Guide to plan your trip. Fare Calculation

dentaku calculatorFare table
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:

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.

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. Lilyana says:

    Hi Takeshi,

    thanks for providing very useful information on your website.

    I’m planning to visit Japan with my family in May, and I’m considering whether it’d be more economical to use JR Pass. I tried Hyperdia but I’m still confused as to which are covered in JR Pass, and which are not.
    Hope you can help me to clear things up.

    Here are my planned route:
    Day 1 – NAGOYA – OSAKA
    Day 2 – OSAKA – NARA CITY TOUR – KYOTO
    Day 3 – KYOTO – BIWA – TAKAYAMA
    Day 4 – TAKAYAMA – SHIRAKAWAGO – KANAZAWA
    Day 5 – KANAZAWA – KUROBE ALPINE ROUTE – MATSUMOTO
    Day 6 – MATSUMOTO – MT FUJI – GOTEMBA – HAKONE
    Day 7 – HAKONE – TOKYO
    Day 8 – TOKYO – NAGOYA

    Based on the above route, which pass(es) should I buy to be more economical ?
    and which train should I take ?

    Thank you so much in advance. 🙂

  2. Khairon says:

    Hello Takeshi san.

    Thank you for such an informative website.
    My husband and I have a planned 3 weeks trip to Japan early next month. I
    have booked all our accommodation. However I have not bought our Japan Rail Pass as yet because I am not quite sure which one to get. Looking at my itinerary below, can you advise me what is feasible? Is the JR pass the way to go? I realise there will be places where we have to take buses and non JR trains. We enjoy train travel and walking.

    09/05 arriving Sydney/Osaka 8pm
    10/05 Yamatoji Rapid service to Nara
    11/05 Miyakoji Rapid service to Kyoto ( 3 nights )
    14/05 Limited Express Thunderbird to Kanazawa (2 nights )
    16/05 Limited Express Thunderbird to Toyama
    Tateyama-Kurobe Alpine Route ( overnight stay at Midagahara Hotel )
    17/05 JR Oito from Shinano-Omachi to Matsumoto ( 2 nights )
    19/05 Matsumoto Electric train & bus to Kamikochi ( 1 night )
    20/05 Nohi Bus to Takayama ( 2 nights )
    22/05 JR Takayama Ltd Exp Hida /JR Taita/Ltd Exp Shinano & local bus to Tsumago (1 night)
    23/05 Walk to Magome (1 night )
    24/05 Bus to Nakatsugawa, Shinano Ltd Exp to Nagoya ( 1 night )
    25/05 Super Exp Tokaido Shinkansen to Tokyo ( 1 week stay in Asakusa )
    01/06 Asakusa to Narita Airport.

    I would appreciate any suggestion re train journey and JR pass. I have not checked any timetable as yet. As most of the train journeys are not too long, I will most probably get the ordinary pass instead of the green.

    Thank you for taking the time to read. I hope you can clear the cobwebs for me.

    Kind regards,

    Khairon

  3. dianne says:

    Hi Takeshi,

    I was wondering if you know a fare calculator for osaka subway. I can’t seem to make hyperdia calculate the fare from shin-osaka to honmachi and honmachi to bentencho.

    Thank you so much!

  4. masoom says:

    Hi Takeshi,

    Firstly, great website!

    I’m only planning to take a one way train from osaka to tokyo so for this i dont think JR pass is needed.

    Is there a way of buying this one way ticket before arriving in Japan? If not, will there be availability if i was to book a ticket in Japan 2 days before travel? Is there an agent you recommend that could book this ticket and send to the hotel i stay at?

    Kind regards

    Masoom

  5. julie says:

    We are flying into Haneda April 12 and need to get a train to Misawa – can you please advise as to the line we take, the route, and how we go about booking the reservations?

  6. Justine Mundin says:

    Hi Takeshi-san!

    Your website seems very helpful! However I can’t seem to get the Hyperdia fare calculation to work.

    Will be going to Japan end of April, entering thru Nagoya. What route do you propose we use to go to Kyoto? If we plan to stay and tour in the areas of Kyoto and Nara only, is it still advisable to get a JR Pass?

    Thanks
    – J –

    • JPRail says:

      Hi Justine,

      I recommend you the following:
      Chubu airport (Meitetsu train) Nagoya (Shinkansen) Kyoto.
      This is the fastest and easiest way.

      But if you care about cost, Kintetsu Rail Pass Wide. It covers all part of your trip.
      http://www.kintetsu.co.jp/foreign/english/useful/ticket/rpw1-2.html
      However when you get Kyoto from Nagoya, you have to transfer somewhere between Nagoya and Kyoto, at Yamato-Yagi or Ise-Nakagawa.

      Actually this pass is most suitable for your trip. You can use this pass to go to Nara too. All you have to add is some deals in Kyoto. Because this pass does not deal any transportation in Kyoto city. You may add the deals at the link below:
      http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/access/transport.html

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JP Rail

  7. Sher Ee says:

    Hi Takeshi,

    Just happen to drop by and saw a lot of useful information here.
    I will be travelling to Japan in end of March and japan transport system really confusing me so i would like to check if there’s fastest and cheapest way from Hakone to haneda airport (domestic section)?

    Many thanks for your help

  8. Got says:

    Hi again Takeshi San,
    Thank you for you useful information
    After reading information which you kindly provide on website. I decide not to buy jr pass. I will buy only Shinkansen one way ticket. In that case, if I travel from Nagoya to ikebukoro taking two line jr and Shinkansen,do I need to pay a fare seperately ? Because hyperdia show a fare include in the same blanket, it make me confuse.
    Thank you so much
    Got

  9. got says:

    Hi Takeshi San,
    I am confused with hyperdia. As a picture you have shown above, if i travel from tokyo to osaka, I have to catch 2 train shinkansen and jr kyoto right?
    my question is, shinkansen and jr is different train line, do i need to buy ticket separately between shinkansen and jr or one ticket will cover all( because hyperdia fare was cover in the same blanket)
    if i need to buy to buy ticket separately, where do i need to buy my second ticket? at transit station?
    looking forward to hear from you soon
    thank you very much
    got

  10. Kendra Gaines says:

    I will be visiting friends in Totsuka, so need to take Narita Express from the airport. Then I will travel by train to see another friend in Kyoto. Do you recommend me to buy a JR Pass, or would it be cheaper to buy single tickets? Thank you for your help.

    • JPRail says:

      Hi Kendra,

      If you meet the following, JR Pass will work:

      1. You will come back Tokyo from Kyoto.
      2. You will complete Narita-Totsuka-Kyoto-Tokyo in 7 days.

      Otherwise single ticket is cheaper.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JP Rail

Copied title and URL