Guide to plan your trip. Fare Calculation

dentaku calculatorFare table
2010.08.29
a0002_003051

This website shows you a lot of the train passes. But some of you plan to buy a regular ticket. Even if you will use the rail pass, you may have to compare the price of the pass and the regular fare to make sure that you can get the worth of it or not.

In this post, I would like to share the information about the fare calculation with you.

Hyperdia

You can get a fare very easily. (click to view larger image)
You can get a fare very easily. (click to view larger image)

This is the easiest way to get the fare and the timetable of most trains in Japan. Please refer the link below to learn more:

Hyperdia perfect guide, train timetable and route search engine
If you want to build your itinerary by yourself, Hyperdia will help you a lot. This site is transportation search engine. You can search the timetables and routes of all trains, flights and airport shuttle bus. But this site is a bit tricky and too many functions and options to you. This guide will help you to find the way to use this site.
jprail.com
2013.11.26

Google map

Google map can show you the train and the public bus routes. It also shows you the fare.

JR’s rule on passenger’s ticket

JR companies have the biggest train network in Japan. If you travel between major cities, you will take JR train in most cases.

The fare rule is so difficult to understand for the tourists from overseas. Even some travel agents in Japan do not understand the rule completely.

I wrote about this rule as simple as possible in the post below. You can learn the rule of purchasing and using a regular ticket.

For non JR pass travellers. Guide to use JR single ticket, basic rules, validity and stopover
The train ticket rule is very complicated in Japan. But you may have to use the regular fare ticket because it is cheaper than the rail pass. This post explains you the basic ticket rule as easy as possible.
jprail.com
2013.07.04

JR company’s official site

Some JR companies have the timetable and fare search engine in their official sites.

JR Hokkaido official website

This website offers you the fare and timetable search of most JR trains.

JR West English website

This website offers you the fare and timetable search of most JR trains.

JR Shikoku English website

This website shows you the fare table of most of JR Shikoku lines.

Comments

  1. john says:
    November 19, 2014 at 8:40 pm

    hi mr takeshi,
    I will be traveling from Hiroshima to Fukuoka for 3 days, I will be leaving Thursday and returning sunday. What is the best bullet train for me to take?

  2. Jen says:
    November 15, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    Hi Takeshi,

    I will be travelling to Japan with 2 other friends in January. We will arrive at Narita Airport and leaving from Osaka Airport.

    We will be in Japan for about 13-14days and during that time we will go around in this order
    1. Tokyo – 5 days with day trip to Hakone and travelling around Tokyo
    2. Kyoto – 5 days with day trip to Nara and travelling around Osaka
    3. Osaka – 5 days travelling around Osaka

    Is it best to purchase 7 days or 14 days JR pass? Or better to purchase individual fares?
    Please advise the cheapest train or line to travel with minimal cost.
    Also what’s the best way to get from Narita Airport to Shibuya Tokyo?

    Thanks a lot,
    Jen

  3. Irene says:
    November 13, 2014 at 7:49 am

    Dear Mr.Takeshi,

    I would like to check the enquire the cheap and most convenient mode of transportation.
    My itinerary is as follows:

    12 Dec 2014-From Kansai Airport to Toyoko Inn Shin-osaka Chuo-guchi Honkan Inn. We would have a lot of luggages. After checking into the hotel, we would like to travel to Osaka and Kobe to visit places of interests. At night, we will go back to d hotel in Osaka.

    13 Dec 2014- We will travel out for a whole day for sightseeing again and back to the hotel at night.

    14 Dec- to travel from our hotel Toyoko Inn Shin-osaka Chuo-guchi Honkan Inn to Universal Studio.

    Is it cheaper to buy day pass which is special for tourist having short visits.

    Appreciate your valuable advice.

    Thank you.

    Irene

  4. Lynn says:
    November 12, 2014 at 12:06 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    My husband and I are traveling from Namba to KiiKatsuura on 28 Nov 2014 to 1 Dec 2014. Returning from KiiKatsuura to Kansai Airport (KIX) on 1 Dec 2014.

    Can you advice what is the best mode of transportation? Should I buy a JR pass? I trHyperDia website but not sure on how to go about buying the tickets? Can I buy it from Namba station?

    Here is my intinerary

    21 Nov kansai airport – Namba (Osaka)
    22 Nov Kyoto
    23 Nov Takayama
    24 Nov Nagoya
    25 Nov Osaka
    26 Nov Osaka
    27 Nov Osaka
    28 Nov Namba (Osaka) – KiiKatsuura
    29 Nov KiiKatsuura
    30 Nov KiiKatsuura
    1 Dec – KiiKatsuura to Kansai airport

    May I know the cheapest and convenient way to travel around?

    Thank you! 🙂

  5. fish says:
    November 11, 2014 at 8:02 pm

    Dear Mr Takeshi / JP Rail,

    Thank you in advance for helping to answer my questions.
    I will be travelling in a group of 8, from 2yr-78yr old. The following is my itinerary from dec4:

    day1: reach kix at night.
    day 2: kix to kyoto rich hotel
    kiyomizu-dera temple area
    gion
    day 3: arashimaya
    kinkakuji
    day 4: nara half day
    nishiki market
    day 5: kyoto to kaneyoshi ryokan
    osaka castle
    tennoji
    day 6: kuromon market
    shinsaibaishi/ dontobori
    day 7: kaneyoshi ryokan to kix

    May I know the cheapest and convenient way to travel around?
    Is it convenient to get a taxi to kyoto rich hotel if i take haruka? What is the estimated cost? I presume I have to take 2 taxis? or bus? does airport limousine bus stop at my hotel? cost? (considering I have young and old and luggages to handle)
    Is it convenient to take trains and subways? I heard there are not many escalators or lifts.

    Please advise me on the trains and lines that I could take at a minimal cost. Thank you.

  6. Jojo says:
    November 11, 2014 at 12:09 am

    I will be travelling from nagoya to takayama by train next year july , stay overnite at takayama and next day go to Kanazawa by bus and stop over in shirakawago then spend the nite at Kanazawa. The next morning will go back to nagoya by train. Can someone suggest to me what is the cheapest mode of transports and how much will be the total transport cost to work out my budget for this trip? Thanks.

  7. aishah says:
    November 7, 2014 at 7:52 am

    Hi Takeshi,
    Here is my itenery palnning in March 2015

    21 kansai airport -nara
    22 nara – kawaguchiko
    24 kawaguchiko – takayama
    26 takayama – toyama
    28 toyama – kyoto
    31 kyoto-nara
    4 nara – kansai airport

    what is the best for purchase the JR ticket ?

    thank you
    aishah

  8. OH PF says:
    November 5, 2014 at 3:37 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    I will be travelling solo to Japan,Osaka this coming Jan 2015 .
    If I were to buy the JR Kansai Area Wide Pass for 4 days, may I know do I need to pay additional if I take some train having unreserved seat?
    Because I saw in HyperDia website, the ticket amount having ‘fare amount’ and ‘seat amount’.

    Thanks for advice.

  9. Naomi says:
    October 26, 2014 at 8:30 pm

    Hi, Takeshi-san,

    I was thinking about visiting Amanohashidate from Kyoto on my part of JR Pass trip.
    I found that JR train goes to Amanohashidate station, but by looking at this map, there is extra charge?
    http://www.jrpass.com/map

    I was wondering how to figure out the extra charge fee on this or other part of orange ‘Extra charge’ part of lines on this map?

    Thank you.

  10. Joy says:
    October 19, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    Hi there,

    My friends and I are going to be in osaka. From there, we are planning to go to takaoka, then to Tokyo. How is the jr pass going to work? And what would be the price?

    Thanks

1…1011121314…33
Copied title and URL