Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [656]
SEISHUN JŪHACHI KIPPU
If you don’t have a Japan Rail Pass, one of the best deals going is a five-day Seishun Jūhachi Kippu (literally a ‘Youth 18 Ticket’). Despite its name, it can be used by anyone of any age. Basically, for ¥11,500 you get five one-day tickets valid for travel anywhere in Japan on JR lines. The only catches are that you can’t travel on tokkyū or shinkansen trains and each ticket must be used within 24 hours. However, even if you only have to make a return trip, say, between Tokyo and Kyoto, you’ll be saving a lot of money. Seishun Jūhachi Kippu can be purchased at most JR stations in Japan.
The tickets are intended to be used during Japanese university holidays. There are three periods of sale and validity: spring – which is from 20 February to 31 March and valid for use between 1 March and 10 April; summer – from 1 July to 31 August and valid for use between 20 July and 10 September; and winter – from 1 December to 10 January and valid for use between 10 December and 20 January. Note that these periods are subject to change. For more information, ask at any JR ticket window.
If you don’t want to buy the whole book of five tickets, you can sometimes purchase separate tickets at the discount ticket shops around train stations.
For more on Seishun Jūhachi Kippu, see the JR East website’s Seishun Jūhachi Kippu (www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/seishun18.html) section.
KANSAI THRU PASS
Click here for details on this pass, which allows unlimited travel on all non-JR private train lines and most bus lines in Kansai.
SHŪYŪ-KEN & FURII KIPPU
There are a number of excursion tickets, known as shūyū-ken or furii kippu (furii is Japanese for ‘free’). These tickets include the return fare to your destination and give you unlimited JR local travel within the destination area. There are shūyū-ken available to travel from Tokyo to Hokkaidō and then around Hokkaidō for up to seven days. A Kyūshū or Shikoku shūyū-ken gets you to and from either island and gives you four or five days of travel around them. You can even go to Kyūshū one way by rail and one way by ferry. These tickets are available at major JR stations in Japan. For more information on these and other special ticket deals, see the JR East website’s Useful Tickets and Rail Passes for Visitors to East Japan (www.jreast.co.jp/e/pass/index.html) section.
DISCOUNT-TICKET SHOPS
Discount-ticket shops are known as kakuyasu-kippu-uriba in Japanese. These shops deal in discounted tickets for trains, buses, domestic plane flights, ferries and a host of other things like cut-rate stamps and phone cards. You can typically save between 5% and 10% on shinkansen tickets. Discount-ticket agencies are found around train stations in medium and large cities. The best way to find one is to ask at the kōban (police box) outside the station.
Schedules & Information
The most complete timetables can be found in the JR Jikokuhyō (Book of Timetables), which is available at all Japanese bookshops but is written in Japanese. The JNTO, however, produces a handy English-language Railway Timetable booklet that explains a great deal about the services in Japan and gives timetables for the shinkansen services, JR tokkyū and major private lines. If your visit to Japan is a short one and you will not be straying far from the major tourist destinations, this booklet may well be all you need.
Major train stations all have information counters, and you can usually get your point across in simplified English.
If you need to know anything about JR, such as schedules, fares, fastest routes,