Thursday, 2 January 2014

Quick - Japan travel guide


As you might have noticed during last year, I traveled twice to Japan and to many different cities and areas.
If you happen to travel to Japan, I really recommend you to think about your travel.
Although it can be enough to just visit a big city like Osaka or Tokyo. But with the JR pass you can explore so much more.
Also JR pass also covers some railways within the city. In Tokyo you have many subway lines like Chuo, Sobu and Yamanote.

There are different ways you can purchase it, through your local travel agent or online.
I have tried 3 ways - travel agent, and these two websites.

Japan Rail Pass HERE!
JRPASS HERE!

Both are very easy and gives a lot of explanations who's eligible and what it covers.
The site on top also provides local rail passes for specific areas - Hokkaido, Kyushu, Kansai...
It's also the cheapest one. But I have to say, the second one looked more professional when I got the tickets etc. But still it's the same thing.

It's very easy to exchange and it's so convenient. Oh well sometimes it's a bother when you always have to go through the info desk in order to enter or exit stations. But it does lower the total cost of travelling.
It's very convenient if you are based in Tokyo, as Yamanote Line covers most of the tourists spots and main stations - Shinagawa, Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro , Ueno, Akihabara, and Tokyo...
Chuo also takes you between Tokyo and Shinjuku in 15 min, compare to 30 with Yamanote.

But what most of you might want to experience is to ride the Shinkansen, aka Bullet train.

It's possible to do a ONE day trip between Tokyo-Osaka, Osaka-Hiroshima. Tokyo-Sendai, Tokyo-Kyoto, Osaka-Kyoto, Tokyo-Kobe, Tokyo-Aomori, Osaka-Hakata (Fukuoka).... ;)
And there are many trains, it feels like it's one every 15-30 min. But for you exact schedule please look it up ;)
The trains run from Morning to late night.
With the pass you can go on all Hikari, Kodama, Hayabusa.. etc. Different regions have different names.

Then again, Tokyo is a big city and if it's your first time there will be more than enough to satisfy you! ^^
But just in case... check this out!!


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