A Full Information to the Japan Rail Go (Up to date 2023)

Posted: 1/9/23 | January ninth, 2023

Japan is considered one of my favourite international locations on the earth. The serene great thing about the mountains and temples, the hustle and bustle of the sprawling cities, the beautiful meals, and its lengthy historical past make for a captivating place to go to.

Nonetheless, Japan has a popularity, particularly amongst price range vacationers, as being too costly. “Higher skip Japan and head to Southeast Asia, the place your cash goes additional,” they are saying.

But you possibly can travel Japan on a budget. Meals, points of interest, and even lodging (it’s the land of capsule inns!) may be discovered for a comparatively low price if you understand the place you look.

But one facet of touring in Japan that does reside as much as its expensive popularity is transportation — notably practice journey.

Japan’s iconic bullet trains (known as shinkansen) are lovely, snug, handy, and quick. They’re world-class wonders of transportation, racing round at speeds as much as 320 kilometers (200 miles) per hour. They run on particular tracks separate from the opposite trains and are a powerful feat of engineering.

They’re tremendous costly. There’s simply no manner round that reality.

Fortunately, there’s one straightforward factor you are able to do to chop your practice ticket costs in half (or extra): purchase a Japan Rail Pass. You actually shouldn’t be touring across the nation with out one (and I’m fairly certain they worth the go and common tickets out in a manner that basically forces you to purchase one).

On this publish, I’ll introduce the JR Go and clarify the way it works, how a lot it prices, and reply frequent questions I get concerning the go.

What’s the Japan Rail (JR) Go?

The Japan Rail Go (often known as the JR Go) was created to assist vacationers get across the nation (just like the Eurail pass in Europe). JR is the most important practice operator in Japan, and the go supplies limitless entry to all its trains for a set worth.

The go is available in 7-, 14-, and 21-day choices. Be aware that these are consecutive days, not journey days. So, if you wish to journey round Japan for 2 weeks, you’ll have to buy the 14-day possibility, despite the fact that you received’t be taking the practice day by day.

A number of JR trains are included within the go. The preferred is the shinkansen (bullet) practice, which is the quickest practice and goes to almost each vacation spot and area. The subsequent quickest is the tokkyu (restricted categorical). The kyuko (categorical) practice comes subsequent, adopted by the kaisoku (fast) and kakueki-teisha or futsu-densha (native trains that make each cease).

Briefly, which means that there are JR trains that quickly journey between areas, some that go between cities with a number of stops, and native commuter-style trains which are sluggish (however low cost).

Moreover, JR trains additionally serve some metropolitan areas, to allow them to be used inside cities. For instance, on my final go to, I used my JR Go to get round Kyoto and Tokyo as an alternative of shopping for native metro tickets.

The JR Pass must be bought earlier than you arrive in Japan and it needs to be mailed to you so that you’ll need to order it properly prematurely (extra beneath).

How the JR Go works

The JR Go may be very straightforward to make use of — you simply want to recollect to buy it beforehand, whereas in your house nation, because the go is just obtainable to guests. (Whilst you can buy it at choose ticket places of work in Japan till March 2023, in-person passes price considerably extra, so it’s higher simply to order it prematurely).

The go has a number of choices (every legitimate for consecutive days, not simply journey days):

• 7 days: 29,650 JPY (39,600 JPY for a Inexperienced Go)
• 14 days: 47,250 JPY (64,120 JPY for a Inexperienced Go)
• 21 days: 60,450 JPY (83,390 JPY for a Inexperienced Go)

The Inexperienced Go is the first-class possibility. Because the trains in Japan are already superb, you seemingly don’t want to purchase the Inexperienced Go until you actually need some luxurious. Moreover, touring in inexperienced automobiles may be extra of a problem when you prefer to be spontaneous, as you should at all times reserve a seat prematurely in inexperienced automobiles, requiring you to go to the ticket workplace or automated reservation machines forward of time to take action. In bizarre automobiles, you possibly can simply hop on and take any obtainable seat.

Along with the usual and inexperienced JR passes, there are regional passes in case you aren’t touring throughout all the nation. These choices can prevent much more cash since they’re cheaper than the common JR passes. Every area has a number of go choices, often ranging between one and 7 days.

You should buy JR passes for six areas:

• JR East (for the principle island)
• JR West (for the principle island)
• JR Central (for the principle island)
• JR Hokkaido (for the northern island)
• JR Kyushu (for the southwestern island)
• JR Shikoku (for the southeastern island)

In the event you’re simply going to be specializing in one area of the nation, take into account shopping for a JR regional go. If you’d like entry to all the nation, get the common JR Go.

In the event you’re a first-time customer to Japan, you’ll seemingly need the common JR Pass, because it covers all the key locations.

In sum, to get a go, it is advisable to:

1. Choose the time length to your go (7, 14, or 21 days)
2. Select your class (Inexperienced or normal — once more, normal is greater than adequate for many vacationers)
3. Resolve what geographical space you need to go to (the entire nation or a single area)
4. Pay the payment and order the go earlier than you allow dwelling

Getting and utilizing Your JR Go

The simplest strategy to get a Japan Go is by ordering it on-line (there are a lot of official on-line suppliers however I recommend this one because it’s been promoting passes for the longest time).

As soon as you buy a go, you’ll obtain an “trade order” within the mail, stamped with a date, that you simply’ll flip in to choose up your precise go in Japan. Don’t overlook your trade order at dwelling, as you should deliver this doc to choose up your go in Japan!

When you get to Japan, you’ll trade your trade order (therefore the identify) for a JR Go at a JR workplace. Ensure you have your passport on you (not a photocopy) once you go to gather it, as they’ll test to just be sure you have a short lived customer stamp in your passport. The JR Go is just obtainable to guests and they’re fairly strict about verifying you’re a vacationer.

You will have three months from the date printed on the trade order to choose up your JR Go, however you don’t want to start out utilizing the go on the identical day that you simply choose it up.

For instance, say that you simply need to choose up the go when you arrive however you need to spend a while in Tokyo earlier than heading on to see the remainder of the nation. You may choose any date inside one month of exchanging the order as your beginning date. (However as soon as the go is issued, you possibly can’t change the beginning date.)

When you’ve bought your go in hand, you don’t want to fret about getting tickets, as you merely use your go to go proper by the automated turnstiles.

Along with utilizing the shinkansen and different trains, the JR go provides entry to:

• Native buses operated by JR (such because the vacationer loop bus in Hiroshima or JR buses round Sapporo)
• Ferries operated by JR (such because the one from Hiroshima to the island of Miyajima)
• JR strains operating by metropolitan areas (similar to Tokyo and Osaka)
• Free seat reservations (in any other case, seat reservations price round 330-930 JPY)

The JR Go shouldn’t be legitimate for:

• The Nozomi and the Mizuho shinkansen strains
• Japanese residents or residents, similar to foreigners working in Japan (solely these with a vacationer visa can use the go)

Is the Japan Rail Go value it?

Completely! Regardless that you would possibly get sticker shock initially when buying a go, you’ll save a whole lot of {dollars} throughout your journey with one — even when you simply go to 2-3 cities. For instance, and not using a rail go, a ticket from Tokyo to Osaka prices round 27,000 JPY (round-trip), but you will get a seven-day rail go that features limitless journey on JR trains for simply 29,650 JPY. So for the worth of 1 round-trip ticket, you get limitless journey. It’s a no brainer!

Listed here are some extra examples of one-way practice tickets on the shinkansen trains with non-reserved seats within the “bizarre” (non-green automotive) class:

• Tokyo-Hiroshima: 18,380 JPY
• Tokyo-Kyoto: 13,320 JPY
• Tokyo Fukuoka: 23,390 JPY
• Kyoto-Hiroshima: 10,570 JPY
• Kyoto-Osaka: 4,230 JPY
• Hiroshima-Fukuoka: 9,000 JPY
• Nagano-Kanazawa: 8,440 JPY
• Tokyo-Yokohama: 3,210 JPY
• Hakodate-Tokyo: 23,500 JPY

As you possibly can see, it solely takes one longer-distance journey from Tokyo (similar to to Hiroshima or Fukuoka) to justify the price of the go. And also you’ll seemingly use it far more than that!

And even when you aren’t taking the bullet trains, the go nonetheless is sensible. For instance, a visit on an area practice from Kyoto to Tokyo prices round 8,360 JPY — as an alternative of 13,320 JPY for the bullet practice. Nonetheless, the native practice journey takes 9 hours and requires a number of transfers, as an alternative of a direct three hours, making it a lower than perfect selection for many vacationers (particularly when you’re tight on time). It’s typically merely not value the associated fee financial savings.

You’re higher off utilizing the bullet trains and reveling within the high-speed expertise because it whisks you from one unbelievable vacation spot to a different!

Japan Rail Go Steadily Requested Questions

Is JR Go just for vacationers?
Sure. Solely folks visiting on a vacationer visa can use the JR Pass.

Can Japan Rail Go be used on the Tokyo subway?
Yep, a few of the subway strains (although not all) in Tokyo are run by JR, which suggests you possibly can entry them free of charge along with your JR Go. That is true for all the nation. Metro strains and native subway strains are excluded from the go.

Can I alter the times on which I want to use the Japan Rail Go?
No. As soon as the go has been activated, the dates are set in stone.

How do I activate the Japan Rail Go?
To activate the JR Go, deliver your trade order and your passport to a JR workplace in Japan. As soon as they confirm your id and visa standing, they’ll activate your go.

Can I exploit JR Go from Tokyo to Kyoto?
Yep! The space is 445 kilometers (283 miles), and the journey takes below three hours on the bullet practice.

Are buses included in JR Go?
Sure, JR does run some bus strains, that are included within the JR Go. Some locations the place JR has buses embrace Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu.

Can I cancel my Japan Rail Go?
You may cancel your go so long as it has not been activated, however as soon as it’s activated, you possibly can’t.

Prepare journey is the easiest way to see Japan. The trains are clear, quick, and the surroundings beautiful. I like touring the nation by practice. Whereas shopping for a rail go would possibly seem to be a expensive selection, it would prevent a ton of cash — and it’s a uniquely Japanese expertise that you simply received’t overlook!