about JR train tickets

1. Do I need the JR Pass?

The short answer is 'NO', and absolutely NOT for business.

First of all, if you are on business, where time is of essence, you will not want to use the JR Pass because it won't let you get on Nozomi (the fastest) without an additional fee. So, you'd pay more even if you have already paid more.

Before Oct 2023, a 7-day JR Pass for the ordinary class was roughly JPY30,000, which was about the same price as a round trip between Tokyo and Osaka on the same class.
For the record, as of Dec. 2023, a single one way ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto on Nozomi is JPY13,850 and JPY14,720 to Shin Osaka.
So, considering a round trip of JPY28,000 ~ 29,500 and additional JR train rides here and there, it was easy to pay off, so it made a lot of sense even if you couldn't get on Nozomi (the fastest).

However, the price of JR Pass has gone up, now JPY50,000, while regular tickets price remain unchanged, it's not easy to make additional 20,000yen worth of trips in 7 days if you are just going to Kyoto/Osaka (and Nara, an hour away from Kyoto and Osaka and 1,000yen one way at most) and back.

To pay off the cost of JR Pass, you need to

  • go further than Kyoto/Osaka from Tokyo, for example, add Hiroshima (and Himeji) to your itinerary, and
  • stop in Nagoya on the way to Kyoto, generally the more stops, the better, or
  • come back to Tokyo through Kanazawa (on the other side of Japan),
  • and/or make a separate roundtrip to
and then you will be more than even, but you still need to complete your journey(s) in 7 days. So, your schedule will be very tight and everything gets very squeezed. Again, if you are staying in Japan for 7 nights or less, there's no point getting a JR Pass, unless you are a train fan. It's best when you are staying in Japan for more than 7 days, like 10 days to 14 days, and allocate 7 days on an excursion outside Tokyo, for example.

Here's what I found on YouTube

Here's what JR has to say about its pass.

2. Understanding JR (long distance) tickets


乗車券 (Base fare) ticket from Fukuoka to Tokyo

When you buy a one-way ticket on Nozomi from Tokyo to Kyoto, the ordinary class, reserved seat, the total comes out as JPY14,170 (as of early Dec 2023), and you will get one piece of paper ticket. But, you are actually paying two (or three) fees depending on how you'd classify the latter. They are:

  1. Base fare (乗車券: josha-ken): calculated based on distance
  2. Express fare/fee (特急券: tokkyu-ken): additional fee for express (train speed), also calculated by distance
    1. with reserved seat (指定席: shitei seki tokkyu-ken): an additional fee added on the express fee, also calculated by distance and varies by season
    2. without reserved seat (or non reserved seat) (自由席: jiyu seki tokkyu-ken): no additional fee added

So, the total can be broken into the following two:

  • JPY8,360 of base fare
  • JPY5,810 of express fee
If you don't reserve a seat, hence you'll have to walk to one end of the platform for Car 1-3 (of total 16 cars), the total will be JPY13,320, so JPY850 less. And if you get a Green car seat (the first class equivalent, normally dead-center of the platform), which are all reserved, the total is JPY19,040, and you are paying additional JPY4,870.

If you decide to get on Hikari (more stops, about 3 hours) or Kodama (stop every station, 5 hours?), the express fee is slightly cheaper than that for Nozomoi. But, traveling on the bullt train is more expensive than traversing the same distance on regular trains (over 10 hours on multiple trains). Anyways, in general, the longer the ride, the more expensive.

When you are using Suica in Tokyo or Osaka, you tap in and out and get on and off commuting trains, you are basically just paying the base fee and the express fee is not applied.

Adding segments

If you decide to go to Shin Osaka from Kyoto on the bullet train, the cost is calculated the same way, the combination of the base and the express fees. The total on Nozomi with a reserved seat is JPY3,030 (JPY580 for base and JPY2500 for reserved express), but if you decided to go with a non reserved seat (15min anyway), it will be JPY1,450 where the express fee is redued to 870 while the base fee unchanged.

So the total of the two segments is the sum of 14,170 (reserved) and 1450 (non reserved), JPY15,620. But there's a way to reduce the total cost, had you known that you'd go to Kyoto and then Shin-Osaka by the time you purchase the first set of tickets. That is to buy the base fee in one go, from Tokyo to Shin Osaka. So, you are paying

  • JPY8,910 of base fare, Tokyo to Shin Osaka
  • JPY5,810 of express fee, reserved seat from Tokyo to Kyoto
  • JPY870 of express fee, non-reserved seat from Kyoto to Shin Osaka
So, the total is now JPY15,590, so 30yen less :)

Big deal, you might say, but consider the following situation. I was traveling from Fukuoka (Hakata) to Tokyo in Aug 2022, stopping on the way at Okayama (1 night), Shin-Osaka (2 nights), and Kyoto (no night) before Tokyo. I bought the base fare in one go from Hakata to Tokyo, and the express fee from Hakata to Okayama. I still had to purchase the additional express fees separately as I went, so the cost of the express fees remained unchanged, but buying the base fee from Hakata to Tokyo in one segment was JPY14,080, which is the photograph above.

Had I bought the base fees separately by segment, namely

  1. Fukuoka to Okayama: 7,480
  2. Okayama to Shin Osaka: 3,080
  3. Shin Osaka to Kyoto: 580
  4. Kyoto to Tokyo: 8360
The total would've been JPY19,500, so buying the base fee in one go is JPY5,420 less expensive, or 28% off. However, there are several rules/restrictions applied, so you need know what you are doing.
  • The base fee (乗車券: jyosha-ken) comes with a validity period. So you need to complete your journey before it expires. The longer the distance, the longer the validity period. For the ticket from Hakata to Tokyo, it was valid for 7 days, which worked for me.
  • JR defines the (greater) city areas, such as Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Okayama, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Tokyo, etc. You can get off at one station in each of the city areas, not two, and get back on from the same station and continue your journey, which enabled me to travel this way.
  • You have to carry on in one direction. You can't turn back.
  • If you get off at one station in one area, Okayama station, for example, divert to a local train and get off at another station in the same area, Kojima, 20min away to south, for example, the ticket will be terminated at that last station.
  • Upon exiting from a station in the middle of trip, it's advisable to use only the Shinkansen ticket gate, not the transfer gate to other JR lines. So, when you get off at Okayama station, and you wanted to transfer to a local train to Kojima and back,
    1. Get out of using the bullet train ticket through Shinkansen gate, not the transfer gate
    2. Once you are out, re-enter through the regular train (non-Shinkansen) gate using Suica (or Pasmo, etc), and complete that trip to Kojima using Suica.
    3. From Kojima, use Suica to come back to Okayama, and get ouf of the gate using Suica.
    4. After that use the shinkansen ticket through the Shinkansen gate re-enter and proceed to another Shinkansen ride.
  • There may be more rules but I just don't know.

Buying Base and Express fee separately

You could buy a base ticket alone from the ticketing machine. And you can buy express fees alone from the machines, maybe in separate transactions.

But it's probably best to go to the counter and talk in person, and when you do, you should clearly articulate the distinction between 乗車券 (josha-ken) and 特急券 (tokkyu-ken) and that you want them to be separated. I am not sure if conversing in English works in this situation. I've never spoken in English to JR staff.

I've known this trick (though legit) since when I was a kid, but many Japanese don't seem to know this, and some station staff don't appear to know this either.

As always, it's best to plan ahead and know exactly which train to get on (name and number and time, e.g. Nozomi 61 departing from Tokyo at 8:00AM) and list those on a sheet of paper.

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