Japan Just for You by Denise Stephens

Author:Denise Stephens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Japan Just for You
Published: 2018-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

5.2 Arranging internal travel

You have developed an itinerary, so you may be thinking of booking internal travel before you go to Japan. It sometimes surprises visitors to find that they can’t book some forms of internal travel online, and have to wait until they get to Japan, and sometimes until they get to a particular region, before they can buy tickets. Generally this isn’t a problem, but it may be difficult over New Year or Golden Week on certain days and routes.

Links to booking websites for various forms of travel are in the Useful Information Sources chapter.

Rail reservations

There are limited options for booking rail travel outside of Japan. While most JR trains can’t be booked online, JR East offers booking via their website from one month before and up to three days before date of travel. JR Central and JR West provide the SmartEx app, currently available in the United States, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. This enables reservations on the Tokaido Sanyo shinkansen which runs from Tokyo, through Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka to Hiroshima. Other limited express trains can’t be booked until you arrive in Japan.

Being unable to reserve in advance is generally not a concern, as you can book tickets once you arrive in Japan at any JR station. JR’s shinkansen run every 10 to 15 minutes between Tokyo and Osaka and rarely get full, except at holiday periods. If you are travelling at that time and concerned about getting seats, there are booking agencies in Japan that will reserve seats for you, with a service fee on top of the usual train fare.

There are also shinkansen tour packages available through JR Tokai Tours, which provide discounted shinkansen tickets between major cities with public transport passes or hotel accommodation included. These can be reserved online for specific dates, with the actual tickets picked up at designated offices within Japan.

Some private railways also offer an online booking service, such as Tobu with their passes to Nikko and Nankai with the Koyasan World Heritage ticket which can be bought for use on specific dates.

Rail passes

If you have decided to buy one of the JR Passes, whether national or regional, these are available no more than three months ahead of travel. It’s best to buy these at least two or three weeks before you go, to ensure delivery of the voucher and to check that details on it are correct. JR Passes used to be available only outside Japan, but now it’s possible to buy them within Japan. It is cheaper to buy them before you arrive in Japan, however if you’re organising a trip at short notice, it may be more convenient to pay the extra and get the pass after you arrive.

The nationwide JR Pass is not sold by JR itself, but through a network of agents located all around the world. Authorised agents are listed on the official japanrailpass.net website which has address details but unfortunately not website details for the agents. The pass prices are

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