Guide to plan your trip. Fare Calculation

dentaku calculatorFare table
2010.08.29
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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. Hana says:
    September 26, 2015 at 8:47 am

    Dear Takeshi San,

    I am planning to go to Tokyo for 10 days which will include 2 nights in Disneyland. We will only travel to Fukui (Dino museum) while the rest of the trip will spend on sightseeing and exploring tokyo. Is it cheaper to just buy the one day trip tickets or to buy the 7 days pass?

  2. kring says:
    September 23, 2015 at 2:59 am

    hi takeshi!
    would you be able to give me an advise for our upcoming trip next year ?
    may 11-17,2016

    Day 1. Tokyo
    Arrival 12pm
    Check in hotel
    Afternoon city tour

    Day 2 . Tokyo
    Mt fuji

    Day 3 tokyo
    Disney sea

    Travel to osaka

    Day 4 osaka
    City tour

    Day 5 osaka
    Universal studio

    Day 6 kyoto

    Day 7
    osaka airport to home

    is the jr pass recommended in our planned trip?

    thank you in advance!

  3. Shirley says:
    September 20, 2015 at 10:55 pm

    Hi

    We are planing to visit Japan in early Dec and is our 1st time travelling with 5 adults and 2 kids.

    Our plan is 2 weeks Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka

    We have not plan our flight and wondering to fly to Tokyo and back from Osaka or 2 ways Tokyo

    We want to know the how to travel by JP and what is the cost for 7 days or 14 days passes compare to individual ticket.

    Our plan is 7 days in Tokyo include Disneyland , 2 days in Kyoto and 5 days in Osaka include Universal Studio

    Can suggest ?

    Thanks in advance

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      September 21, 2015 at 4:08 pm

      Hi Shirley,

      Round trip fare by Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto is almost same as 7 days JR Pass. So 14 days pass is out of your choice. So you have to compare round trip fare to Tokyo + 7 days JR pass or Tokyo in / Osaka out + half amount of 7 days pass.

      JR pass is much easier to handle but if you care about the cost, compare above combination.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  4. Yuri says:
    September 16, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    Hello Takeshi!
    Me and my family (total = 05 persons) are planning to go from Tokyo to Sapporo in 29/march 2016. We want to go to Kyoto after, in 01 or 02/april.
    I am not sure if we can use only rail pass for this trip and it takes about 09-10 hours to go to Hokkaido, we are considering a flight Tokyo / Sapporo / Osaka or Tokyo / Sapporo / Tokyo and go to Kyoto in the next day, using rail pass or single ticket.
    Could you please give me a advice? if it’s better to take the filght from Tokyo to Sapporo and after fly to Osaka and buy a single fare ticket to come back to Tokyo or if it is better fly from Tokyo to Sapporo, go back to Tokyo by plane and buy a rail pass to go / come back from Kyoto.
    Thanks in advance! Yuri

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      September 16, 2015 at 11:55 pm

      Hi Yuri,

      I think flight to Osaka directly from Sapporo is better. But it depends on air fare. We cannot compare without air fare.
      If flight fare to Osaka is not much different from air fare to Tokyo, flight to Osaka is better choice for you.

      On March 26, 2016, Shinkansen will be extended to Hakodate. Hokkaido is much closer by train. But it will be super busy in several days after opening date. I think March 29 is still very busy to take this new Shinkansen. Even if you want to take a train to Hokkaido, it’s not recommended in these periods.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  5. Nate Miller says:
    September 4, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    Hello
    we are a party of 6 who are planning a day trip from Osaka to Hiroshima.
    We want to leave around 8:30AM and return around 6PM.
    Could you tell us what would be the best way to go and the cost of the fare.
    Can we get reserved seats on the bullet train?
    Thanks

  6. Aida says:
    August 31, 2015 at 6:31 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    We’re planning a trip in February with the itinerary below:
    Day 1 – morning arrival at Kansai airport, KIX-Kuwana City-Nagoya
    Day 2 – Nagoya – Mt. Fuji – Tokyo
    Day 3 – halfday in Tokyo, night flight out of Haneda.

    Could you suggest what is the best way to travel? Is there a pass we can use or is single tickets more economical?

    Thank you and I look forward to your reply.

    Aida

  7. Haydn says:
    August 30, 2015 at 2:58 am

    Hello, I have already purchased a Japan rail pass but as we arrive at 10.30 pm, I would rather not use it on the first day and save it to get a full 7 days. Am I able to get a single trip pass to get from henada airport to inaricho station?

  8. Eva says:
    August 20, 2015 at 6:26 am

    Hello,
    I would like to check if it make sense for my family of four to take night bus from Osaka to Narita airport during dec.
    If I purchase the JR pass for 7days and I plan to stay in Tokyo (Haneda)-Kyoto-Osaka-Narita airport from 28/11 to 7/12, can I use the same pass to take shikansen from Osaka to Tokyo?
    Thanks
    Eva

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      August 20, 2015 at 12:45 pm

      Hi Eva,

      If you use JR pass, you have to take trains for round trip between Tokyo and Osaka. Otherwise JR pass is not cheaper than single fare. Overnight bus is not your choice in this case. If you want to use overnight bus, you have to give up using JR Pass. Because JR Pass is almost same as round trip fare between Tokyo and Osaka.

      In my opinion, JR Pass is recommended. Because it’s much easier to handle than single fare. If you use overnight bus, you have to use single fare and many kinds of local deals. You will be overwhelmed.

      If you use JR Pass 7 days, you can stay in Tokyo for the first several nights. And then you can start using JR Pass for the last 7 days of your trip.

      Actually overnight train runs from Osaka to Tokyo.
      https://jprail.com/trains/sort-by-type/limited-express/sunrise-izumo.html

      You can take this train by JR Pass if you can book it. No online booking is available. So you have to book it when you exchange JR pass. If the seat is full, you have to change your itinerary and find your accommodation. Usually early December is slot and easy to book. But it’s hard to guess the availability.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  9. Cris says:
    August 19, 2015 at 7:18 am

    This is my itinerary. I plan to buy a 7 day JRP.What do you think?
    Day 1 KIX to Izumo, Shimane
    Day 1-5 Stay at Shimane(local tour plus trip to hiroshima)
    Day 6 Izumo, Shimane to Kyoto
    Day 7 Kyoto-Nara
    Day 8-9 Kyoto tour
    Day 10 Kyoto to Osaka
    Day 10-13 Osaka
    Day 14 Osaka to KIX
    Hope to hear from you.
    Thanks & regards,
    Cris

  10. Andy says:
    August 15, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    Hi Takeshi,

    I have written my itinerary down below. Could you please advice on how I should travel and whether a JR pass would be necessary. In Tokyo I would probably be going around Akihabara, Ginza, Shinjuku, Asakusa, Roppongi, Ikebukuro, Shibuya, Odaiba. There are also plans to go to ghibli museum and doraemon museum.

    Day 1 Narita – Tokyo
    Day 2 -7 Tokyo
    Day 8 Tokyo- Osaka
    Day 9-10 Osaka
    Day 11 Osaka- Nara
    Day 12 Nara-Kyoto
    Day 13 Kyoto-Himeji
    Day 14 Himeji-Tokyo
    Day 15 Tokyo

    I look forward to your reply.
    Thanks in advance.
    Cheers,
    Andy

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