How to make the itinerary of Tokyo – Osaka one way trip

Dotonbori(道頓堀) is most popular spot in downtown Osaka.7 to 9 days
Dotonbori(道頓堀) is most popular spot in downtown Osaka.
The view of Tokyo Skytree from near Asakusa. It is new icon of Tokyo. (C) Yasufumi Nishi / JNTO

I have shown some simple itineraries which include Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.

Basic itinerary of Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo in 7 days

Basic itinerary of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in 7 days

But many travelers want to stay in Tokyo and Osaka only and make day trips to surrounding area, like Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Yokohama.

If you intend to do this type of simple itinerary which include Tokyo and Osaka, you will combine several local deals and regular ticket.

In this post, I will explain about choosing the deals and tickets for this Tokyo-Osaka one way trip. I will mention two ways, Tokyo in/Osaka out and Osaka in/Tokyo out.

Narita airport to Tokyo or Haneda airport to Tokyo

There are many deals available for both airport arriving passengers. Many deals includes airport access fare and subway unlimited ride pass. But most of deals are available for only arriving passengers only. Please see the links below:

If you can choose Tokyo in / Osaka out or Osaka in / Tokyo out, I recommend you to arrive in Tokyo and depart from Tokyo. If you arrive in Osaka and depart from Tokyo, only single fare may be available.

Sightseeing in Tokyo

Tokyo subway covers most part of Tokyo. You can access to most of places in Tokyo by subway.

If you choose Narita or Haneda airport access + subway pass combo deal, you can use subway pass when you are in Tokyo. Otherwise you can add Tokyo Subway Ticket or JR local deal, “Tokyo Tokunai Pass”. But both pass covers downtown Tokyo which is basically inside Tokyo 23 wards. Some places in Tokyo is not in this area, such as Ghibli Museum, Showa Kinen Park. Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea is not in this area either. Actually this place is not in Tokyo by Chiba. Please see the link below to learn more about train network in Tokyo:

If you intend to have a day trip to Yokohama and/or Kamakura from Tokyo, please see the link below:

If you have a plan to visit Hakone or/and Lake Kawaguchi in Mt. Fuji area, you can find more information in the link below:

Tokyo to Osaka

Platt Kodama is most affordable deal if you want to take Shinkansen (bullet train). However this deal covers only Kodama that is the slowest train on Shinkansen. If you want to take the fastest train single ticket is your choice. Please see the link below about Platt Kodama and comparison between Platt Kodama and single ticket.

Sightseeing in Osaka

Dotonbori is very popular place to eat and shop near Namba. ©Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau/©JNTO

There are many deals available. Please see the link below to find more information about the deals and train network in Osaka:

Sightseeing to outside Osaka (Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Himeji, Wakayama and/or Koyasan

There are many deals available too. Please see the link below to find the detailed information about the deals:

Osaka to Kansai airport

You can choose one of the deals or tickets in the link below:

Most of deals are available for both airport to downtown Osaka and downtown Osaka to airport.

If you do from Osaka to Tokyo

As I mentioned above, the deal for Kansai airport to/from Osaka is available for both ways. But most of deals for airport to downtown Tokyo are available for incoming passengers only. You may not be able to use the deal for Tokyo to Narita airport or Haneda airport.

Arrival at Tokyo and departure from Osaka is easier to find the deal.

If you have a round trip between Tokyo and Osaka

If your arrival airport and departure airports are same, such as Narita – Tokyo – Osaka – Narita, Kansai – Tokyo – Osaka – Kansai, you will have a round trip between Tokyo and Osaka. In this case, JR pass 7-day is the best deal. Please see the link below to find the detailed information:

You do not include whole part of your trip in 7 days. You can use 7-day pass to covers the period of Tokyo-Osaka round trip. The round trip fare for Tokyo to/from Osaka by the Shinkansen is almost same as 7-day pass. You can take a local train in Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto. 7-day pass works for this type of trip.

Comments

  1. Arjean Javier says:

    Hi! Please see my itinerary and suggest which JR Pass is cost effective and efficient (fastest and most convenient)

    Arriving NRT
    Nov 12-15 Tokyo
    Nov 15 Tokyo-Osaka
    Nov 16 Day Tour Kyoto
    Nov 17 Day Tour Nara
    Nov 18-19 Osaka
    Departing KXI

    Thank you!

    • Hi Arjean,

      Unfortunately there is no deals to cover whole part of your trip. You have to use some local deals at each cities and use the regular fare ticket or Platt Kodama for Tokyo to Osaka. I put the links to find the local deals in the post above. It is quite many but please check it one by one. This is most cost effective way.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  2. Esther says:

    Hi Takeshi San :

    Am planning to visit japan this early march . ( MArch 1 – march 10 ) , my trip will be tokyo for 3 days – kyoto for 2 days – Osaka 2 day – return to Tokyo for another 2 days

    i do not want to use JR pass as i think its quite expensive 🙁 .. do you have any other option of travelling from tokyo to kyoto to osaka and back to Tokyo ?

    Thank you so much for your adv

    br/Esther

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