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Help Japan Transportation, help?

maventy

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27 Jan 2017
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Hi everyone, im planning to go to Japan on Feb 15 - March 16.
Im super confused about the transportation as this will be my 2nd time there but my 1st time planning all the itinerary and going by public transportation.
My itinerary is as followed,
16-20 Feb - will be in Osaka and going to only local attraction in Osaka
20-28 Feb - will be in Kyoto and the detail itinerary are:
21 Feb & 23 Feb - local kyoto attraction
24 - kobe
25 - nara
26 - kanazawa
27 - kiso valley
28 - Takayama
28-16 Mar - will be in Tokyo and mostly will go for local attraction, only will go out of town to kawasaki, hakone, yokohama & fuji

When i check on Hyperdia & japan-guide, the total cost for the "out of town" trip will cost me around 104.910 yen! so definitely its worth to buy JR pass.
But since i better use the JR starting on the 24th Feb (expensive journey), should i just buy the 7day pass and use it starting from 24 feb until 2nd of March so it will cover the kyoto trip 24-28 feb, JR from kyoto to tokyo and the 1st and 2nd of March maybe ill go to Hakone and fuji, since kawasaki and yokohama is not that expensive?
and the rest in Tokyo for the local attraction, ill just use suica/pasmo?
What do you guys think?
And also how about the seishun 18 kippu that will be available during my stay in Japan, is it worth to buy?
sorry if i make u guys confused with my explanation and thank you soooo much for any reply, appreciate it!
Maria
 
I don't think it's going to make much difference to the cost of your holiday provided you make sure the 7 days covers the long-distance journeys. If you get the ticket to cover the earlier dates, then it doesn't cover some of your travel in Kanto, if you get it to cover later dates, then it doesn't cover some of your travel in Kansai. A 50km journey in Kansai is not going to cost much different from one in Kanto. Since you've found hyperdia, you should be able to work out if there's much difference in cost.

Do get yourself a Suica/Pasmo card - even when you have your JR pass, it's likely that you will use some buses and trains run by other companies, and it will save you time and effort at busy stations. By the way, you can't get to Hakone on JR, though it's not that expensive from Tokyo (about 1000 yen one way from Shinjuku on the Odakyu line), and there are also discount tickets that you can buy at Shinjuku station that combine the return journey to Hakone and many of the cable cars, boats etc. and save you a lot of money.

Unfortunately you won't be able to use a Seishun 18 ticket, they can only be used at the end of the year and in summer, as you can see from this site. Shame really, they are a great ticket and I've used them many times.
Seishun 18 | Fares & Passes | JR-EAST
 
I found out about Seishun 18 kippu from Japan-Guide and it shown that its available on March, maybe they havent update it then :(

Availability
The Seishun 18 Kippu is only available three times a year during school holiday seasons, as shown in the table below:

Period Valid On Sale
Spring March 1 to April 10 February 20 to March 31
Summer July 20 to September 10 July 1 to August 31
Winter December 10 to January 10 December 1 to December 31

Too bad i cant use it as i think its quite a good deal.

Yes, i will find out about the Hakone pass and definitely will buy the suica/pasmo card! :)

If i buy the 14 days JR pass do u think its worth it? i can start using it on the 24th of Feb, until the 9th of March, so it cover some of my Kanto trip, to give it more flexibility in case i decide to go somewhere else.

What i didnt mention before is i will basically stay in 3 places (osaka 16-20 of Feb, kyoto 20-28 of feb & tokyo 28-16 March), which i booked long before i make my itinerary, which i realised now that its stupid as i shouldve do the opposite, well at least next time i know..

Thank u so much for the reply, really appreciate it! :)
Have a good day!

Maria
 
Well, I'd never heard of a spring season for the Seishun 18 ticket so I phoned JR East (they have an English telephone line that you can phone from abroad).
JR East Infoline | Customer Support | JR-EAST
They said they hadn't been sent information from headquarters yet about the 2017 dates but last year they had a spring season, which did coincide with the dates in your message.

Regarding your question - 7 or 14 days. Depends on your budget. If have money and are impulsive (for example, while you are in Osaka, you suddenly get the urge to go on a day trip to Hiroshima), then go for the 14 day ticket. If money is more of an issue then get the Seishun 18 ticket and start using it in Kansai, then get the 7 day JR pass with the first day timed for first long journey.
 
Thanks for calling the JR East and let me know about it, appreciate it! :)
totally understand your point on the JR pass 7/14 days, ill re-arrange my itinerary, thanks Lothor! :D
 
Just as an observation, for that schedule 100,000+yen seems awfully high. Most of the trips are cheap/local ones with the only more expensive bit being the loop from Kyoto ending up in Tokyo. Unless there is some other long-distance stuff in there it should be way less.
 
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