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. mel says:
    January 25, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    Hi Takeshi!
    your blog is amazing 🙂 made me look at things different.
    I’m doing Hakone to Osaka to Kyoto and then to Kanazawa and back to Tokyo.
    so i was thinking of JR Pass at first, but after reading i was wondering if it was more worth it to do this:

    Buy JR single ticket from
    Odawara (from Hakone) to Kyoto
    (i’ll stop over at Osaka first stay there for 2 nights, then leave to Kyoto, it’s still within the 5 days validity)

    Buy another ticket from
    Kyoto to Kanazawa

    and another ticket back from Kanazawa to Tokyo

    that would be cheaper than the JR 7 day pass right??
    Thanks!

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      January 25, 2016 at 10:35 pm

      Hi Mel,

      JR pass is cheaper.
      And also you cannot purchase Odawara-(stopover at Osaka)-Kyoto. Because you will take same route from Osaka to Kyoto as part of Odawara to Osaka.

      Anyway JR pass will be a few thousand yen is cheaper. So go for it.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

      • Melissa says:
        January 26, 2016 at 3:37 am

        Hi Takeshi, thanks for that!
        i’m just wondering if i did anything wrong.
        i checked on hyperdia and
        oadawar-osaka is 7,560Yen
        osaka to kyoto is 560 Yen
        Kyoto to Kanazawa is 4000 Yen
        Kanazawa to Tokyo is 7340 Yen
        so total wil be about 19500 Yen

        JR pass will be 29000 Yen, so isn’t it cheaper to get single trips? or am I doing something wrong?
        Thanks!

        • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
          January 26, 2016 at 12:31 pm

          Hi Melissa,

          You forgot to add seat fee. For example, for Odawara to Osaka, you need to pay base fare 7560 yen and seat fee around 5000 yen. There are reserved and non reserved. Seat fee is different by season too.

          For other segments, you have to add this fee except Osaka to Kyoto. Because this is short distance. You don’t need to pay seat fee.

          Please check hyperdia and you will find seat fee beside base fare.

          Cheers,

          Takeshi / JPRail.com

  2. Diana says:
    January 24, 2016 at 7:58 pm

    Hi,

    What would you recommend for me to do?

    Day 1: arrive to NRT (Tokyo)
    Day 2: Tokyo
    Day 3: Tokyo
    Day 4: Day trip to Nikko, back to Tokyo in evenning
    Day 5: Hakone
    Day 6: Kyoto
    Day 7: Kyoto
    Day 8: Kyoto
    Day 9: Fly from KIX to Seoul
    Day 10: Seoul
    Day 11: fly from Seoul to KIX, Osaka
    Day 12: Osaka
    Day 13: Osaka (maybe a day trip)

  3. Yvonne says:
    January 23, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    Hi Takeshi,

    Great post, but could you advise me too? As most is from Tokyo to Osaka, I rarely see any further than that.

    I will be start Traveling from Fukuoka Airport to Shinjuku. Will the Single ticket work for this or JR Pass 14 days will be better. I will be traveling in April.

    Day 1 Fukuoka Airport to Hiroshima
    Day 2 Hiroshima to Miyajima, back to Hiroshima, depart to Himeji
    Day 3 Himeji to Shin-Osaka, Wander around Osaka and Kobe
    Day 4 Osaka/Shin-Osaka
    Day 5 Shin-Osaka to Kyoto
    Day 6 Kyoto
    Day 7 Kyoto to Kanazawa
    Day 8 Kanazawa to Takayama
    Day 9 Takayama to Nagoya
    Day 10 Nagoya to Tokyo
    Day 11 Tokyo to Kawasaki to Yokohama, back to Tokyo
    Day 12 Tokyo
    Day 13 From Hotel, Take Shuttle Bus to Airport

    Thank you.

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      January 23, 2016 at 9:59 pm

      Hi Yvonne,

      Actually single ticket is the best option for you. Because in my rough calculation, the total fare is just less than 40,000 yen. 14 days JR pass is about 47,000 yen. Even if you use the train on the last day, single ticket is still cheaper.

      If you use single ticket, you cannot use one single ticket for whole trip because it’s too long. You may need to purchase Hakata-Osaka, Osaka-Kyoto, Kyoto-Kanazawa, Kanazawa-Takayama (may be bus trip for this segment), Takayama-Tokyo and trip to Kawasaki and Yokohama.

      If you intend to take a train from Kanazawa to Takayama, total fare is very close to 14 days pass price. But if you intend to visit Shirakawago, you need to take a bus and it’s not covered by JR pass anyway.

      If you want to make your trip be easier, you can go for 14 days pass. It may be more expensive than single fare but it’s way easier to handle than single fare trip.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  4. Xin says:
    January 17, 2016 at 7:49 am

    Takeshi-san, regarding the validity of single-way JR ticket, if I buy a ticket from odawara to osaka and make a stop over at kyoto for 2 days, is that possible for me to take JR train from tokyo to JR-Namba station without extra charge? Thank you for your reply.

  5. Beverly says:
    January 16, 2016 at 2:43 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    Your blog is very helpful for planning transportation around Japan. Thank you for your efforts.

    My itinerary is as follow:

    Day 1: Narita > Odaiba
    Day 2: Tokyo Disneyland (free shuttle from hotel)
    Day 3: Tokyo Disneysea (free shuttle from hotel)
    Day 4-9: Around Tokyo metro area and possibly Hakone/Mount Fuji
    Day 10-12: Kyoto
    Day 13-14: Osaka
    Day 15: USJ
    Day 16: Kansai

    If I buy a one way ticket to Kansai, can I stopover at Kyoto and Osaka? The rest I plan to just use a Suica card and/or special passes to travel around. Would it be cheaper than buying a JR Pass?

  6. Jacqueline says:
    January 9, 2016 at 11:03 pm

    Hi Takeshi,

    My itinerary is as follow from 8th Apr to 16th Apr:

    Day 1: Arrival at Kansai Airport at 9am, heading straight to USJ
    Day 2: Osaka Castle and Dotonburi
    Day 3: Kyoto
    Day 4: Kyoto
    Day 5: Depart to Kawaguchiko and stay for 1 night
    Day 6: Depart to Tokyo
    Day 7: Disneyland
    Day 8: DisneySea
    Day 9: Tokyo and depart from Narita Airport at night

    I was thinking of getting a JR rail pass together with a Icoca & Haruka Package, is it more cost efficient?

    I will also be staying at Osaka and travelling to Kyoto on days 3 and 4 instead of changing accomodation.

    Thank you so much in advance for helping!

  7. Donovan says:
    January 9, 2016 at 2:26 am

    Hi Takeshi ,

    My itinerary is as follows:

    Day 1: Haneda
    Day 2: Tokyo
    Day 3: Tokyo
    Day 4: Tokyo
    Day 5: Tokyo- Hakone
    Day 6: Hakone – Kyoto
    Day 7:Kyoto
    Day 8: Kyoto – Osaka
    Day 9: Osaka
    Day 10: Osaka
    Day 11: Osaka – Kansai

    Please advice on the travel arrangements. Thanks!

  8. Lili says:
    January 7, 2016 at 2:04 am

    Hi Takeshi,

    Could you advise for my Japan trip,

    Day 1: Narita (Early morning touch down)
    Day 2: Tokyo
    Day 3: Mount Fuji Day Tour
    Day 4: Tokyo
    Day 5: Tokyo-Kyoto
    Day 6: Kyoto Day Trip-back to Tokyo
    Day 7: Tokyo
    Day 8: Narita

  9. Jessica says:
    January 6, 2016 at 6:54 am

    Hi,

    I will be reaching Kansai Airport on the 15th or March and i am intending to travel from Osaka to Kyoto, then from Kyoto to Hakone (day trip to Hakone), then travel back to Osaka.

    May i just check if i am able to make use of the JR single ticket from Osaka to Hakone, with a stopover in Kyoto?

    If not, could you kindly advise what is the best traveling route i can take for my intended itinerary?

    Thank you.

  10. Ryan says:
    January 5, 2016 at 12:39 am

    Hi,

    Sorry for the trouble. Just to reconfirm.

    I read this post from the link that you gave me in another post.

    So based on my itinery (9th of March to 16th of March),

    Day 1: Haneda (im arriving late night at 10 something, so that day)
    Day 2: Tokyo
    Day 3: Disneyland Tokyo
    Day 4: Tokyo
    Day 5: Tokyo-Osaka
    Day 6: Kyoto daytrip from osaka
    Day 7: Osaka
    Day 8: Kansai

    I could buy a JR single pass from Tokyo and then travel all the way to Osaka and during my journey i could stop in Osaka. For kyoto, because im travelling to and fro i would have to purchase another single ticket. Am I right?

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