Japan Rail Pass or SUICA?
OK, if you are planning your trip to Japan there will be many a post dedicated to getting a Japan Rail Pass and how amazing they are. They come in 7, 14 and 21 day passes and provide you with unlimited travel on the trains across Japan.
I am going to give you some helpful advice (and possibly some money saving advice too!)
The passes are not cheap, and a considerable waste of money if you base a large portion of your travel in one or two cities (as we did with Tokyo and Osaka) If you are planning on city hopping your way from Tokyo to Okinawa, then yes, the rail pass will be the best thing you invest in, but.. Know Your Travel Costs BEFORE You Go!
Google maps is your one stop shop for train fares. Plug in one station to another and it will show you what train line, what platform, what times and most importantly, HOW MUCH the trip will cost you.
I did the maths. A lot of Maths, and with our itinerary it didn't add up.
Here are the costs of a Japan Rail Pass
A one way ticket from Tokyo to Osaka via the Shinkansen is 14,650 Yen which is about $200 AUD.
As we landed in Narita and flew out from Osaka (for about $100 extra per ticket) we could not justify the cost of the Rail Pass. Our one way train ticket to Osaka from Tokyo plus the extra to fly out from a different airport to the one we landed in cost us $300. The cost of the cheapest 7 day pass was $381, it didn't add up.
Planning out our days and knowing how much it was likely to cost to get from one place to another saved us a huge amount of money. Researching the cost of our individual trips let us make an informed decision on what was going to be better value for our trip.
When we arrived I purchased a SUICA card and put 10,000 Yen (approx 130 AUD) on it as I knew that would cover all of our trips in Tokyo and Osaka combined. (We may have had to add more depending on a few trips that we hadn't quite decided on when we left, eventually we took 2 'chill' days and walked around our neighbourhood instead)
Even with all of that
$200 for a shinkansen ticket
$100 extra to fly out of Osaka (so we didn't have to return to Narita)
$130 for a SUICA card.
For the 21 days that we were away that would have been $777 for the Rail pass, so far over exceeded how much we actually spent.
Now, the 7 day one we could have made work if we departed from Narita. If we had activated it the day we travelled from Tokyo to Osaka we could have used it again within the 7 days to catch a train back to Tokyo to leave.
Hauling all our luggage with us.
Travelling 2 and a half hours back to then catch another 1 hour train back to Narita.
Having all the stress of making it back on time from Tokyo from Narita for our flight.
At the end of a very long 3 weeks.
I opted for my sanity instead!
Rail Passes, once activated, run for the time they are allocated and then stop. A 7 day pass can not be used a day here, or a day there (which would be far more useful) and as our travel in Osaka was limited to 3 very close by trips from our hotel and a free shuttle bus to and from Universal Studios, the Rail Pass would only have made economical sense if we had thrown in a couple of extra trips to Kyoto or Hiroshima and back to Tokyo again. Then I would have been satisfied that we had used it and 'gotten our moneys worth'. It also would have made our 7 days in Osaka full on travelling, and we had already filled 2 weeks in Tokyo with 14 days of almost non-stop travelling.
At the end of the day it is going to depend on where you want to go and what you want to see while you are in Japan.
Crunch the numbers, while you may think 'nah, it's ok, totally worth getting just so I don't have the headache of keeping track of my trip costs' take into account that Shinjuku to Harajuku was around 140 Yen one way (or about 1.85 AUD) and Shinjuku Station to Suidobashi Station (Tokyo Dome) was 170 Yen (so only slightly more expensive) and only 140 Yen to go onto Akihabara Station.
You are not going to break the bank getting around Tokyo using the public transport system. Pick your accommodation location carefully (and centrally) and you will not spend more than a couple of dollars a day on your train fares.
The Japan Rail Pass will only really pay for itself when you use it to get from one major city to another and back again.
If I allowed a generous $10 per day in Tokyo for the 7 days we spent in Shinjuku that is still only $70 on a SUICA card compared to $381 for a Japan Rail Pass for the same time frame.
Our next trip to Japan we hope to go from Tokyo all the way to Okinawa, so the Rail Pass will be a must have for that trip. Unless of course the domestic flights are cheaper ;)
I am going to give you some helpful advice (and possibly some money saving advice too!)
The passes are not cheap, and a considerable waste of money if you base a large portion of your travel in one or two cities (as we did with Tokyo and Osaka) If you are planning on city hopping your way from Tokyo to Okinawa, then yes, the rail pass will be the best thing you invest in, but.. Know Your Travel Costs BEFORE You Go!
Google maps is your one stop shop for train fares. Plug in one station to another and it will show you what train line, what platform, what times and most importantly, HOW MUCH the trip will cost you.
I did the maths. A lot of Maths, and with our itinerary it didn't add up.
Here are the costs of a Japan Rail Pass
- 7 days $381 AUD
- 14 days $608 AUD
- 21 days $777 AUD
A one way ticket from Tokyo to Osaka via the Shinkansen is 14,650 Yen which is about $200 AUD.
As we landed in Narita and flew out from Osaka (for about $100 extra per ticket) we could not justify the cost of the Rail Pass. Our one way train ticket to Osaka from Tokyo plus the extra to fly out from a different airport to the one we landed in cost us $300. The cost of the cheapest 7 day pass was $381, it didn't add up.
Planning out our days and knowing how much it was likely to cost to get from one place to another saved us a huge amount of money. Researching the cost of our individual trips let us make an informed decision on what was going to be better value for our trip.
When we arrived I purchased a SUICA card and put 10,000 Yen (approx 130 AUD) on it as I knew that would cover all of our trips in Tokyo and Osaka combined. (We may have had to add more depending on a few trips that we hadn't quite decided on when we left, eventually we took 2 'chill' days and walked around our neighbourhood instead)
Even with all of that
$200 for a shinkansen ticket
$100 extra to fly out of Osaka (so we didn't have to return to Narita)
$130 for a SUICA card.
For the 21 days that we were away that would have been $777 for the Rail pass, so far over exceeded how much we actually spent.
Now, the 7 day one we could have made work if we departed from Narita. If we had activated it the day we travelled from Tokyo to Osaka we could have used it again within the 7 days to catch a train back to Tokyo to leave.
Hauling all our luggage with us.
Travelling 2 and a half hours back to then catch another 1 hour train back to Narita.
Having all the stress of making it back on time from Tokyo from Narita for our flight.
At the end of a very long 3 weeks.
I opted for my sanity instead!
Rail Passes, once activated, run for the time they are allocated and then stop. A 7 day pass can not be used a day here, or a day there (which would be far more useful) and as our travel in Osaka was limited to 3 very close by trips from our hotel and a free shuttle bus to and from Universal Studios, the Rail Pass would only have made economical sense if we had thrown in a couple of extra trips to Kyoto or Hiroshima and back to Tokyo again. Then I would have been satisfied that we had used it and 'gotten our moneys worth'. It also would have made our 7 days in Osaka full on travelling, and we had already filled 2 weeks in Tokyo with 14 days of almost non-stop travelling.
At the end of the day it is going to depend on where you want to go and what you want to see while you are in Japan.
Crunch the numbers, while you may think 'nah, it's ok, totally worth getting just so I don't have the headache of keeping track of my trip costs' take into account that Shinjuku to Harajuku was around 140 Yen one way (or about 1.85 AUD) and Shinjuku Station to Suidobashi Station (Tokyo Dome) was 170 Yen (so only slightly more expensive) and only 140 Yen to go onto Akihabara Station.
You are not going to break the bank getting around Tokyo using the public transport system. Pick your accommodation location carefully (and centrally) and you will not spend more than a couple of dollars a day on your train fares.
The Japan Rail Pass will only really pay for itself when you use it to get from one major city to another and back again.
If I allowed a generous $10 per day in Tokyo for the 7 days we spent in Shinjuku that is still only $70 on a SUICA card compared to $381 for a Japan Rail Pass for the same time frame.
Our next trip to Japan we hope to go from Tokyo all the way to Okinawa, so the Rail Pass will be a must have for that trip. Unless of course the domestic flights are cheaper ;)
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