’s do the math using the cheapest JR Pass: If you purchase an Exchange Order at a JR-designated sales office or agent overseas for the ordinary seat for 7 days you need to pay 29,650 yen (according to their website, price as of April 2020). The one-way ticket from Shin-Osaka Station (shinkansen in Osaka can be accessed from this station, not Osaka Station) to Tokyo Station is around 13,620 yen for an unreserved seat—for a reserved seat should be a few hundreds more. The price changes a lot, but roughly around that.

Going back and forth from the east to the west of Japan by shinkansen is only 27,240 yen. You still need 2,410 yen to make the JR Pass worth the price.

If you have a little more time in your schedule, I’d suggest taking another shinkansen to Hiroshima. It’s less than 2 hours journey from Osaka, and the fare is around 9,710 yen. Hiroshima is a small city. You can visit everything in 1 day if you don’t stop too much to take pictures. I’d recommend 1.5 days so you can visit Hiroshima and the small island nearby called Miyajima, where you can see the floating Torii and eat fresh oysters.

If you don’t have time to fit in Hiroshima in your schedule, you should calculate if you can use up 2,410 yen using JR inside the city.

So, JR Pass, to buy or not to buy?

Sometimes, a plane ticket is cheaper than a shinkansen ticket to go from Tokyo to Kyoto or Osaka. Also, there are day bus, night bus, car rental, and hitchhiking for the adventurous. But if you’ve never taken a shinkansen and curious about it, well, do your math and check if it’s worth to buy JR Pass, or should you just buy a normal ticket.

I got a lot of this question from my family, friends, and some people I don’t know but somehow they reached me on social media, so here’s my answer. I can’t decide for you because I don’t know your itinerary. Leverage the power of internet and do your research, and see what’s best for you. Good luck and enjoy Japan!