For non JR pass travellers. Guide to use JR single ticket, basic rules, validity and stopover

Fare table
2013.07.04
This is not a regular JR ticket but a typical JR train ticket looks like this.

I have received many inquiries about Tokyo to Kyoto or Osaka one way trip. I always recommend to use a regular ticket for this one way long distance train ride, such as from Tokyo to Kyoto, from Osaka to Tokyo. Because this one way trip is not enough to get the worth of JR Pass 7-day. I have written the post about the fare calculation before.

Guide to plan your trip. Fare Calculation
This post explains you the information about the fare calculation of the trains in Japan.
jprail.com
2010.08.29

But I think this post was not enough to explain the fare rule. JR single ticket rule is very complicated for the tourists from oversea. But you do not need to know everything. If you understand some basic rules, single ticket is more useful and it gives you a trip at more affordable rate.

In this post, I will show you some basic rules of the regular ticket for the long distance train ride and how to use and purchase it.

How to purchase it

Simply you can purchase it at the station. If you make a short distance trip in the city or city to just outside city, you can purchase a ticket at the vending machine.

e.g.
Ueno to Tokyo (inside city)
Tokyo to Yokohama (city to just outside place)
Osaka to Universal City (inside city)
Osaka to Kyoto (city to outside place)

If you make a long distance trip, you still can buy a ticket at the vending machine. But the ticket window may be easier to purchase a long distance ticket for the foreign travelers. Especially if you intend to make a stopover on the way, you have to buy a ticket at the ticket window. Because you have to explain your trip plan.

If you want to take a limited express train, you have to purchase a limited express surcharge ticket too. Even if you want to take a non reserved seat on a limited express train, you have to purchase it. You can purchase both a reserved and a non reserved ticket for a limited express (the Shinkansen as well) at “Midori no Madoguchi”. Midori no Madoguchi is the name of JR reservation ticket window. You can purchase a base fare ticket at Midori no Madoguchi too. Please get the detail about reservation at the post below.

How to reserve a seat of Japan Railway trains at the station and online
Japanese train seat reservation is a bit tricky. The online reservation is very limited and you have to book it in most cases. This post explains you how to manage the booking.
jprail.com
2009.12.30

In the case of purchasing both base fare ticket and limited express surcharge ticket, you can purchase it in advance. An express surcharge ticket is on sale one month prior to a departure date.

e.g.
Tokyo to Kyoto travel on Dec 1
You can purchase the tickets after Nov 1.

You also can purchase the tickets at any JR stations if you buy both base fare and limited express surcharge at same time. For example, if you start to travel from Tokyo station, you can purchase it at Narita airport station on the day of arrival.

Base fare ticket can be purchased at any JR stations where station staff is on duty. There are many station without station staffs in remote area. In major cities and major stations, there are station staff. Even if you take a train at the station without station staff, you can purchase it from the conductor in the train.

How to get a fare

You can use Hyperdia to get the fare quite easily.

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
Click to enlarge.
Click to enlarge.

As you see above capture image of Hyperdia, you can get base fare and seat fare (includes surcharge). In this image, total fare is the following:

Base fare – 9560 yen
Shinkansen Nozomi (Tokyo – Shin-Osaka) – 5740 yen (reserved seat)
Ltd Exp Haruka (Shin-Osaka – Kansai airport) – 820 yen (reserved seat)
Total – 16120 yen

*The above image was captured in 2013. The fare was raised in April l, 2014 because of consumer tax was increased to 8% from 5%. The actual fare is different from the fare in the image above.

The price of Japan Rail Pass 7 days ordinary is 28300 yen. (New price is 29110 yen.) Total single fare is more than 10000 yen cheaper than 7 days pass price. This is the reason why I recommend to use single fare for Tokyo – Osaka one way transfer.

Validity

Please see the above capture image of Hyperdia again. You also can find a distance at Hyperdia. This is a key to use single ticket. Actually long distance ticket can be used in multiple days.

DistanceValid days
101 – 200 km2 days
201 – 400 km3 days
401 – 600 km4 days
601 – 800 km5 days
801 – 1000 km6 days
  • From 1001 km and up, add 1 day every 200 km.
  • If you travel more than 101 km but it is in Tokyo or Osaka zone only, ticket valid in one day only.

So in above capture image, distance is 613.4km. This ticket valid in 5 days.

Stopover

You can stopover as many as you want. Of course you cannot go back. Once you start to travel, you have to go forward. You have to care only one thing. When you depart/arrive to travel at the following areas, you cannot stopover in same areas.

  • Sapporo
  • Sendai
  • Tokyo 23 wards
  • Tokyo Yamanote line
  • Yokohana
  • Nagoya
  • Kyoto
  • Osaka
  • Kobe
  • Hiroshima
  • Kitakyushu
  • Fukuoka

These areas are same as city limit. I show you some examples.

1. Above ticket (Tokyo – Kansai Airport)
You can NOT – Stopover at anywhere in Tokyo 23 wards. For example, after you start to travel from Tokyo, you cannot stopover at Shinagawa.
You can – Stopover at Kyoto, Osaka and anywhere outside of Tokyo 23 wards.
By the way, you can start to travel from anywhere in Tokyo 23 wards.

2. Ticket from Narita airport to Osaka
You can NOT – Stopover at anywhere in Osaka city. For example, you cannot stopover at Shin-Osaka. Once you exit at any stations in Osaka city, your ticket will be expired right away.
You can – Stopover at Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya and anywhere outside of Osaka city.
By the way, when you travel through Tokyo downtown core, ticket will be calculated by the shortest route. For example, most typical route from Narita to Osaka via Tokyo, via Tokyo station and Shinagawa station. But if you want to go to Osaka via Akihabara and Shinjuku, you can take this route and stopover.

But in case of using limited express, you have to purchase limited express surcharge ticket for each segments.
ex) Tokyo – Osaka trip, stopover at Nagoya.
You have to purchase two Shinkansen tickets, Tokyo – Nagoya Shinkansen surcharge ticket and Ngoya – Shin-Osaka surcharge ticket.

Sample ideas

Please see above capture image of Hyperdia again. If you use this ticket, you can do the following itinerary.

Day 1 Tokyo – Kyoto (Stopover at Kyoto)
Day 2 Kyoto (no use single ticket)
Day 3 Kyoto – Osaka (Stopover at Osaka)
Day 4 One day trip to Kobe (purchase another single ticket.)
Day 5 Osaka – Kansai airport

When you arrive in Tokyo, you can use other deals, such as Suica & N’ex. And you have 5 days after you finish to see Tokyo. If you add Suica & N’ex one way ticket, total amount is 19620 yen. It is about 9000 yen cheaper than JR Pass 7 days.

I believe this is the perfect solution for Tokyo – Osaka one way travellers.

Comments

  1. YK Wong says:
    May 5, 2016 at 5:15 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    I planned to buy a single journey ticket with reserved seat for the train from Sapporo to Hakodate, stopping over at Lake Toya (Toya Station) for a night. This will be in mid-Jun.

    Distance stated by Hyperia is 318km, thereby entitled me to the trip over three days.

    Question:
    1) I assumed I will take the same train from Toya Station the next day?

    2) If I buy reserved seat, how can I be assured I will get the same seat on the next train after stopover?

    Best wishes,

    YK

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      May 5, 2016 at 6:50 am

      Hi YK,

      You may use one base fare ticket. But you have to purchase two separated ticket for taking limited express train, Sapporo-Toya and Toya-Hakodate even if you take same train.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

      • YK Wong says:
        May 5, 2016 at 8:10 pm

        Hi Takeshi,

        Really appreciate your prompt response.

        If I purchased single ticket from Sapporo – Hakodate with unreserved seat, would I be able to use the same tickets after a night’s stopover at Lake Toya?

        Best wishes,
        YK

  2. Marie says:
    April 30, 2016 at 8:18 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    Thanks for the information, your article is very useful and comprehensive. I would just like to confirm a few details regarding the JR bullet train (is this the Shinkansen?) from Tokyo to Osaka:

    1) Did I get it right, we are paying for the following for the bullet train:
    -Base fare
    -Express/limited express surcharge

    2) Could you kindly explain what you mean by express trains and/or limited express? I just got confused, I thought it would just be as simple as paying for one fare from Tokyo to Osaka.

    3) Is there a timetable on the departure times from the station? We were planning to leave Tokyo in the afternoon bound for Osaka. The only info I’ve seen are departures very early in the morning.

    Thank you and looking forward to hearing from you! We are bound for Tokyo on May 2 and going to Osaka on May 6.

    Thanks,
    Marie

  3. Xin yi says:
    April 27, 2016 at 8:43 am

    Hi, you have given a detail explanation but just to confirm with you, if I were to stay in Tokyo for 4 days and leave to Kyoto for another 3days before leaving for Osaka, can I actually purchase the same as your post?

  4. Vitaya says:
    April 24, 2016 at 7:51 am

    Hi Takeshi,
    Great fantastic post you have there. Just a query, i will be travelling to japan on the 11th jan – 21st jan 2017. My plane will be landing in narita. Here’s my rough plan.

    11-15 – Tokyo
    15-17- takayama
    17-21- Osaka.

    Is it possible to get a one way ticket from Tokyo to osaka and get stopover at nagoya? HyperDia shows that the distance is about 745km so technically, my pass is valid for 7 days. So if i stop over at nagoya, purchase another different ticket up to takayama, my JR pass is still valid on the 17th to complete my trip down to Osaka?

  5. Mul says:
    April 10, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    Wow thanks for posting this but I’m still confused. We’re planning on going from Tokyo Station to Osaka, but stop in Nagoya to visit Totoro House on the way.
    I was planning on buying shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Nagoya but can’t figure out what to do from Nagoya to Osaka. What’d be the best ? Thanks!!

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      April 10, 2016 at 5:18 pm

      Hi Mul,

      You can purchase three tickets at same time, base fare ticket from Tokyo to Osaka, Shinkansen surcharge ticket from Tokyo to Nagoya and from Nagoya to Shin-Osaka. You can make a stopover at Nagoya. The ticket is valid for 4 days. So if you need, you can stay overnight in Nagoya.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  6. Alice says:
    April 2, 2016 at 9:29 pm

    Hi Takeshi,

    Good day to you!

    I must say your article was so far the BEST i have read… It was very detailed.

    But i am not quite a planner, would like to seek your advice and help on my itinerary:

    I will be travel from Nagoya station or Nagoyako station to Gifu on 9 April and will travel back to Nagoya again on 11 April and i am not a JR pass user, what is the best way to travel back and forth between Nagoya station or Nagoyako station to Gifu & Gifu back to Nagoya?

    Thank you for your help in advance 😀

  7. Scieszka Chua says:
    March 30, 2016 at 1:47 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    I was wondering, for the following plan…

    Day 1: Odawara to Kyoto (stopover Kyoto)
    Day 2: Kyoto
    Day 3: Kyoto to Osaka

    If I get a base fare ticket plus unreserved seat fare from Odawara to Shin-Osaka, can I get on Shinkansen Hikari 507 for both trip Odawara>Kyoto and Kyoto>Osaka? Or only allow to take Shinkansen for Odawara>Kyoto, but Kyoto>Osaka has to go by other JR rapid train?

    Looking forward to your reply.
    Thank you!

    Best regards,
    Scieszka

  8. Dinhae says:
    March 28, 2016 at 6:26 am

    Hello Takeshi,

    Great information on the single ticket, cheaper than JR Pass.

    I will be going to Japan from 2 – 10 April 2016. My itinerary is as below:

    Arrival at Haneda Airport (2 April)
    Tokyo – 4 days (3 – 6 April)
    Hakone – 1 day (7 April)
    Kyoto – 1 and a half day (8 – 9 April)
    Osaka – 1 and a half day (9 – 10 April)
    Departure from Kansai Airport (10 April)

    I will be going to Hakone by Odakyu Romancecar (Hakone Freepass Shinjuku Departure) then after that I will be going to Kyoto by Shinkansen from Odawara station. I would like to spend more time on Hakone so may I know when is the last Shinkansen train to Kyoto?

    Another question, I’m planning to buy single ticket from Odawara to Kansai Airport and make stopover as below:

    Odawara Station > (Shinkansen) > Kyoto Station [Stopover] > (JR Special Rapid Train)> Osaka (Umeda) Station [Stopover] > (Kansai Airport Rapid) > Kansai Airport

    From the above route, the only seat fare which I need to pay is from Odawara to Kyoto for Shinkansen right? For the other two trains, I can use the single ticket without incurring any additional fares am I correct? Distance from Odawara to Kansai airport is more than 500 km (4 days from the table above) so the ticket should be valid until my last day in Japan from what I understand.

    Thank you for your time to read my inquiries. I hope you can clarify on my two concerns I mentioned in my writing.

    Have a nice day,
    Dinhae

  9. Christoffer Terp Andersen says:
    March 21, 2016 at 7:52 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    Greetings from Denmark, First of all GREAT POST! 🙂

    Regarding the length of the ticket for a single fare, do I understand this right.

    This is our tavel plan:
    Tokyo – Kyoto 31/3
    Kyoto – Nara 2/4
    Nara – Kanazawa 3/4

    The trip from Tokyo – Nara directly is 619 km (5 days duration). With this is it possible to use the same ticket from Tokyo to Nara, and by that staying in Tokyo and Kyoto on the same ticket? From Nara to Kanazawa I would have to buy a new ticket as I can’t back track if I understand it correct?

    Best regards,
    Christoffer

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      March 21, 2016 at 8:04 am

      Hi Christoffer,

      You understand it correctly.
      When you make a stopover at Kyoto, go through mans gate and tell the staff to make a stopover.
      You can purchase both ticket, Tokyo-Nara and Nara-Kanazawa at same time if you want.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  10. Mona says:
    March 20, 2016 at 3:50 pm

    Hello Takeshi,

    can we purchase ONE WAY Shinkansen JR ticket from Okayama station to Osaka JR station? we are Seniors/are there Senior fares? we are 2 people and might have 2 small pieces luggage, both wheelies.

    thank you.

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