How to Buy & Use JAPAN RAIL PASS in 2023! Reserve Shinkansen Bullet Train Tickets

Konnichiwa welcome to Kensho Quest! We're going  to share tips on how to purchase and use the JR   Rail Pass in 2023. Our family has used the JR  pass on multiple visits to Japan it's one of   our favorite ways to get around. Most recently we  took trains from Hokkaido in the north. South to   Tokyo and onto Kyoto. We'll share the basics of  how to use a JR Rail Pass, how to reserve seats,   the route we took, recent changes, and tips for  families traveling with kids. First of all what   is the Japan Rail Pass. The Japan Rail Pass OR JR  pass for short is a multi-use ticket valid on JR   national trains including shinkansen bullet  trains. The JR Pass is available to foreign   visitors who are visiting Japan for sightseeing  and have a temporary visitor Visa stamped into   their passport. You can purchase a pass that's  valid either for 7, 14 or 21 consecutive days.   There is a standard pass for riding in standard  cars and a Green Pass for riding In First Class   Cars. Our family has only ever used the standard  pass and that worked well for us. Also this video   is specific to the National Japan Rail Pass which  starts from the northern tip of Hokkaido all the   way down to the southern island of Kyushu. If you  are interested in a regional pass we will leave a   link in description below where you can get more  information about that but I believe most of you   will be interested in the full National JR Rail  Pass and that's what this video is about. So what   exactly is included? Well there are six Railway  companies that make up the JR Pass and they are JR   Hokkaido, JR East, JR Central, JR West, JR Shikoku  and JR Kyushi. The Japan Rail Pass is valid on the   JR Express trains, all rapid and local trains  along the JR lines, some JR local buses the JR   Miyajima Ferry as well as airport transfers like  the Narita Express and the Haruka Express. We   took the ferry when we visited Miyajima Island  years ago on my very first visit to Japan. Now   of course the shinkansen bullet trains are  included however with the exception of the Nozomi   and Mizuho lines however that's not really a big  deal because there are other shinkansen's that   travel on those same routes more on that later.  The JR pass does not include most Subway Lines for   those we use a rechargeable card such as IC pasmo  or suica card and we just hold on to these and   keep them for our next visit to Japan and that's  for short trips getting around within a city   should you buy the JR Pass well if you were going  to be traveling multiple regions in the country   for instance far away places such as Kyoto Tokyo  and up to as far as Hokkaido then absolutely yes.   We have purchased the JR Rail Pass many times  over the years however we don't always buy it.   It really depends on what you're going to do so  for instance if we're just going to Tokyo to visit   friends and we are just traveling locally then we  just use the IC cards and we do not purchase the   JR Rail Pass. So in general the JR rail pass is  great if you are traveling long distance. There   are passes for adults and for children as well.  For children aged 6 to 11 years old the cost   of the JR Pass is half that of the adults pass.  Children who are under six years old can ride the   trains for free. However you can't reserve a seat  for them so they may end up sitting on your lap   on this most recent trip we bought three  JR passes so it was two adult passes and   then one child pass for a nine-year-old both  our four-year-old and one-year-old did not   require a pass it can get a bit cramped if you're  sitting five people to just three seats. However,   most the time there are open seats available  and we were able to spread out a bit. Also if   you're riding in a non-reserved car those seats  are just a first come first serve basis. So if   there's a seat open your child could sit down.  And a pro tip here, if you're traveling during   a Japanese holiday make sure you reserve your  seats far in advance. Or if you're planning to   go in the unreserved car get there to the platform  early so you're one of the first on board to make   sure you'll get a seat. Where to purchase your JR  pass? Most of you will be purchasing your JR rail   pass in your home country and you can do this up  to three months before your journey. The easiest   way to purchase the tickets are online and there  are many websites where you can do this however   our preference is jrpass.com because they make  it really easy to get an add-on which is a pocket   Wi-Fi and I highly highly recommend you get  one. Even if you have an international data   plan because it's just great to have that backup  and you can do it during the checkout process. We   will leave an affiliate link to jrpass.com in  the link description below. Let's go ahead and   walk through the process of purchasing a ticket  we are on jrpass.com let's go ahead and select   an ordinary seat for one person for seven days.  Over here you can see you can select a child and   you can see that the price is half of an adult  ticket click to book and here we'll enter name   and let's just add a arbitrary date of  birth and just pick some start date as well   and if we scroll down here we can see that there  is a cancellation protection policy which we can   purchase for a little over 2000 Yen that might be  worth it to you if your travel is unsure. Next Step   here you can double check your eligibility let's  go ahead and confirm this and click the next step   and here is where you can rent the pocket Wi-Fi as  well and again I highly recommend this because it   makes it really easy to do this because it's all  in English and you can just pick up your Wi-Fi   in Japan at the airport here you can choose the  length of time that you want to rent the pocket   Wi-Fi and you'll notice that it says unlimited  data however you are capped at three gigabytes   per day. If you use more than that then you will be  throttled and that speed can be quite slow so be   Please be aware of that sometimes it was unusably  slow and sometimes it was still okay here we can   choose which airport we want to pick it up and  you can also return it at a different location   if you are flying out from a different location  which is what we did but actually in our case we   returned it by mail which you can do but you will  pay the shipping if you decide to return by mail   and finally you can have a meet and greet if  you want anywhere from one to three days later   you will receive your exchange order by a mail  you will not get the passes by mail you will get   your passes once you visit a ticketing office in  Japan and present your passports for each person   who will be receiving the pass so all members of  your party must be present with their passports   at the JR ticketing office a lot of people are  concerned that there are just so many websites   selling JR passes that they wonder which one's  legit. I totally understand with that so I'm just   going to throw another one into the mix it is  klook.com you may be familiar with it they're   actually really big in Asia and we use them all  to purchase attraction tickets such as tickets to   Universal Studios Japan in Osaka can you purchase  the Japan raill pass in Japan the answer is yes.   However this is a temporary thing and we do not  know how long this option will be available also   it is more expensive to buy the Japan Rail Pass in  Japan versus in your home country we paid about 4   000 Yen more per person for the pass if if you  do want to purchase the Japan rail pass in Japan   this is the process you want to visit a official  ticketing office here in Japan currently these   are only at the major stations we bought hours at  the Osaka station one here in Osaka Japan we went   to the ticketing office and you need to show your  passport for each person that will be purchasing   the pass you will receive the actual passes not  the exchange order you will need to specify when   you want your passes to be activated and once you  activate them this will be for consecutive days   either 7 14 or 21 and once activated they cannot  be canceled or changed LastPass what happens if   you lose your JR Rail Pass unfortunately it is  not replaceable or refundable so just don't lose   it we kept all of our families passes together in  a safe place here's how we use the Japan Rail Pass   on our most recent trip to Japan after spending  three weeks playing in the snow in Sapporo we   activated our Jr passes and we headed to Tokyo  for five days and then farther south to Kyoto   as our final destination so as you can see we use  this mostly to get us to our farther destinations   currently the shinkansen only goes as far north  as Shin hakodate which is in the southern portion   of the island of Hokkaido so in order to get there  we had to take a limit Express train from Sapporo   to shinhakodate that is a three and a half hour  train ride however it is a beautiful ride and I   highly highly recommend it from shinhakodate to  Tokyo we took the Hayabusa shinkansen this is a   reserved seat only train more on this later we  had about 20 minutes before our departure to   Tokyo from shinhakodate so just gave us plenty of  time to go to the mini Marts go use the restrooms   or whatever but take note at this station and  many of the other smaller ones there isn't a   huge variety of food it's mostly Japanese Bento  boxes snacks and a lot of junk food so if you want   a different type of meal make sure you purchase  your food ahead of time in the largest station   such as Sapporo or Kyoto or wherever you are the  journey from shinhakodate to Tokyo station took   right about three hours and we spent the next five  days in Tokyo visiting friends and visiting other   tourist destinations however we were not able to  use the gr pass on all of those routes and for   those we used our IC cards here's a pro tip you  can use the navi app which will show you all the   Jr routes that are available in your area on the  sixth day we went from Tokyo to Kyoto using the   Hikari shinkansen there is also the nozomi however  that is not available to JR Rail Pass holders but   no matter because the Hikari is almost as fast  so we had one extra day when we arrived in Kyoto   however we were tired and we just didn't even  use it this type of itinerary can also work great   if you are just on a two-week holiday the key is  you want to enter Japan in one location and leave   in another so in our case let's say If you flew  into Sapporo and you flew out of Kansai airport   in Osaka so let's say you spend three four days in  Sapporo and then you activate your Jr pass and you   head to Tokyo on the same day and then spend  four or five days in Tokyo and then you still   have a couple days left on your seven day pass  so then you can head to Kyoto osako or you can   even go all the way far south as kagoshima Kyushu  and again just as a reminder if you are traveling   during the holidays make sure you book in advance  because the trains can be completely full and   you don't want to be left without a seat and also  some of the trains such as the Hayabusa shinkansen   is 100 reserved only so you cannot get on it if  you don't have a reserved seat reserving tickets   booking a reserve seat versus a non-reserved some  trains have both reserved seat Cars and unreserved   Cars such as the Hikari shinkansen again the  Hayabusa is 100 percent reserved only and with   the Jr real pass it's not necessarily easy to  do this because you either have to go into an   office or book it online and if you do it online  you still need to go and pick up your tickets at   the office with all that said the easiest way is  still to go into the office what you want to do   is look for this logo which is a person reclining  in a chair it is called the Midori no maroguchi   which means green window now once you get there  the line may be long yes this is a possibility   however in our case is it always move pretty  quickly and you get up there and the people   are usually very helpful and can help you get the  seat that you want what happens if you miss your   reserve train this actually happened to us when  we were going from Nagoya connecting in Tokyo up   to aomori now once we got to Tokyo we missed our  train and our train from Tokyo up to aomori was   Hayabusa shinkansen which means reserved only so  we just went to the ticketing office and was able   to rebook it on the next train if your train has  an unreserved car then you don't even need to do   that you can just get in line for the next train  that has unreserved seating let me show you how   to book an online reservation through the Jr East  website since it is in English let's go ahead and   click on seat reservation here we purchased  our tickets elsewhere so we're going to just   look over here and I'm going to choose the tohoku  area and I'm going to search by line because to   me this is the easiest way and we are taking the  tohoku Hokkaido shinkansen we are departing from   and then we're going to choose Tokyo as our final  destination and we're just going to choose some   arbitrary date here and time and enter the number  of passengers and click on the search and here you   can see different times and the length if we  go a little bit later you see that the train   will arrive at least 16 minutes earlier let's  look at that one let's just choose that one   click on select and let's look at the seat  map so we can choose the seats that we want   let's choose one closer to the back because  we like to be near the back or the front of   the car so we can go and find the bathroom and or  drink machines quite easily this way we'll choose   those four and hopefully no one will sit next  to us so we can use all five seats for our kids   confirm and more confirmation here yes  let's go ahead and view our reservation   here and it's going to ask you where you  want to pick up your reservation tickets   you will need to go into the Jr office  to pick these up and choose a pickup date   there you have it reasons to get a JR Rail  Pass Trains are one of our favorite forms   of transportation while traveling as a family with  young kids it can be faster to take the train than   go to the airport with the airport you have to get  there go through security wait for your plane with   a train just make sure you do show up before the  scheduled time for the train because likely it   will leave right on time we find that trains are  more comfortable than airplanes it's okay to get   up and walk around let your kids stretch their  legs the bathrooms tend to be more spacious than   airplane bathrooms are there are some seats  on the trains where one row can spin around   so you can have two rows of seats facing each  other if you're in a larger group however that   wasn't allowed recently due to covid here are some  more reasons why the Jr pass is worth it it's an   easy way to help you see places in Japan that you  might not otherwise visit taking the train is much   better for the environment than flying compared  to an airplane on the same route the train will   use 88 percent less energy and produce 92 percent  less carbon emissions per seat with the Jr pass   you can save money versus booking each of the  trains individual actually and it may also save   you money compared to taking an airplane flight  let's see how much it would cost if we purchase   these tickets separately versus the price of the  Jr pass all right let's use our example we are   going to start from Sapporo and we are going  to Tokyo after Tokyo we will head to Kyoto and you can see that our savings is 11 880  Japanese Yen and let's see what it would cost   on a typical Airline you can see it's 353 dollars  and also you'll notice that this is flying from   chitose airport which is 45 minutes south of  Sapporo going to haneda in Tokyo and then from   haneda to Kansai airport which is on a man-made  Island and more than an hour train ride to Kyoto   so you got to take these into consideration in  these extra fees also 353 US dollars is a lot more   than the cost of a Jr real pass which is currently  about 220 US Dollars twenty nine thousand six   hundred and fifty Japanese Yen chain amenities  include the following there is a luggage storage   rack or you can store small bags in the overhead  right above your seat there are bathrooms there   are areas to get up and stretch your legs and  walk around a bit there are vending machines these   usually have drinks and possibly snacks also trash  cans to get rid of the bottles from your drinks   on one of the trains we took there was a snack  car that came by there's free Wi-Fi also power   outlets for charging electronics and it is a  very smooth ride on those bullet trains food   for your train ride I would not count on there  being food available on the train itself many   of the trains we took did not have a food car  on board however most train stations there are   plenty of options for purchasing food to bring  with you onto the train there are often Bento   boxes available snacks little markets where  you can get drinks as well it is okay to eat   on the long distance trains and most people do  bring food on board with them we always like   to bring lots of snacks especially since we're  traveling with kids that helps make the journey   much smoother we've got a new year grab bag snack  bag here what are they called thank you basically it's a New Year's thing as well where it's  like a grab bag and it could be really good   or it could be white elephant let's see what we  got I think we got yummy snacks in there okay oh my goodness that looks good that must look good   oh some rice crackers oh some fancy truffle  potato chips I think I'll take this yeah sounds good you want to open these we  normally bring our food on board the   train one time we did get to the  train station plenty early so we   purchased food at a deli and just sat in  the station to eat and then whatever we   didn't finish we brought on board with us  you ready to eat Cody powder what'd you get we got a special Bento she's a fancy girl  you sell that yeah okay sorry let me get   you something recent changes to the Jr real pass  first you can temporarily buy your tickets while   you're in Japan I hope they will make this a  permanent thing because it's a great system to   have just in case if you decide later on in your  journey like we did on our last trip to purchase   the JR Rail Pass second they no longer issue the  booklets before you would get this booklet with   a stamp on it that said Jr real pass and you  would show it to an attendant this would mean   you would go to the side you wouldn't go through  the normal gauge you would go to the side show   your pass and they would let you through instead  now you get an actual pass this is the same size   as a shinkansen ticket so when you get shinkansen  tickets you'll actually have two you'll have your   shinkansen ticket and your old pass in most cases  you're going to need to stick both of these into   the machine and make sure you retrieve it at the  other end if you don't you will have lost your   pass and it is irreplaceable new luggage rules  for the shinkansen this depends on the weight   and the size first of all the maximum weight of  a piece of luggage you can carry on is 30 kg the   maximum Dimensions is 160 centimeters length width  and depth any pieces of luggage that are larger   than 160 centimeters but less than 250 which is  total length width and depth must be reserved in   advance if you do not make the reservation you  will be charged a fine of 1000 yen any pieces   that are larger than 250 centimeters length width  and depth are not allowed on the shinkansen at all   when you make the reservation for your luggage you  will usually get the seats that are the last seats   in the car and you would put your luggage behind  your seat otherwise every ticket holder is allowed   two pieces of luggage and you can put these  in the overhead compartment or in the luggage   storage located in the back of each car and if you  want you can also put your luggage right in front   of you if there's room and there are also hooks on  the back of each seat so you can hang a purse or a   small backpack what if you have too much luggage  or you just don't want to deal with a hassle if   you look around you'll probably notice that a  lot of Japanese don't travel with much luggage   you're wondering are they just really traveling  light well the chances are they are having their   luggage shipped and for us once we discovered this  was a game changer in particular there's a company   called kuroneko which is Yamato Transport there's  another one called sagawa and there's a few others   but those are the major players kuroneko and  sagawa our favorite is kuroneko you're going   to see them everywhere that means black cat you're  going to see them driving down the street you're   going to see guys pushing cars around what the  service allows you to do is allows you to ship   your luggage anywhere in the country and quite  quickly so for us being a family of five and   long-term Travelers we actually take everything  that we own with us so we have to have everything   shipped instead of taking the shinkansen we only  take small pieces of carry-on luggage and anything   of large size or weight we have it shipped so  what we do is we either go directly to one of   their offices or have them come to our location  where we're staying and pick up the pieces of   luggage the price depends on the size and weight  and just like with the train there are limits to   the size and dimensions of each package so please  contact them if you need assistance there is an   English speaking line I will put a link to that in  the description below let me give you an example   of how we use kotoneco service so when we were  in Sapporo we shipped our luggage two days in   advance to Kyoto now even though we weren't going  to be in Kyoto for seven days we still had it   shipped to Kyoto directly because we didn't want  to have to deal with our luggage in Tokyo because   we were going to be staying in a small hotel  and we didn't really need all that extra stuff   and now this is the beauty of sending your luggage  this way is you can actually choose the delivery   date of the items now this may depend on some of  the locations some of the locations they will tell   you they cannot do this but in most cases and at  least for us whenever we check the box of when we   want it delivered it was always delivered on that  day so look for that box where you can actually   select the date and even a Time range of when you  want your luggage delivered so when we arrived in   Kyoto seven days later our luggage arrived around  the same time we were there we just dropped off   our luggage again at crude Echo the service has  been fantastic here they actually were extremely   thorough verify it addressed everything so it's  probably a poodle neck we're going by right now   anyways fantastic way to send your luggage to get  it to where you need to go especially if you need   to take the trains or any form of transportation  for that matter put on Echo highly recommend which   in content do I take for me personally this was  a big one and it took me a while to figure out   which line goes where so let me break down some of  the major ones for you if you are heading north to   Hokkaido from Tokyo you are going to be taking the  tohoku shinkansen if you are going from Tokyo down   south to Kyoto or Osaka you will be taking the  tokaido shinkansen if you are traveling south from   Osaka as far south as Kyushu Island you will be  taking the Sanyo shinkansen and for the island of   Kyushu it is the Kyushu shinkansen I'll list some  of the other lines in the description below let me   show you a website called hyperdia.com which is a  great way to find out routes and timetables let's   go ahead and enter shinhakodate as our starting  point in Tokyo as our destination you'll just   use an arbitrary date and we'll just leave all  these checked just for fun let's click search and   as you can see it gives us many different options  on the route different available trains different   times and different lengths of time to get  to your destination and here is a really cool   interactive map on jrpath.com you can use this to  get a sense of all the shinkansen lines because   they're in blue and the green ones are other  lines where you can use your Jr pass so it's   it's really helpful to give you an idea and to  picture where you can go if you're planning to   visit Osaka Japan please also watch our video  with tips and hacks for visiting Super Nintendo   World at Universal Studios Japan we also have a  previous video from a trip years ago showing all   the places we visited while using our Jr seven day  pass we're a world schooling family traveling the   world full-time so please subscribe for more tips  on traveling especially for families with kids

Channel: Kensho Quest

Views: 114,174

Keywords: jr pass for families, jr rail pass for families, japan rail pass hacks, japan rail pass for families, jr rail pass, jr pass for kids, japan rail pass explained, japan rail pass 2023, jr pass luggage, japan rail pass, jr pass, shinkansen train, hayabusa shinkansen, hikari shinkansen, tokyo to hokkaido by bullet train, buy jr pass, buy jr pass online, tokaido shinkansen, tokyo to kyoto shinkansen, family travel japan, family travel vlog, family travel tips

Id: 7hPkkgr59Q8

Length: 23min 53sec (1433 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2023