I've always been jealous of tourists using the JR Pass but I'm still a bit angry and shocked over the MASSIVE MARGINS they're increasing the price by 😭 But it's such a big change I wanted to get a video out as soon as I could! What do you guys think about this? 😬
so, i am preparing a list of things and places i wanna go in Japan as a first timer, should I even bother with that now? or wait? I am planning on going to Japan in 2025. also looking at prices so i can make sure i have enough lol. Thanks for any info.
@@SpartacusTheHumble Most first timers tend to do the "golden route", which is Tokyo, Kyoto, and maybe Osaka. I would definitely recommend this for a first trip, and you can easily fill out a 2-week itinerary for this. With just 1-2 bullet train rides between Tokyo > Kyoto > Tokyo, the 7-day JR pass even at its current price wouldn't have been worth it anyway, so you probably wouldn't have needed it in the first place.
@@bitter_gourd awesome, thanks for the info. btw, so i can know later down the road. where does one fill out the 2 week itinerary? also, I shouldn't worry about the JR Pass then? thanks for the response and info..
@@SpartacusTheHumble The itinerary is really your choice haha. I personally use Google Sheets to make a budget, list all the spots I want to go to (including admission costs and hours), prep and packing lists etc. It's a lot of cross-referencing Google Maps to plan out the best routes for the day (ex: you would group attractions that are close to each other for one day, then explore another group of attractions on another day) for sure but I enjoy doing it myself. I rarely do up a schedule when I travel, but I did for my particular trip to Japan tomorrow. And yeah, if you're only doing Tokyo > Kyoto > Tokyo, I wouldn't bother with the JR pass.
Having done about 20 odd trips to Japan in 16 years, I am a frequent user of the JR Pass and my recommended style of use is very difficult to recommend now. As you've stated, Tokyo and Kyoto are compulsory cities for most tourists. For first timers I would always recommend staying in the city you've landed in and using Suica to see that city, then using the pass once that city is done to get to other cities and side trips. Side trips are hugely important. As you said, the boost economies of rural cities that would not otherwise get tourists. My last trip in January this year was on a 3 week rail pass. And it illustrated one bonus of the pass. Stay in a small city that is central, and day trip from there. In my case I stayed in Morioka, and travelled through to many cities from here like Akita, Aomori, Kakunodate, Miyako and Hakodate. Many of these towns rarely get tourists and because they're so well connected to Shinkansen's, are unlikely to get foreign tourists in large numbers again. (I was based in our family second home of Fukuoka so I was personally doing a lot of trips on the Skinkansen to get up to those places) I think the reasons for this change are as follows: 1. Accounting - JR has moved from having tourists show a pass that does not necessarily have a record for the trip, to electronic self booking which records each trip and locks it in. This method has resulted in an inability to double book (which I used to do all the time in the past), but shows JR exactly what they're missing out on in terms of how much tourists would actually pay. Effectively I think they're charging for the pass, the actually average of the cost of the trip - meaning zero discount. Ironically this will mean that those who still get the pass will feel like they need to overuse the pass even more to get the money's worth. 2. The pass is controlled by JR Central. It's the Osaka-Tokyo route that is most impacted. To be honest, when I travelled in January most of the trains were barely 1/2 full.... so it's a problem only some of the time. JR did make things harder with baggage I feel to discourage international tourists with large bags. But by JR Central wanting to put in the brakes, impacts other destinations outside this. Areas like Tohoku, Iwate and Kyushu that beg for tourists will see them drop off. 3. Cash grab and exchange rates - This is the dodgy bit. Although exchange rates are weak against the USD, the Yen is actually not too weak against a lot of other currencies. Australians and Europeans for example are finding it almost as expensive as ever and the price increase prices them out. Whereas US citizens might find this to be only a small amount above old prices. This US centric thinking fails though because American tourists don't even account for 5% of international tourists. And compared to the US population, Americans don't really travel that much (0.4% of the US population travels to Japan each years vs 2.3% of Australia for example) This is literally just a money grab in my opinion.... particularly so in that Japan is far less impacted by inflationary issues that are impacting other countries. Inflation for the period I was in Japan this year for example was actually negative -0.7% - meaning prices were falling. 4. Using international inflation instead of Japanese inflation. - It's worth noting that the JR Pass has increased in line with inflation for the past 15 years or so. Increases have been fair because of this. This price increase is out of step with this and statistically this would be like applying about 30 years of inflation at once (because Japan have extremely low inflation compared to reset of the world). That said, the price increase is roughly the same as the average global inflation rate (according to IMF) of 3% for roughly 12 years. JR is simply trying to make massive profits here.
Was that US and Australia percentages based on per capita? Because I feel like per capita, Australia represents a much higher percent of international tourists both in Japan and worldwide especially when compared to the likes of US citizens. This is mainly because we get alot more paid vacation time than the US and we also dont border with any other country so Aussies love to go flying everywhere and just accept thats part of holidaying.
@@aussieangelchick the percentages are literal - not per capita. On a per capita basis there are well over 10 times as many Australians compared to Americans. But that isn't surprising given Australia has an extremely high rate of travel by comparison. Get on any Contiki bus in Europe, and you'll likely find that Aussie dominate. The running joke I hear is that Australians love to escape being a prison island..... But I suspect the truth is that despite being further from everywhere, Australians love nothing more than to see the world in order to appreciate what they have, never once assuming that the rest of the world didn't have something amazing to offer. With regards to Japan, this is 100% true. Japan provides an alternate view to everything and a country that can make any country appreciate their difference, and also has such a difference in itself that it too much be appreciated.
It’s funny. I went to Japan for the first time in October, when it had just opened up and it was so quiet everywhere. I didn’t realise until seeing this video how lucky I was!
For the popular Tokyo to Kyoto trip a less known option is the Hokuriku Arch pass which is just priced at 25K for seven days. It is longer but takes the less crowded Hokuriku Shinkansen route which passes more pristine locations such as Karuizawa, Nagano, Toyama, Kanazawa, Kagaonsen, etc.
I totally agree that this is going to cause more problems in the places that are already overcrowded. Tokyo and Kyoto are two cities where you can easily fill out a 2-week trip without getting bored and in my opinion this will only encourage people to plan their entire trip around one city. While this could mean spending more time in smaller cities like Hiroshima, Sapporo, or Kanazawa for people who have visited before and who want to explore different parts of Japan, I feel like most people would plan shorter trips when visiting those locations as compared to when doing the golden route between Tokyo and Kyoto. I'm leaving for a trip just tomorrow, and the only reason I'm planning a lot of day trips (including out to the supposed "least attractive" prefecture of Ibaraki) is because I have the JR Pass. The new prices for the JR pass are basically the cost of a whole plane ticket (for the 14-day pass) and is definitely not worth it at all unless you want to speed run the country.
Exactly this. I went to Japan in 2019 and we went to 2 side trips because we had the pass and wanted to enjoy other areas. We could have spent more time in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and skipped those if it was too expensive. I probably would have still individually purchased the Tokyo >Kyoto route.
@@meaganstratton1733 Agreed, and that's the thing. Tokyo > Kyoto are two destinations that are very appealing even for returning travellers, so I don't see how making the JR pass exorbitantly expensive really solves any problems. The places that suffer are the small towns or lesser-known cities.
Yeah, the price increase is kind of bad. With my trip itinerary, it was barely worth the 7 day pass. (And I traveled to like 7 different cities in 4 different prefectures). With the price increase, you would need to make a round trip from Kyushuu to Sapporo to make it worth the price, and considering most people only choose 2 or 3 destinations on a 7 day trip, its value isn't really likely anymore. If anything, its probably going to decrease the likelihood of visiting less popular places and increase the likelihood of people sticking to the most popular destinations because the value add of going to other places isn't as good anymore, especially since the JR Pass was quite a good value ticket for those traveling far and on a budget. In theory it makes sense, more expensive = less people using. Conversely, it means for tourist (most of which are on a tight budget) they can go to less destinations, thus making more of them stay in already crowded areas.
It seems Kyoto is actually going to implement a priority pass for residents who need to go to work. Buses are crazy crowded. They have also cancelled the day pass for buses as well.
You've nailed it about the side trips. When we got a 14-day JR Pass, we used the heck out of it, not going very far afield though with the bulk of time spent in Tokyo and Kyoto. Ito, Nagoya, Osaka, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Lake Biwa, Mitaka - I wouldn't do most without the pass.
I really hope that with the price increase they make the ticket digital. Having the same small paper ticket for 14 days of use was kinda stressful (I constantly had to make sure our whole family had theirs as we went through the gates, especially when sometimes we would use the Suica card for non-supported routes). Just as a note, for children 4 and under the pass is free however they technically do not get their own seat, so you cannot make reservations for them and if the train is full/someone has the seat next to you reserved, they have to sit on your lap. When we went with my then 3 year old, we opted to get the half price ticket because for some of the longer trips, I didn't want to risk having to have him on my lap the whole way. Obviously with the price hike this may be more of a concession since half price is still pretty high, but just as a heads up to people traveling with small children!
@@KennyLamTravel oof sorry, I hope you weren't out too much for the remaining trip(s). We had a close call for one of our companions on day 3 of 14 but luckily it was just tucked into another pocket in the card holder.
Yea I had the 21 day pass with my family and was worried about the change to the simple paper ticket, as compared to the old style; however it worked out ok. As for switching between the JR pass and suica I would hold up the ticket or my wallet with the suica in it over my head so they could all see which one they were supposed to be using.
Agree with going digital, and I hope that they also go digital with the Exchange Order (EO) like JR West and Kyushu did or abolish the stupid 30 days exchange window before the pass start date. I'm almost at the end of my 70 day trip and I somehow lost the the passenger copy EO for my last 21D pass due to having so many EOs. When I tried redeeming all of my EOs they wouldn't let me and in the end I had to buy another 21D one to replace the lost EO. Although it's primarily my mistake but who thought keeping the EO as a paper document was a good idea? It can get wet in the rain or get torn somehow and can also get mixed up with other documents. At least I can keep the pass ticket in a wallet, pass holder or phone case. Overall, it is pretty frustrating.
I just got back from Japan. Kyoto was insanely busy, almost to the point where it wasn’t enjoyable. I used a JR pass and it was worth it. I did the side trips. It was my first time travelling around Honshu. Next time I will definitely visit less touristy places and try to do it more cheaply on local trains/buses. Great tips!
Don't get me started on the hotel prices that skyrocketed right now. I think every establishment is just trying to get back the losses during the covid.
I totally agree with you. When I was there I went to several cities only because I wanted to get the best value out of my JR ticket, if not I would've just spent all my time in Tokyo and Kyoto. The funny thing is that my favorite places weren't in any of those cities, but in Takayama.
I suspect part of the reason for the change may be from Japanese people complaining tourists are filling the local trains (because you can’t use the JR pass on the Nozomi limited express trains). So they are simultaneously allowing the upgrade (surcharge) to buy Nozomi tickets and adjusting the overall pass price. Further, JR is pushing the 21-day reserve tickets, “SmartEX 21”. Instead of using the JR Pass, and getting on whenever I want (which lead to some overcrowding) I can reserve my seat 21-30 days in advance and save about 10%-25% off the regular price.(¥14170 vs ¥12600, for the Green Car). SmartEX has its own web/phone App, so I think that’s the new marketing push: fill seats with advance purchase to eliminate last minute overcrowding. For a tourist, making a 21-day advance ticket purchase isn’t a problem. This also cuts down on tourists with JR passes having to queue to get a paper ticket at the ticket office. Finally, JR is also promoting some train ticket + hotel packages, with that same 21-day advance purchase. Booking two nights and the round trip train ends up being a 25% savings over booking it all individually. That’s like getting a free return train ticket. (The JR parent company owns many hotels, not just the railroad.) The booking window is between 21 and 28 days.
@@Bruxinhasorridente Correct. However Allison’s video is mostly discussing the crowded train travel to Kyoto and short local trips (Nara, Osaka) and day trips from Tokyo. All of those are covered by EX. For tourists covering lots of places, the JR pass is still a good deal.
I agree with much of what you said. With regards to the over tourism point, I think they raised prices on the JR pass to also discourage budget travellers. They want fewer budget travellers and more luxury travellers, who will spend more on their trips.
You can still travel with small budget if you except the cost of the plane (i'm from europe and it's what cost the most of my trips ) We just need to use the local jr pass instead of the jr pass . it requiert to navigate with these multiple pass and as annoying as it is , it may be cheaper to do if planned accordingly .
I'm just back from 2 weeks in Japan using the Green JR Pass. We (2 of us, no kids) visited Tokyo, Kamakura, Odawara (no overnight stay), Hakone, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto (including Nara) and Osaka spending 1 - 3 nights in each. It is possible it may be our only trip to Japan so I wanted to see as much as possible and took advice from a friend who had lived there, hence visiting Kamakura which was a little off the tourist trail. I was really surprised at how many tourists (or possibly not tourists, but at least non-Japanese) there were in Tokyo and Kyoto was on the verge of being overrun. Hiroshima was busy but still OK and Nagasaki seemed to be dependent on whether a cruise ship was in. We only had one very rainy day in Osaka, so difficult to assess. Narita Airport on arrival was a bit of a nightmare. In my opinion, you shouldn't underestimate the sheer convenience of being able to travel from city centre to city centre by train vs hours spent getting to and from and at airports. If you are determined to see Japan then I think some will/should still pay more for the JR Pass because of this. travel from/to both Narita and Kansai was an hour each way from a main station, by the time you've found the right platform and lugged your bags to it and on and off the train, plus you've then got all the security etc. through the airport. Do this 3 or 4 times in a 2 week trip and it will eat into a lot of available time. We had some cases where we couldn't get seats in the Shinkansen Green cars because it was fully booked but, in reality, the standard class is still pretty comfortable. I have to say that a lot of the passengers in the Green cars did appear to be tourists and that if I was a local wanting to travel for business and do work etc., this could be frustrating. Regarding the luggage situation, we had backpacks which went on the overhead racks no problem and we saw even quite large suitcases fit too. Would we have visited all these places without the JR Pass? I think I would have spent more to have the pass just for the convenience and would definitely not have gone for the Green Car option, which was an indulgence. Comparing the JR Pass to European Interrail tickets then I think even the new prices still make them appear equivalent value - a continuous 15 day Interrail pass for someone over 27 is 814€ (90K Yen, 674 USD) - perhaps this is what they looked at for comparison?
In only 2 weeks you visit all of these place ? Wow it's impressive . I was in japan last months for 3 weeks (right before the hanami , but i was able to see some sakura nonetheless). Early march was not crowled at all but late march was the begining of the tourist arrival i think (i'm not sure because i finish my trip on tokyo which is very populated as you may know ) I still don't know how you can do so many place without rushing but i hope you have a plaisant journey nonetheless . I didn't take the green jr pass and all the shinkansen i took wheren't full (i do my reservation one or two day before , maybe it help ) , so what you experience give me some insight that the number of tourist is really increasing too much during hamami (or maybe that unfortunalty you didn't reserve your train ticket on time , but i don't blame you at all if that the case) And yeah , for someone like me who haven't at all take a plane before , "Narita Airport on arrival was a bit of a nightmare." was definitivly true ^^. (19 hours plane from france wasn't helping ) PS: as an french , i didn't even know that an european interrail tickets exist . I've travel to some country by train (love train , it's cheap and confy , at least in europe and japan ) , but not with these ticket. Could be fun to do an eurotrip with these tickets ; it never traverse my mind so , thanks for the sharing experience !
@Karl with a K "We went all around the entire country for 1/2 the price of the airfare" As an european , it is cheap but not chocking at all . This is what you get with high quality standard in train , affordable and efficient . And to be fair , why using the line to reserve seating ? you can use the machine in the train station to reserve a seat , no need for the crowled line of people . We have internet , we can look at how it work here. Just learn it once and it will save you a lot of time I will prefer if you can do it on internet , like in france or germany , but japan is somewhat "insert cliché but true statement" between tradition and modernity . You can also look at the JR pass , it's a paper card , not a magnetic one or an app. It's outdated as f but maybe it's a part of his charm ^^
Congrats again for your Graduation, your Kimono was so very beautiful!!! My family was honored and it felt like a true privilege to use the JR Pass for 7 & 14 days. We hope to get a job on a US base, fingers crossed. Take care and special thanks for sharing your Japan life!!
I really agree with your comment about needing to support the side places, hearing that a lot of remote towns are slowly being ghosted by the youth leaving for the big cities the likes of Kyoto are only going to be over populated by domestic residents as well in the future. I hope the country doesn't just cause a downward spiral because this and a good middle solution is found
Hi Alison, I just arrived home in Australia from a 3 week trip in Japan. We had a 2 week JR pass for 5 adults. It was totally worth it. I did Tokyo, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Iwakuni, Himeji, Osaka, Kyoto, Uji, Nara, Hakone. Ticket then ran out and we paid less about $15 each to get back to Tokyo via Yokohama. I never used the direct Kyoto Tokyo so that helped. Getting seats was okay but they were running out fast and we only booked a few days ahead. Tourism in Kyoto and Shinjuku in Tokyo were insane. Disneysea queues were at the ridiculous levels. Arashiyama was not enjoyable at all due to the crowds. I agree overload tourism is causing issues. I had waited nearly four years to visit. So I would go anyway. We do plan to come back as just a couple in a 2 years time, but we are picking off the well worn track places instead, hiring a car for some of it and maybe just buying a single bullet train ticket for a small part of it. Thanks for the update, glad I went when I did.
Thanks for the heads up! I love travelling in Japan, and JR pass was a crazy good deal. But as you say, maybe those regional passes will become more economical, and possibly pull tourists into the places less travelled. I had already decided that next time we visit, I want to revisit Kanazawa (great town for the arts!) see some of the southwest, and possibly Okinawa. So, I guess that will be a focus, and I'll forgo Kyoto, as I went last time. However, One could easily spend a week in that little town, there is so much culture and beauty to enjoy! I'm glad that JR is taking steps to augment their passes, hopefully to help preserve the charm of Kyoto and other over-run areas.
This is like Disney’s MO. Parks too busy? Raise the ticket price. This news makes me sad that travelers with a limited budget won’t be able to afford to visit places they’d like to see.
@@yuvalgabay1023 I am saying too many tourists are coming to Japan. Locals are concerned. If the price goes up, less people will come to Japan, but the country’s economy will still benefit the same amount.
I’m just about to complete 14 day Kanto region tour. I made 4 side trips including Kyoto (Yes it’s crazy but we made it to just cover the fushimi inari shrine). My take away is transport in the rest of the country is very different from Tokyo. You have trains to almost everywhere in Tokyo every 10-15mins. This is not the case once you get out. In some places the trains are there only for once every hour and the buses are also infrequent. So you really need to plan your side trip or you have to make sure to stay there 2 days minimum to cover the less explored areas. Another problem that we faced was getting a taxi. We almost got stranded in Fujikyu when we were exploring randomly. Fortunately there was a bus that came around 7:30 pm. I heard the GoApp works but for some reason we were unable to get the otp to activate it for Japanese sim we got.
Enjoy watching your videos. I’m a retired airline pilot who used to fly to Japan quite often. Love the country for so many reasons and even married a Japanese girl who lives in Morioka. I can’t believe the high cost of the Blue train train tickets and really wish that the JR group offered a frequent flyer program like the airlines….but then again, when you’re the only game in town they can (and will) charge whatever they want. Sucks for us. Hey, one Tokyo tip for you: go visit my favorite blues bar in Japan - Bright Brown in the Nakano Station arcade - Thursday night jam session is really kool.
This will change my future plans for sure. I didnt mind riding trains for long periods of time since in Canada long road trips in a cramped car is very common. So on a relaxing train thats so easy to get on and off of it was totally worth it. But if these prices stick we'll likely do a lot more flying to the more distant locations then try using regional passes if possible.
Kind of glad I was able to get my one month trip done a few months ago haha. I agree about your point about people still going to Kyoto regardless. The JR pass definitely made my trip possible. Starting in Kyushu and ending up in Aomori. It let me check out other places like Ibaraki and Kanazawa.
I'm going to Japan for the first time at the end of the year, and everyone's telling me to buy the JR pass. But now I definitely need to do my own analysis to see if it's still worth it to get it. This is a very helpful and informational video 👍🏻 thank you!
That's a tough change. We just went for 15 days (using the 14 day pass), and thought it was already close to not being worth it compared to normal ticket pricing. It was fun to not have to worry about cost, just find the JR lines, and go. I didn't find it to be too insanely busy, except buses in Kyoto. Which.. compared to Tokyo, the rail infrastructure was lacking.. so of course it was worse. We really enjoyed our hikes though, not many people venture off the 'top 10 tourist spots', so Kyoto was really fun for us. Very pretty shrines, and paths that were virtually free of people for hours on end. I hope other people enjoy the trip, but I could see how this will hurt the side ventures. If I was to schedule without the pass, ya, for sure I'd be local and focused on just the city I ticketed to.
A friend and I had the chance to go to Japan earlier this year and we actually made those side stops you mentioned precisely because of the JR pass. After hearing the announcement, we began chatting about going again in a few years and we arrived at the same conclusion as you did, that being, we better keep ourselves to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. We’d like to visit Kumamoto again and go to several other places we couldn’t go before, but the JR pass was one of the factors that made such long trips feasible. It remains to be seen how this will affect less popular cities, but I believe you are right on the money about them just wanting to get rid of the pass. However, a gradual increase would have been preferable since this will meet much backlash. Though perhaps they don’t care.
So glad you did an analysis on this. It really is crazy to see the kind of hectic trip you'd need to take in order to make just the 7-day JR Pass worth it at the new price. My fiancée and I are spending 2 weeks in Japan for our honeymoon in October and this took us by surprise. We're hoping that we'll make it just in time on the old price, but we're being cautious and planning our itinerary with this change in mind.
@@UrMrR1ght We're aiming to buy them by July/September. The voucher has a 90 day window to be redeemed. So we're crossing our fingers we can avoid the price hike if we purchase it a month or two before our trip. They still haven't provided all the details though so not 100% sure if that'll work or not.
You're absolutely right. When I was originally planning our trip (for 2020, RIP) it was just Tokyo and Kyoto, because as you say, it was cheaper than the pass. But for this year's 2nd attempt, I wanted to extend the length. At first I was going to spend longer in Kyoto, but I realized that the rail pass wasn't much more than just Kyoto, so I kept Kyoto at 2 days and instead added Hakone (speaking of expensive transit passes, lol... they know they have you), Osaka, and Hiroshima. So there you go, exactly as you said. Was already planning on getting the bus/rail passes in Kyoto as just taking the subway a couple times during the day makes it break even and there's peace of mind that comes with having it, "just in case". The price of those one day Kyoto passes went up a lot since 2020 as well, but they're still barely worth it.
I just got back from Japan with my gf we both had JR green car passes man those things are a God send sucks that others won't be able to enjoy it... it really made our trip from Tokyo to Osaka lots of day trips too we saved so much!
9:30 Another very common JR itinerary could be NRT T1/T2 'Nex to Tokyo Hotel (use Pasmo/Suica or JR), Tokyo->Kyoto->Himeji->Shin Osaka->Osaka Castle->Shin Imamiya (Namba Tsutenkaku) -> Nara->Kyoto/Shin Osaka ->Tokyo? Your analysis has some valid points. I also worry that regional tourism will suffer. I had a 14 days trip in January but had to stay 7 days in total around Tokyo - I used JR Rail Pass from Tokyo->Nagasaki->Okayama->Himeji->Osaka->Tokyo->Kanazawa->Tokyo. Great savings, but travelling on the train almost every other day. Fast efficient, and relatively on time (even during snow storms). Relaxing and chilled, yup, when you're onboard trains. The JR announcement is rather vague about the amount of price hike and the date. It could be the case that JR is testing market reactions - lots of negative responses, such as yours saying what is the point of JR Pass after the price hike, may positively impact the final outcomes. I would like to know the extra fee to allow us to board with Nozomi and Mizuho super-express trains. How much and how many times are we supposed to pay extra fees? If JR plans to slap an extra fee for every train, my enthusiasm for JR Rail Pass would substantially dissipate. Even with a one-off extra fee, it has a bad aftertaste, as if we are paying for the privilege to travel like locals. JR Rail Pass virtually segregates foreign tourists using JR Rail Pass only on two trains (Hikari departing 03 past every hour or 33 past every hour; who would travel on Kodama unless you plan to go to Atami or Toyohashi, or Hamamatsu, or some places like that. I am fine with the current policy if that is how they would like to run this service, but I have a big issue with their explanation in the English pamphlet about why JR Rail Pass holders are not allowed to use Nozomi or Mizuho trains. It states that these two trains are run by separate companies hence JR Rail Pass do no work. As far as I know, no separate corporate entities within JR specifically run only Nozomi and Mizuho trains. However, JR East, JR West, JR Kyushu, etc., exist. I strongly believe. Therefore, this is nonsense, or should I say a lie that pacifies JR Rail Pass users. I believe JR can do far better than this - simply tell customers that it is a corporate policy to segregate overseas visitors from high-demand Nozomi/Mizuho trains to ensure seats are available to local residents. Anyway, the overconcentration of tourists in a few spots would continue or increase regardless of the pricing of the JR Rail Pass. Lastly, Japanese tourism should uphold the highest standard (remember the "Omotenashi" slogan before 2021(2022?) Tokyo Olympics). Overseas tourists knock on the door because they love their experience - reducing it artificially or trying to be nasty to visitors (of all colours and from all places) is a silly way to curve tourism. Invest more in the infrastructure and speed up inefficient systems. Everything in Japan runs on time efficiently, but the system is far from optimal or efficient (They are conservative and reluctant to change. Japanese workers are nice and courteous but not always the most efficient, productive, or innovative. Prove me wrong, if you will. 🙊🙈🙉😅
I don’t know why she is not mentioning an alternative. It is called a bus. When I lived in Matsumoto Japan for several years I would always take the bus to Tokyo for a mere 3700 Yen or less. You get to see the country side and the bus stops half way for green tea. Of course if you are in rush or have limited time the train is the way to go.
😮😮😮😢😢 Thank u for this vídeo. I think u are right about Kyoto getting even more crowded. I'm sad because I have being planning ALL my travel around the JR pass. I will have to think about it, it's my first time and I don't speak much japanese and the process of bying tickets individualy seams hard.
Thank you for your great videos. You helped us have a great time in Japan. I agree with you, the JR pass totally encouraged us to take lots of side trips. We probably won’t do that now for our next trip.
You could still make side trips if you use well the local jr pass. As the video say , they are a lof of local option for train , and if you do some planning , you can manage to see a lot of things , but it's less convenient . i've done some simulation plan the next 2 hours (after seeing this video ) to see if how much it cost to do what i wanted to do and if you stick to some area for the duration of your local jr pass and switch to another local pass after , it's worth the money , even to the old jr standard! of course it's less convenient because you have to validate your next local jr pass to a train station but better that option than paying this costly jr pass or staying only in one place. Japan have so much to offer that it would be a waste to skip that!
My first thought was that sidetrip will not be affordable and we will be encouraged to stay longer at one place like kyoto who seem to be a nice place for that . BUT , we can still use the local JR pass and even if they are a lot of them and it's confusing , the option is here . We just have to visit japan differently to adapt , that doesn't mean we have to stay at one place but we can stay around one area with the local pass and move to another area with another local jr pass . I don't know if it is cheaper (probably not if you plan to use the train around different region ) but it can be manageable for sure. Maybe you will visit some place you didn't think about in a first place because it's in the range of your local JR pass : )
I just returned from my trip to Japan … had a JR pass and did side trips to Kanazawa, Takayama, etc … other places that required additional tickets - I would imagine that along with increasing the prices for the JR pass single ride tickets will also increase
Here in Kyoto a day ticket for bus it will be cancelled soon. Now you pay 700 yen and you can use buses all day and change as you wish. But soon not any more! So each time one will need to pay 230yen. But there are rumors that it will soon be higher. And yes in Kyoto now it is hard for us to do daily chores. We hardly enter the trains an buses because of tourists. It’s overcrowded!!!
I quite literally used the JR pass to go everywhere. Went from Nigita to Tokyo to Nagano then to Nagoya and shibuya, Osaka and Kyoto then all the way back
You mentioned that the Tokyo-Kyoto route is saturated by JR Pass holders, but that can't be the case because Nozomi is excluded and is now the majority of all trains running on this line. 25 years ago, there were at least 2 Hikari trains for every Nozomi, and Nozomi was a sort of "exclusive" choice. Over the years, Nozomi has become more common and Hikari less common (about 2 Nozomi to 1 Hikari last time I visited). The Hikari trains may actually be overcrowded by tourists nowadays, but that's because there are fewer trains to transport more tourists. So it would make sense for Nozomi to be more accessible by JR Pass (or to run more Hikari trains on this line). But I agree that it would make more sense to make this repricing more frequently and in smaller increments. For a lot of tourists, it had been useful to avoid worrying about costs and just ride in a carefree manner, but the recent regulation change on registering luggage makes it basically mandatory to stand in line and get a reserved seat ticket. Still, it's nice not to worry about the cost of every choice, or to spend time thinking about which options are cheaper for getting tickets, etc.
Very focused and easy to follow video! But I thought you might want to make a follow-up one since both JR East and JR West announced price hike for the regional JR passes as well starting in October. Most of them see a 50% increase, I think, making planning a regional trip a bit harder becasue you are going to have to take more trains to make it worthwhile.
Thank you very much for sharing and explaining the new upcoming JR Pass price increase coming this fall. My son and I are from the US and we visited Japan during Christmas of 2022 and New Year of 2023. We spent half of our trip in Osaka and then the 2nd half in Tokyo. I purchased the 14-Day JR Pass for Green Car ahead of time online. I also made reservations for both of us for Shinkansen tickets from Osaka to Tokyo on New Year’s Eve knowing it is one of the busiest day for travel in Japan. It was a challenge for us to reclaim our JR Pass at the beginning in Osaka and same little challenge for picking up the reservation tickets. We ended up using the JR Pass on a daily basis for our entire 14 days trip. We took multiple day trips between Osaka and Kyoto. I took Shinkansen from Osaka to Kobe. We took day trips from Tokyo to Hakone and Tokyo to Yokohama with our JR Pass. Since we have the Green Car Pass, we were able to seat in the green cars when the regular cars are packed. So overall, we are happy with the JR Pass and it gave us a lot of flexibility and convenience for our trip in Japan.
Back in Japan at the moment (not on rail pass this time). I've been thinking about this and I think there is an alternate solution to the problem JR believe they're solving. I suspect the problem is Tokyo-Osaka being swamped. They're making it worse I feel by charging more then saying that pass holders can use the Nozomi. What they should do instead is increase the pass price by inflation (which in Japan isn't much). Then charge a surcharge for any pass holder wanting to use Tokyo-Osaka. This would have several benefits: 1. Would reduce use of the Tokyo-Osaka portion (this route and sales of the JR Pass itself are controlled by JR Central) 2. Would encourage different routes (e.g. via Takayama and Kanazawa for example). 3. Would still encourage or allow tourism off the beaten track to small towns that need tourism badly I suspect that with the new price changes: 1. Tourists will stay in a single major city where they land 2. Tourists will potentially use cheap air routes (which further encourage just staying in cities) 3. Tourists may consider Japan is not as affordable or convenient (one of the main reasons to consider it) and consider alternate countries to visit
I saw the announcement a few days back and I had a communication with the local JTB outlet here in Canada. Apparently you can purchase a rail pass at the old prices until the end of September. You can purchase these for use 180 days prior to your intended travel but you have to make sure they issue the pass to you only 90 days before intended use as once you have it issued you only get 3 months til you have to use it (or lose it). Though I guess this is still all subject to changes - I was planning a long overdue family visit and contemplated suggesting this to a couple of friends who wanted to go at the same time but depending on how this all shakes out and if the 180 day purchase allowance timeframe is still allowed plans may change for them. I typically don't purchase the pass since my family is all in one area but anyone travelling multiple cities this is a big setback. Hopefully they will lower the prices some to make it worth it again. I also heard beyond the buses and planes, there are ferries you can take if you're not travelling anywhere inland.
It’s definitely worth doing a video to tell tourists about how easy it is to add suica/ pasmo cards to their Apple wallet (not sure if similar for non-iPhone users) - literally takes less than a minute to set up. Then you can just tap your phone on the IC pad on all trains/buses (except Shinkansen) to make local travel super easy. Another 10 seconds in Apple wallet to add extra funds if needed. And every time you tap - wallet gives you a notification so you can see how much you have left and if you need to add funds. Means you don’t need to buy a physical ticket like a one day pass, giving you more freedom to choose day by day. (Just came home to Australia from 3 weeks in Tokyo and Kyoto)
Foreign credit cards (afaik pretty much all visa, some mastercard) don't really work for adding funds for smartphone IC. The 3dsecure system or w/e has been broken for a couple of years now and seems no intent to fix. I believe the only way to load money is with apples own card (apple card), which launched in my country the month after my trip QQ. > not sure if similar for non-iPhone users You need an android with the specific IC hardware, so Japanese model. I had one (as well as iphone), but most people don't. Still no luck for me with my Wise card or own countries Visa.
@@marydotjpeg I’m in Melbourne, and it was super easy. There’s only a 1hr time difference, so no jet lag which is great 😊 about 13hrs flight time, if you go direct (no stopovers)
We spent two weeks in the Tokyo area last month, aside from a two day trip to Osaka. I specifically wanted to take the Nozomi train (green car to boot!) which I knew was not going to be included on the JR pass. But honestly, for the price, it was cheaper to just have a Suica that would work on all lines and could be reloaded with smaller amounts. It was right around $300 US total for the two of us over 14 days. The bullet train was just under $450 US. So even at the current rates it was not a huge jump to pay for the trains separately. The new increase is pretty steep, admittedly, and likely will deter folks from buying the pass. However, if you’re planning well in advance it will give plenty of time to work out the math to see if the pass is still worth it.
You're absolutely right. Advance planning and calculations are key. If, however, you are a free-spirited traveler that prefers to do things on the fly, that's not going to be for you.
@@lynda.grace.14 Totally agree! I always end up planning advanced activities (with set date/time) on trips. I forget sometimes that not everyone does that.
@@WiscoMel Right. I blend both strategies. I need to know where my bed is (and in Japan am a member of the Toyoko Inn hotel chain). I rarely stay less than two nights and leave most of the things I choose to do once that is settled to whim and chance. Occasionally I also book an appointment or perhaps a dinner reservation, but I love serendipitous encounters and surprises.
When I was in japan just 2 weeks ago, I have a family home in Kanazawa. I landed in haneda airport in Tokyo, used the JR pass then go this route, Tokyo->Kanazawa, Kanazawa->Tokyo(a few random jr pass uses in Tokyo, probably local trains), Tokyo->Kyoto, Kyoto->Osaka, Osaka->Kyoto, Kyoto->Kanazawa, Kanazawa->Toyko(to fly back to USA). I think after I made my little trip to Osaka it made the 14 day pass a little more worth it, but if I'd known more exactly where I wanted to go I definitely would have used it more for side trips. I saw this news while I was still in Japan and now I am debating on if it makes sense to buy a pass before October and then plan a trip way in advance for using it, but currently I don't know if they will make me pay the difference when I get there if I did do that.
I didn't initially consider your point when I heard this news but I think you're right, this is only going to discourage people from going on day trips or just any trips outside of the major cities, and will have the opposite effect of trying to reduce tourism in Kyoto like you mentioned. When I visited Japan in Nov+Dec with a couple friends it was really freeing being able to just visit wherever we wanted on JR lines that we travelled all the way from Tokyo to Itsukushima Island and everything in-between, including a 3 day stop in Kyoto (it was so freeing that one day we took 5 shinkansens during one trip just because we could haha). I think if we had to use these new prices we'd definitely have to cut out Itsukushima and Hiroshima completely, and would just end up spending more time in Kyoto.
Hi there! 👋🏻 The 7-day JR Setouchi Area Pass might be a good deal for you. 😊The pass allows you to go from Kyoto all the way down to Fukuoka in Kyushu, including parts of Shikoku. It even covers ferry rides between Hiroshima and Miyajima as well as between Hiroshima and Matsuyama on Shikoku. The pass costs around 19,000 Yen and is valid even on the fastest Nozomi and Mizuho Shinkansen between Shin-Osaka and Fukuoka, without a surcharge! There are plenty more regional passes covering the Kansai & Chugoku region that might be interesting for you. 😉✌🏻
@@josephinee.7008 Thank you! Our original trip was just for the one day, so assuming that a 7-day pass is the lowest we'd probably just stick to individual tickets, but if we were to visit again, that pass would definitely be something we'd consider! Both fortunately and unfortunately for different reasons, I'm moving to Japan in a couple months (woo!) but that means I'm ineligible for that pass (boo!). Still something to consider if some friends come and visit though!
@@Reach. Wow, good luck and have fun in Japan! ☺️ I‘ve only just gotten into the regional passes & I think it’s interesting that many of them will let you ride the Nozomi and Mizuho Shinkansen…never knew that any rail pass in Japan would cover those without a surchage, but it sure is an amazing deal! 👍🏻
I just returned from a 3-week Japan trip, staying in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, and Yokohama (along with several additional day trips) and the JR 21-day pass (we did the green pass) was totally worth it with existing price, especially given how much we used JR-based local trains and buses (as well as Narita Express). With the new pricing structure, I'm not sure it would've been worth it (I haven't done the math yet). Glad we were able to take advantage of current pricing. As for flying between cities: that might've been more cumbersome than rail travel. One thing we took advantage of, to make the cross-city trips easier, was baggage-shipping. Three large-ish suitcases ran about 6000-6500 (~US$45-50), and we didn't have to worry about dragging all our luggage to/from train stations and aboard the Shinkansen trains.
I totally agree with your points, I am currently in Tokyo but when I was in Kyoto I used the JR pass to go to Hiroshima, Himeji, Nara, Wakayama, Osaka, and in general around the Kansai region before using it to take the train to Tokyo. My favorite day trips were Wakayama and Hiroshima because there were far fewer tourists than Kyoto. It was a great experience and I would totally recommend it to others but with these changes I could see people being less inclined to make the journey. (edit: I had the 14 day pass)
I loved Wakayama too, I was so surprised about it as it was on a whim back from Koya-san to Osaka. I then decided to change my itinerary and stayed at Wakayama before moving on to Osaka
Great analysis. We will be traveling mid August And yes Tokyo to Kyoto Seems like we will be okay. Sounds like we will be flying. Thanks for the update.
imo They are meant to push the other JR Pass variant. Like the Hikoriku Arch Pass which is a Pass between Tokyo and Kyoto thru Kanazawa. That means it will be against your opinion that Tourism will be lower on those Areas
Very helpful, very interesting video! Thanks for this important information dear Allison and I totally agree with your analysis. For me as a foreign traveler it’s sad to hear about these changes. On the other side, since I changed my travel lifestyle to staying on one area for a longer time I already switched to using those regional passes more often. Because even now, when you’re staying in one area for let’s say a week or two, you’ve get better deals out of these regional passes than the JR pass. But for first time travellers who do the „Golden Route“, those changes are really bad.
Something to think about for sure. Planning on visiting Japan in October/November. This development will come into play when we figure out our itinerary.
100% agree with your analysis. I went with my wife in October and we went to some off-the-main-path places (from Osaka to Hiroshima to Arita down in Kyushu) and that Arita leg was something I would not have done without the JR Pass (and was one of our favorite legs of the trip).
Yes part of the greatness of the JR pass to me was it was a great deal and encouraged me to go further during my 2 weeks than i planned. If it works out to be around the same cost then i would have spent longer in each city and bought each ticket per. Ride instead of pass. Instead of moving on to Hiroshima knowing it was covered in the pass, prob would stay longer in Kyoto.
Compared to the JR Pass old price, directly buying Tokyo-Kyoto Nozomi early discount tickets on Smart EX made more sense for me. It's faster than trains available for JR Pass. I don't really have the energy to visit so many places just to break even a JR Pass. Even thinking about the planning gives me headache.
We are currently in Kyoto, and it's really busy, even mid-week. Btw. Another often overlooked method to get around are the ferries. These provide a reasonable (less paced) but fun way of getting around if you have more time.
This is daunting, and as a first time traveler soon to Japan, I’m glad I’m traveling before the changes. Also I agree that I’m willing to pay for convenience so I wonder if this will work on the overcrowding because that is also disappointing.
Thank you for the great advice. I plan on going to Japan next year you actually mentioned the route I was planning to take so hopefully they won’t take a big impact on my itineraries. Still a bit confused on that but hopefully I’ll get it by then. Thank you.
We are planning to travel next year when things slow down a bit hopefully since there are a lot of people doing makeup trips for when they didn’t go during the pandemic. I think we will try to avoid the pass if we can we want to do a trip where we focus on one area at a time so we aren’t wasting a bunch of time traveling across the country. Do you have advice for first time travelers to Tokyo on where to go? That aren’t super touristy areas?
Thanks for this Allison, super helpful! I was thinking of travelling to Japan next year and the train is something I want to use for my travels. I am hoping that the rural passes don’t change as I am planning to go mostly to rural areas🤞🏻😊
I just came back from Kyoto and it really wasn’t that busy. Nothing compared to taking the subway in Tokyo for example. I was actually surprised that it was fairly quiet considering I was there during cherry blossom. And I totally agree with taking side trips because of the pass. I visited 11 cities in 2 weeks only because I had the pass and thought may as well. Otherwise would have probably just done 3. Very interesting video, thanks for these! Very handy.
Your experience is interesting. Most tourists are flocking to the same handful of sights, so it likely depended on what places you chose to visit plus the time of day you went. On Facebook groups during sakura time, so many were complaining of throngs of people, extensive queues everywhere, & being unable to get food without reservations. March recorded over 1.8M incoming tourists and most probably headed straight to Kyoto. Figures for April haven't been released yet.
I think with my travel it will still be a bargain for 14 day Tokyo to Kagoshima, Kagoshima to Kyoto (plus side trips) , Kyoto to Hakodate , Hakodate to Sapporo, Sapporo to Sendai, Sendai to Tokyo. With maybe a couple more side trips
Third party sites let you buy 3 months in advance while the official JR pass lets you book 1 month in advance. You'll be good to use the JR pass for your trip :)
Yup same here lol can’t move my date either cause it’ll be after uni as no idea what my exam timetable would be that far in the future, and I’m too broke to go sooner 🥲
@@SnowFoxPaperie For all that we know now, we don't know if they will make us pay the difference to use it after the raise if you buy it before. And that is one of the biggest questions still.
My friend & I are planning a huge 3 month trip to Japan maybe in 2 or 3 years covering as much of the country as possible from Hokkaido to Okinawa so maybe the JR Pass will still be worth it & handy to us
wow this gives me so much to think about. I have a 3 week honeymoon in November where we are going Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nagano -> Tokyo. I was just going to book a JR Green pass but now I've got to just sit down with pin and paper and carefully plan all my options before just shelling out for the pass
Keep an eye out for more clarification of how this will be implemented. If it starts Oct 1st and previous rules still apply, you have 90 days to validate your pass after it's purchased. Meaning you could purchase the pass at old price in September and still use it until December. IF...IF the rules don't change. Congratulations on the marriage.
We were there this April and the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and back was nowhere near full. Something you forgot to mention is the many JR trains apart from the Shinkansen that are very convenient that the pass can be used on, e.g. the Chuo Line in Tokyo. Also, there’s the flexibility…mind changing is not a problem. You also didn’t mention whether getting reserved seats will still be free of charge. The increase in price is probably justified, but I do believe it will discourage purchases. Public transport in Japan is fabulous, so I think people will still go where they want to go.
I mean I’m speaking as someone who lives in Japan so I can’t even use the JR Pass (which is also annoying but whatever) so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But I mean they haven’t raised the prices for the pass in a longgg time, it was bound to happen with inflation going off the way it is. I do think it’s a bit excessive for prices going up but I still think a lot of people may find themselves still buying the pass regardless because of the ease of use primarily. Like to me, imagining only having two weeks or so to explore Japan and having to rely on local trains (which is what I use to go to Tokyo anyway. It takes me three hours lol) or even overnight buses sounds like a not fun experience with luggage, kids, hectic plans, etc. It’s a lot of time wasted so I’m not sure how this will change things.
I just got back from Japan and I'll admit, I was kind of confused by how the JR-Pass actually worked. To make use of it, I wanted to travel from Tokyo to places like Kyoto and HIroshima. But it seemed I would have had to ride Nozomi line. Because in all the apps I used, that was the only way to get to Kyoto from Tokyo. It almost stopped me from going there, but when I tried to buy a ticket, I was instructed by an attendant to just use the JRPass for the Nozomi train. Which I did, and it worked. There and back again. So it ended up seeming like buying the 7 day pass was a good idea, but with this information, I'm certain to not buy the JR Pass again. And as you said, I liked having it so I had the option of going to other places outside of the typical places tourists go. I'm a tourist, who actually likes to go to places not many tourists visit.
@Karl with a K That's cool you were able to visit so many other cities. This was actually my first trip to Japan, so the majority of my stay was in Tokyo, so I didn't need to use the JRPass much the second week. As I said, the confusion came in when I wanted to travel to places like Kyoto, but was instructed when I bought the pass it was not usable on the Nozomi line, but the attendant had me use it for that anyway. So again, it was just kind of confusing what I could or could not use the pass on. The first day I would have my JRPass or my Suica card in hand and have to try each one till I started to get a good idea of which train I could use which pass for.
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![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I've always been jealous of tourists using the JR Pass but I'm still a bit angry and shocked over the MASSIVE MARGINS they're increasing the price by 😭 But it's such a big change I wanted to get a video out as soon as I could!
What do you guys think about this? 😬
It’s already so expensive and it’s gonna be even more expensive 😭😭😭😭
so, i am preparing a list of things and places i wanna go in Japan as a first timer, should I even bother with that now? or wait? I am planning on going to Japan in 2025. also looking at prices so i can make sure i have enough lol. Thanks for any info.
@@SpartacusTheHumble Most first timers tend to do the "golden route", which is Tokyo, Kyoto, and maybe Osaka. I would definitely recommend this for a first trip, and you can easily fill out a 2-week itinerary for this. With just 1-2 bullet train rides between Tokyo > Kyoto > Tokyo, the 7-day JR pass even at its current price wouldn't have been worth it anyway, so you probably wouldn't have needed it in the first place.
@@bitter_gourd awesome, thanks for the info. btw, so i can know later down the road. where does one fill out the 2 week itinerary? also, I shouldn't worry about the JR Pass then? thanks for the response and info..
@@SpartacusTheHumble The itinerary is really your choice haha. I personally use Google Sheets to make a budget, list all the spots I want to go to (including admission costs and hours), prep and packing lists etc. It's a lot of cross-referencing Google Maps to plan out the best routes for the day (ex: you would group attractions that are close to each other for one day, then explore another group of attractions on another day) for sure but I enjoy doing it myself. I rarely do up a schedule when I travel, but I did for my particular trip to Japan tomorrow. And yeah, if you're only doing Tokyo > Kyoto > Tokyo, I wouldn't bother with the JR pass.
Having done about 20 odd trips to Japan in 16 years, I am a frequent user of the JR Pass and my recommended style of use is very difficult to recommend now.
As you've stated, Tokyo and Kyoto are compulsory cities for most tourists. For first timers I would always recommend staying in the city you've landed in and using Suica to see that city, then using the pass once that city is done to get to other cities and side trips.
Side trips are hugely important. As you said, the boost economies of rural cities that would not otherwise get tourists.
My last trip in January this year was on a 3 week rail pass. And it illustrated one bonus of the pass. Stay in a small city that is central, and day trip from there. In my case I stayed in Morioka, and travelled through to many cities from here like Akita, Aomori, Kakunodate, Miyako and Hakodate. Many of these towns rarely get tourists and because they're so well connected to Shinkansen's, are unlikely to get foreign tourists in large numbers again.
(I was based in our family second home of Fukuoka so I was personally doing a lot of trips on the Skinkansen to get up to those places)
I think the reasons for this change are as follows:
1. Accounting - JR has moved from having tourists show a pass that does not necessarily have a record for the trip, to electronic self booking which records each trip and locks it in. This method has resulted in an inability to double book (which I used to do all the time in the past), but shows JR exactly what they're missing out on in terms of how much tourists would actually pay. Effectively I think they're charging for the pass, the actually average of the cost of the trip - meaning zero discount. Ironically this will mean that those who still get the pass will feel like they need to overuse the pass even more to get the money's worth.
2. The pass is controlled by JR Central. It's the Osaka-Tokyo route that is most impacted. To be honest, when I travelled in January most of the trains were barely 1/2 full.... so it's a problem only some of the time. JR did make things harder with baggage I feel to discourage international tourists with large bags.
But by JR Central wanting to put in the brakes, impacts other destinations outside this. Areas like Tohoku, Iwate and Kyushu that beg for tourists will see them drop off.
3. Cash grab and exchange rates - This is the dodgy bit. Although exchange rates are weak against the USD, the Yen is actually not too weak against a lot of other currencies. Australians and Europeans for example are finding it almost as expensive as ever and the price increase prices them out. Whereas US citizens might find this to be only a small amount above old prices. This US centric thinking fails though because American tourists don't even account for 5% of international tourists. And compared to the US population, Americans don't really travel that much (0.4% of the US population travels to Japan each years vs 2.3% of Australia for example)
This is literally just a money grab in my opinion.... particularly so in that Japan is far less impacted by inflationary issues that are impacting other countries. Inflation for the period I was in Japan this year for example was actually negative -0.7% - meaning prices were falling.
4. Using international inflation instead of Japanese inflation. - It's worth noting that the JR Pass has increased in line with inflation for the past 15 years or so. Increases have been fair because of this. This price increase is out of step with this and statistically this would be like applying about 30 years of inflation at once (because Japan have extremely low inflation compared to reset of the world).
That said, the price increase is roughly the same as the average global inflation rate (according to IMF) of 3% for roughly 12 years.
JR is simply trying to make massive profits here.
Was that US and Australia percentages based on per capita?
Because I feel like per capita, Australia represents a much higher percent of international tourists both in Japan and worldwide especially when compared to the likes of US citizens.
This is mainly because we get alot more paid vacation time than the US and we also dont border with any other country so Aussies love to go flying everywhere and just accept thats part of holidaying.
@@aussieangelchick the percentages are literal - not per capita.
On a per capita basis there are well over 10 times as many Australians compared to Americans.
But that isn't surprising given Australia has an extremely high rate of travel by comparison. Get on any Contiki bus in Europe, and you'll likely find that Aussie dominate.
The running joke I hear is that Australians love to escape being a prison island.....
But I suspect the truth is that despite being further from everywhere, Australians love nothing more than to see the world in order to appreciate what they have, never once assuming that the rest of the world didn't have something amazing to offer.
With regards to Japan, this is 100% true. Japan provides an alternate view to everything and a country that can make any country appreciate their difference, and also has such a difference in itself that it too much be appreciated.
It’s funny. I went to Japan for the first time in October, when it had just opened up and it was so quiet everywhere. I didn’t realise until seeing this video how lucky I was!
For the popular Tokyo to Kyoto trip a less known option is the Hokuriku Arch pass which is just priced at 25K for seven days. It is longer but takes the less crowded Hokuriku Shinkansen route which passes more pristine locations such as Karuizawa, Nagano, Toyama, Kanazawa, Kagaonsen, etc.
Great, great tip. Thanks!
There is Hokuriku-Kansai as well. If for some reason you come to Japan via KIX and not particularly interested in Tokyo, it might be nice.
@Karl with a K you totally missed the point
@@TheShimming wish i could but the stupid airline in my country only flies to Narita!
so true. Nagano,Gunma, Aomori, Akita are less crowded and beautiful. winter is the best to visit Tokyo and Kyoto. l love japanese winter. so poetic.❤
I totally agree that this is going to cause more problems in the places that are already overcrowded. Tokyo and Kyoto are two cities where you can easily fill out a 2-week trip without getting bored and in my opinion this will only encourage people to plan their entire trip around one city. While this could mean spending more time in smaller cities like Hiroshima, Sapporo, or Kanazawa for people who have visited before and who want to explore different parts of Japan, I feel like most people would plan shorter trips when visiting those locations as compared to when doing the golden route between Tokyo and Kyoto. I'm leaving for a trip just tomorrow, and the only reason I'm planning a lot of day trips (including out to the supposed "least attractive" prefecture of Ibaraki) is because I have the JR Pass. The new prices for the JR pass are basically the cost of a whole plane ticket (for the 14-day pass) and is definitely not worth it at all unless you want to speed run the country.
Exactly this. I went to Japan in 2019 and we went to 2 side trips because we had the pass and wanted to enjoy other areas. We could have spent more time in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and skipped those if it was too expensive. I probably would have still individually purchased the Tokyo >Kyoto route.
@@meaganstratton1733 Agreed, and that's the thing. Tokyo > Kyoto are two destinations that are very appealing even for returning travellers, so I don't see how making the JR pass exorbitantly expensive really solves any problems. The places that suffer are the small towns or lesser-known cities.
@Karl with a K L take
Yeah, the price increase is kind of bad. With my trip itinerary, it was barely worth the 7 day pass. (And I traveled to like 7 different cities in 4 different prefectures). With the price increase, you would need to make a round trip from Kyushuu to Sapporo to make it worth the price, and considering most people only choose 2 or 3 destinations on a 7 day trip, its value isn't really likely anymore. If anything, its probably going to decrease the likelihood of visiting less popular places and increase the likelihood of people sticking to the most popular destinations because the value add of going to other places isn't as good anymore, especially since the JR Pass was quite a good value ticket for those traveling far and on a budget. In theory it makes sense, more expensive = less people using. Conversely, it means for tourist (most of which are on a tight budget) they can go to less destinations, thus making more of them stay in already crowded areas.
It seems Kyoto is actually going to implement a priority pass for residents who need to go to work. Buses are crazy crowded. They have also cancelled the day pass for buses as well.
You've nailed it about the side trips. When we got a 14-day JR Pass, we used the heck out of it, not going very far afield though with the bulk of time spent in Tokyo and Kyoto. Ito, Nagoya, Osaka, Takamatsu, Tokushima, Lake Biwa, Mitaka - I wouldn't do most without the pass.
We had 3-weeks pass and yes, we used it for Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka-Kyoto-Kobe-Himeji ❤❤❤
I emailed JR themselves and as long as you buy the pass before the price increase and activate it before December 15th the old price with be honoured
I really hope that with the price increase they make the ticket digital. Having the same small paper ticket for 14 days of use was kinda stressful (I constantly had to make sure our whole family had theirs as we went through the gates, especially when sometimes we would use the Suica card for non-supported routes).
Just as a note, for children 4 and under the pass is free however they technically do not get their own seat, so you cannot make reservations for them and if the train is full/someone has the seat next to you reserved, they have to sit on your lap. When we went with my then 3 year old, we opted to get the half price ticket because for some of the longer trips, I didn't want to risk having to have him on my lap the whole way. Obviously with the price hike this may be more of a concession since half price is still pretty high, but just as a heads up to people traveling with small children!
Agree... I lost my 7 days JR pass on my last day..
@@KennyLamTravel oof sorry, I hope you weren't out too much for the remaining trip(s). We had a close call for one of our companions on day 3 of 14 but luckily it was just tucked into another pocket in the card holder.
Yea I had the 21 day pass with my family and was worried about the change to the simple paper ticket, as compared to the old style; however it worked out ok. As for switching between the JR pass and suica I would hold up the ticket or my wallet with the suica in it over my head so they could all see which one they were supposed to be using.
Agree with going digital, and I hope that they also go digital with the Exchange Order (EO) like JR West and Kyushu did or abolish the stupid 30 days exchange window before the pass start date. I'm almost at the end of my 70 day trip and I somehow lost the the passenger copy EO for my last 21D pass due to having so many EOs. When I tried redeeming all of my EOs they wouldn't let me and in the end I had to buy another 21D one to replace the lost EO. Although it's primarily my mistake but who thought keeping the EO as a paper document was a good idea? It can get wet in the rain or get torn somehow and can also get mixed up with other documents. At least I can keep the pass ticket in a wallet, pass holder or phone case. Overall, it is pretty frustrating.
@@elkeyes I got lucky, I already was back in Tokyo and lost it at the very last train ride at Gotanda station..
I just got back from Japan. Kyoto was insanely busy, almost to the point where it wasn’t enjoyable. I used a JR pass and it was worth it. I did the side trips. It was my first time travelling around Honshu. Next time I will definitely visit less touristy places and try to do it more cheaply on local trains/buses. Great tips!
Don't get me started on the hotel prices that skyrocketed right now. I think every establishment is just trying to get back the losses during the covid.
Yes, five times as expensive and climbing in some places!
Golden Week is coming, people. 🤷
but eating in the restaurant is amazingly cheap.
I've noticed this as well.
I get Airbnb und shinjuku for just 60$ per Night
I totally agree with you. When I was there I went to several cities only because I wanted to get the best value out of my JR ticket, if not I would've just spent all my time in Tokyo and Kyoto. The funny thing is that my favorite places weren't in any of those cities, but in Takayama.
I suspect part of the reason for the change may be from Japanese people complaining tourists are filling the local trains (because you can’t use the JR pass on the Nozomi limited express trains). So they are simultaneously allowing the upgrade (surcharge) to buy Nozomi tickets and adjusting the overall pass price.
Further, JR is pushing the 21-day reserve tickets, “SmartEX 21”. Instead of using the JR Pass, and getting on whenever I want (which lead to some overcrowding) I can reserve my seat 21-30 days in advance and save about 10%-25% off the regular price.(¥14170 vs ¥12600, for the Green Car). SmartEX has its own web/phone App, so I think that’s the new marketing push: fill seats with advance purchase to eliminate last minute overcrowding.
For a tourist, making a 21-day advance ticket purchase isn’t a problem. This also cuts down on tourists with JR passes having to queue to get a paper ticket at the ticket office.
Finally, JR is also promoting some train ticket + hotel packages, with that same 21-day advance purchase. Booking two nights and the round trip train ends up being a 25% savings over booking it all individually. That’s like getting a free return train ticket. (The JR parent company owns many hotels, not just the railroad.) The booking window is between 21 and 28 days.
the current pass, which is it atm, does not need an extra paper ticket. It is usable at the gates.
SmartEX21 is not for all the country, right?
@@Bruxinhasorridente Correct. However Allison’s video is mostly discussing the crowded train travel to Kyoto and short local trips (Nara, Osaka) and day trips from Tokyo. All of those are covered by EX. For tourists covering lots of places, the JR pass is still a good deal.
Great explanation about the changes, seems like purchasing individual tickets is the way to go and regional passes, I'll keep that in mind! Thank you!
I agree with much of what you said. With regards to the over tourism point, I think they raised prices on the JR pass to also discourage budget travellers. They want fewer budget travellers and more luxury travellers, who will spend more on their trips.
You can still travel with small budget if you except the cost of the plane (i'm from europe and it's what cost the most of my trips )
We just need to use the local jr pass instead of the jr pass . it requiert to navigate with these multiple pass and as annoying as it is , it may be cheaper to do if planned accordingly .
Thank you for your thoughtful breakdown of the situation. Times, they be a'changin'!
I'm just back from 2 weeks in Japan using the Green JR Pass. We (2 of us, no kids) visited Tokyo, Kamakura, Odawara (no overnight stay), Hakone, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto (including Nara) and Osaka spending 1 - 3 nights in each. It is possible it may be our only trip to Japan so I wanted to see as much as possible and took advice from a friend who had lived there, hence visiting Kamakura which was a little off the tourist trail. I was really surprised at how many tourists (or possibly not tourists, but at least non-Japanese) there were in Tokyo and Kyoto was on the verge of being overrun. Hiroshima was busy but still OK and Nagasaki seemed to be dependent on whether a cruise ship was in. We only had one very rainy day in Osaka, so difficult to assess. Narita Airport on arrival was a bit of a nightmare.
In my opinion, you shouldn't underestimate the sheer convenience of being able to travel from city centre to city centre by train vs hours spent getting to and from and at airports. If you are determined to see Japan then I think some will/should still pay more for the JR Pass because of this. travel from/to both Narita and Kansai was an hour each way from a main station, by the time you've found the right platform and lugged your bags to it and on and off the train, plus you've then got all the security etc. through the airport. Do this 3 or 4 times in a 2 week trip and it will eat into a lot of available time.
We had some cases where we couldn't get seats in the Shinkansen Green cars because it was fully booked but, in reality, the standard class is still pretty comfortable. I have to say that a lot of the passengers in the Green cars did appear to be tourists and that if I was a local wanting to travel for business and do work etc., this could be frustrating. Regarding the luggage situation, we had backpacks which went on the overhead racks no problem and we saw even quite large suitcases fit too.
Would we have visited all these places without the JR Pass? I think I would have spent more to have the pass just for the convenience and would definitely not have gone for the Green Car option, which was an indulgence.
Comparing the JR Pass to European Interrail tickets then I think even the new prices still make them appear equivalent value - a continuous 15 day Interrail pass for someone over 27 is 814€ (90K Yen, 674 USD) - perhaps this is what they looked at for comparison?
In only 2 weeks you visit all of these place ? Wow it's impressive . I was in japan last months for 3 weeks (right before the hanami , but i was able to see some sakura nonetheless).
Early march was not crowled at all but late march was the begining of the tourist arrival i think (i'm not sure because i finish my trip on tokyo which is very populated as you may know )
I still don't know how you can do so many place without rushing but i hope you have a plaisant journey nonetheless . I didn't take the green jr pass and all the shinkansen i took wheren't full (i do my reservation one or two day before , maybe it help ) , so what you experience give me some insight that the number of tourist is really increasing too much during hamami (or maybe that unfortunalty you didn't reserve your train ticket on time , but i don't blame you at all if that the case)
And yeah , for someone like me who haven't at all take a plane before , "Narita Airport on arrival was a bit of a nightmare." was definitivly true ^^. (19 hours plane from france wasn't helping )
PS: as an french , i didn't even know that an european interrail tickets exist . I've travel to some country by train (love train , it's cheap and confy , at least in europe and japan ) , but not with these ticket. Could be fun to do an eurotrip with these tickets ; it never traverse my mind so , thanks for the sharing experience !
@Karl with a K "We went all around the entire country for 1/2 the price of the airfare" As an european , it is cheap but not chocking at all . This is what you get with high quality standard in train , affordable and efficient .
And to be fair , why using the line to reserve seating ? you can use the machine in the train station to reserve a seat , no need for the crowled line of people . We have internet , we can look at how it work here. Just learn it once and it will save you a lot of time
I will prefer if you can do it on internet , like in france or germany , but japan is somewhat "insert cliché but true statement" between tradition and modernity . You can also look at the JR pass , it's a paper card , not a magnetic one or an app. It's outdated as f but maybe it's a part of his charm ^^
Congrats again for your Graduation, your Kimono was so very beautiful!!! My family was honored and it felt like a true privilege to use the JR Pass for 7 & 14 days. We hope to get a job on a US base, fingers crossed. Take care and special thanks for sharing your Japan life!!
I really agree with your comment about needing to support the side places, hearing that a lot of remote towns are slowly being ghosted by the youth leaving for the big cities the likes of Kyoto are only going to be over populated by domestic residents as well in the future. I hope the country doesn't just cause a downward spiral because this and a good middle solution is found
Good to know and thank you for the update!
Hi Alison, I just arrived home in Australia from a 3 week trip in Japan. We had a 2 week JR pass for 5 adults. It was totally worth it. I did Tokyo, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Iwakuni, Himeji, Osaka, Kyoto, Uji, Nara, Hakone. Ticket then ran out and we paid less about $15 each to get back to Tokyo via Yokohama. I never used the direct Kyoto Tokyo so that helped. Getting seats was okay but they were running out fast and we only booked a few days ahead. Tourism in Kyoto and Shinjuku in Tokyo were insane. Disneysea queues were at the ridiculous levels. Arashiyama was not enjoyable at all due to the crowds. I agree overload tourism is causing issues. I had waited nearly four years to visit. So I would go anyway. We do plan to come back as just a couple in a 2 years time, but we are picking off the well worn track places instead, hiring a car for some of it and maybe just buying a single bullet train ticket for a small part of it. Thanks for the update, glad I went when I did.
Lucky i bought my JR pass back in December too
Thanks for the heads up! I love travelling in Japan, and JR pass was a crazy good deal. But as you say, maybe those regional passes will become more economical, and possibly pull tourists into the places less travelled. I had already decided that next time we visit, I want to revisit Kanazawa (great town for the arts!) see some of the southwest, and possibly Okinawa.
So, I guess that will be a focus, and I'll forgo Kyoto, as I went last time. However, One could easily spend a week in that little town, there is so much culture and beauty to enjoy! I'm glad that JR is taking steps to augment their passes, hopefully to help preserve the charm of Kyoto and other over-run areas.
This is based on the premise that they won’t increase train prices for single trips too. Is there a chance for that to happen?
Thanks so much for this. I'll be in Japan in October and this just blew up my itinerary. Now I need to research and readjust.
This is like Disney’s MO. Parks too busy? Raise the ticket price. This news makes me sad that travelers with a limited budget won’t be able to afford to visit places they’d like to see.
Sadly Japan needs to be more expensive than other countries again. People on lower incomes can go to Thailand or Vietnam.
@@Sean-me4fv wtf are you talking about
@@yuvalgabay1023 I am saying too many tourists are coming to Japan. Locals are concerned. If the price goes up, less people will come to Japan, but the country’s economy will still benefit the same amount.
@@Sean-me4fv ok you previous comments just gives a really: the peasants shouldnt be going to this high secioty places vibe😂
@@yuvalgabay1023 yeah, I think the peasants can go to Japan, just they need to save up for a bit longer
I’m just about to complete 14 day Kanto region tour. I made 4 side trips including Kyoto (Yes it’s crazy but we made it to just cover the fushimi inari shrine). My take away is transport in the rest of the country is very different from Tokyo. You have trains to almost everywhere in Tokyo every 10-15mins. This is not the case once you get out. In some places the trains are there only for once every hour and the buses are also infrequent. So you really need to plan your side trip or you have to make sure to stay there 2 days minimum to cover the less explored areas. Another problem that we faced was getting a taxi. We almost got stranded in Fujikyu when we were exploring randomly. Fortunately there was a bus that came around 7:30 pm. I heard the GoApp works but for some reason we were unable to get the otp to activate it for Japanese sim we got.
Enjoy watching your videos. I’m a retired airline pilot who used to fly to Japan quite often. Love the country for so many reasons and even married a Japanese girl who lives in Morioka. I can’t believe the high cost of the Blue train train tickets and really wish that the JR group offered a frequent flyer program like the airlines….but then again, when you’re the only game in town they can (and will) charge whatever they want. Sucks for us. Hey, one Tokyo tip for you: go visit my favorite blues bar in Japan - Bright Brown in the Nakano Station arcade - Thursday night jam session is really kool.
This will change my future plans for sure. I didnt mind riding trains for long periods of time since in Canada long road trips in a cramped car is very common. So on a relaxing train thats so easy to get on and off of it was totally worth it. But if these prices stick we'll likely do a lot more flying to the more distant locations then try using regional passes if possible.
Kind of glad I was able to get my one month trip done a few months ago haha.
I agree about your point about people still going to Kyoto regardless. The JR pass definitely made my trip possible. Starting in Kyushu and ending up in Aomori. It let me check out other places like Ibaraki and Kanazawa.
I'll be there in September, phewwww! Thank you very much for the info!!
I'm going to Japan for the first time at the end of the year, and everyone's telling me to buy the JR pass. But now I definitely need to do my own analysis to see if it's still worth it to get it. This is a very helpful and informational video 👍🏻 thank you!
That's a tough change. We just went for 15 days (using the 14 day pass), and thought it was already close to not being worth it compared to normal ticket pricing. It was fun to not have to worry about cost, just find the JR lines, and go.
I didn't find it to be too insanely busy, except buses in Kyoto. Which.. compared to Tokyo, the rail infrastructure was lacking.. so of course it was worse. We really enjoyed our hikes though, not many people venture off the 'top 10 tourist spots', so Kyoto was really fun for us. Very pretty shrines, and paths that were virtually free of people for hours on end.
I hope other people enjoy the trip, but I could see how this will hurt the side ventures. If I was to schedule without the pass, ya, for sure I'd be local and focused on just the city I ticketed to.
A friend and I had the chance to go to Japan earlier this year and we actually made those side stops you mentioned precisely because of the JR pass. After hearing the announcement, we began chatting about going again in a few years and we arrived at the same conclusion as you did, that being, we better keep ourselves to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. We’d like to visit Kumamoto again and go to several other places we couldn’t go before, but the JR pass was one of the factors that made such long trips feasible. It remains to be seen how this will affect less popular cities, but I believe you are right on the money about them just wanting to get rid of the pass. However, a gradual increase would have been preferable since this will meet much backlash. Though perhaps they don’t care.
Great information, I could not agree more with your predictions
So glad you did an analysis on this. It really is crazy to see the kind of hectic trip you'd need to take in order to make just the 7-day JR Pass worth it at the new price. My fiancée and I are spending 2 weeks in Japan for our honeymoon in October and this took us by surprise. We're hoping that we'll make it just in time on the old price, but we're being cautious and planning our itinerary with this change in mind.
We have a trip for Oct as well. When are you guys planning to buy the JR passes?
Just buy the passes in September
@@UrMrR1ght We're aiming to buy them by July/September. The voucher has a 90 day window to be redeemed. So we're crossing our fingers we can avoid the price hike if we purchase it a month or two before our trip. They still haven't provided all the details though so not 100% sure if that'll work or not.
You're absolutely right. When I was originally planning our trip (for 2020, RIP) it was just Tokyo and Kyoto, because as you say, it was cheaper than the pass. But for this year's 2nd attempt, I wanted to extend the length. At first I was going to spend longer in Kyoto, but I realized that the rail pass wasn't much more than just Kyoto, so I kept Kyoto at 2 days and instead added Hakone (speaking of expensive transit passes, lol... they know they have you), Osaka, and Hiroshima. So there you go, exactly as you said. Was already planning on getting the bus/rail passes in Kyoto as just taking the subway a couple times during the day makes it break even and there's peace of mind that comes with having it, "just in case". The price of those one day Kyoto passes went up a lot since 2020 as well, but they're still barely worth it.
I just got back from Japan with my gf we both had JR green car passes man those things are a God send sucks that others won't be able to enjoy it... it really made our trip from Tokyo to Osaka lots of day trips too we saved so much!
9:30 Another very common JR itinerary could be NRT T1/T2 'Nex to Tokyo Hotel (use Pasmo/Suica or JR), Tokyo->Kyoto->Himeji->Shin Osaka->Osaka Castle->Shin Imamiya (Namba Tsutenkaku) -> Nara->Kyoto/Shin Osaka ->Tokyo?
Your analysis has some valid points. I also worry that regional tourism will suffer. I had a 14 days trip in January but had to stay 7 days in total around Tokyo - I used JR Rail Pass from Tokyo->Nagasaki->Okayama->Himeji->Osaka->Tokyo->Kanazawa->Tokyo. Great savings, but travelling on the train almost every other day. Fast efficient, and relatively on time (even during snow storms). Relaxing and chilled, yup, when you're onboard trains.
The JR announcement is rather vague about the amount of price hike and the date. It could be the case that JR is testing market reactions - lots of negative responses, such as yours saying what is the point of JR Pass after the price hike, may positively impact the final outcomes. I would like to know the extra fee to allow us to board with Nozomi and Mizuho super-express trains. How much and how many times are we supposed to pay extra fees? If JR plans to slap an extra fee for every train, my enthusiasm for JR Rail Pass would substantially dissipate. Even with a one-off extra fee, it has a bad aftertaste, as if we are paying for the privilege to travel like locals. JR Rail Pass virtually segregates foreign tourists using JR Rail Pass only on two trains (Hikari departing 03 past every hour or 33 past every hour; who would travel on Kodama unless you plan to go to Atami or Toyohashi, or Hamamatsu, or some places like that. I am fine with the current policy if that is how they would like to run this service, but I have a big issue with their explanation in the English pamphlet about why JR Rail Pass holders are not allowed to use Nozomi or Mizuho trains. It states that these two trains are run by separate companies hence JR Rail Pass do no work. As far as I know, no separate corporate entities within JR specifically run only Nozomi and Mizuho trains. However, JR East, JR West, JR Kyushu, etc., exist. I strongly believe. Therefore, this is nonsense, or should I say a lie that pacifies JR Rail Pass users. I believe JR can do far better than this - simply tell customers that it is a corporate policy to segregate overseas visitors from high-demand Nozomi/Mizuho trains to ensure seats are available to local residents. Anyway, the overconcentration of tourists in a few spots would continue or increase regardless of the pricing of the JR Rail Pass. Lastly, Japanese tourism should uphold the highest standard (remember the "Omotenashi" slogan before 2021(2022?) Tokyo Olympics). Overseas tourists knock on the door because they love their experience - reducing it artificially or trying to be nasty to visitors (of all colours and from all places) is a silly way to curve tourism. Invest more in the infrastructure and speed up inefficient systems. Everything in Japan runs on time efficiently, but the system is far from optimal or efficient (They are conservative and reluctant to change. Japanese workers are nice and courteous but not always the most efficient, productive, or innovative. Prove me wrong, if you will. 🙊🙈🙉😅
Thanks for the info. I'm going next month... Still can use it for now.
I don’t know why she is not mentioning an alternative. It is called a bus. When I lived in Matsumoto Japan for several years I would always take the bus to Tokyo for a mere 3700 Yen or less. You get to see the country side and the bus stops half way for green tea. Of course if you are in rush
or have limited time the train is the way to go.
Great tip about the Seishun 18- thanks!...
😮😮😮😢😢 Thank u for this vídeo. I think u are right about Kyoto getting even more crowded. I'm sad because I have being planning ALL my travel around the JR pass. I will have to think about it, it's my first time and I don't speak much japanese and the process of bying tickets individualy seams hard.
Thank you for your great videos. You helped us have a great time in Japan. I agree with you, the JR pass totally encouraged us to take lots of side trips. We probably won’t do that now for our next trip.
You could still make side trips if you use well the local jr pass. As the video say , they are a lof of local option for train , and if you do some planning , you can manage to see a lot of things , but it's less convenient .
i've done some simulation plan the next 2 hours (after seeing this video ) to see if how much it cost to do what i wanted to do and if you stick to some area for the duration of your local jr pass and switch to another local pass after , it's worth the money , even to the old jr standard!
of course it's less convenient because you have to validate your next local jr pass to a train station but better that option than paying this costly jr pass or staying only in one place. Japan have so much to offer that it would be a waste to skip that!
Super job Allison, thank you very much.
My first thought was that sidetrip will not be affordable and we will be encouraged to stay longer at one place like kyoto who seem to be a nice place for that . BUT , we can still use the local JR pass and even if they are a lot of them and it's confusing , the option is here . We just have to visit japan differently to adapt , that doesn't mean we have to stay at one place but we can stay around one area with the local pass and move to another area with another local jr pass . I don't know if it is cheaper (probably not if you plan to use the train around different region ) but it can be manageable for sure. Maybe you will visit some place you didn't think about in a first place because it's in the range of your local JR pass : )
I just returned from my trip to Japan … had a JR pass and did side trips to Kanazawa, Takayama, etc … other places that required additional tickets - I would imagine that along with increasing the prices for the JR pass single ride tickets will also increase
Thank you for sharing this update about train fares going up in Japan 😮
Thank you so much for the information. First time watching. I subscribe. Because I'm planning to go to Japan for the first time as soon as I can 😍
Here in Kyoto a day ticket for bus it will be cancelled soon. Now you pay 700 yen and you can use buses all day and change as you wish. But soon not any more! So each time one will need to pay 230yen. But there are rumors that it will soon be higher. And yes in Kyoto now it is hard for us to do daily chores. We hardly enter the trains an buses because of tourists. It’s overcrowded!!!
useful to know. thanks, Linore :)
I quite literally used the JR pass to go everywhere. Went from Nigita to Tokyo to Nagano then to Nagoya and shibuya, Osaka and Kyoto then all the way back
You mentioned that the Tokyo-Kyoto route is saturated by JR Pass holders, but that can't be the case because Nozomi is excluded and is now the majority of all trains running on this line. 25 years ago, there were at least 2 Hikari trains for every Nozomi, and Nozomi was a sort of "exclusive" choice. Over the years, Nozomi has become more common and Hikari less common (about 2 Nozomi to 1 Hikari last time I visited). The Hikari trains may actually be overcrowded by tourists nowadays, but that's because there are fewer trains to transport more tourists. So it would make sense for Nozomi to be more accessible by JR Pass (or to run more Hikari trains on this line).
But I agree that it would make more sense to make this repricing more frequently and in smaller increments. For a lot of tourists, it had been useful to avoid worrying about costs and just ride in a carefree manner, but the recent regulation change on registering luggage makes it basically mandatory to stand in line and get a reserved seat ticket. Still, it's nice not to worry about the cost of every choice, or to spend time thinking about which options are cheaper for getting tickets, etc.
Very focused and easy to follow video! But I thought you might want to make a follow-up one since both JR East and JR West announced price hike for the regional JR passes as well starting in October. Most of them see a 50% increase, I think, making planning a regional trip a bit harder becasue you are going to have to take more trains to make it worthwhile.
Thank you very much for sharing and explaining the new upcoming JR Pass price increase coming this fall. My son and I are from the US and we visited Japan during Christmas of 2022 and New Year of 2023. We spent half of our trip in Osaka and then the 2nd half in Tokyo. I purchased the 14-Day JR Pass for Green Car ahead of time online. I also made reservations for both of us for Shinkansen tickets from Osaka to Tokyo on New Year’s Eve knowing it is one of the busiest day for travel in Japan. It was a challenge for us to reclaim our JR Pass at the beginning in Osaka and same little challenge for picking up the reservation tickets. We ended up using the JR Pass on a daily basis for our entire 14 days trip. We took multiple day trips between Osaka and Kyoto. I took Shinkansen from Osaka to Kobe. We took day trips from Tokyo to Hakone and Tokyo to Yokohama with our JR Pass. Since we have the Green Car Pass, we were able to seat in the green cars when the regular cars are packed. So overall, we are happy with the JR Pass and it gave us a lot of flexibility and convenience for our trip in Japan.
Back in Japan at the moment (not on rail pass this time). I've been thinking about this and I think there is an alternate solution to the problem JR believe they're solving.
I suspect the problem is Tokyo-Osaka being swamped. They're making it worse I feel by charging more then saying that pass holders can use the Nozomi.
What they should do instead is increase the pass price by inflation (which in Japan isn't much). Then charge a surcharge for any pass holder wanting to use Tokyo-Osaka.
This would have several benefits:
1. Would reduce use of the Tokyo-Osaka portion (this route and sales of the JR Pass itself are controlled by JR Central)
2. Would encourage different routes (e.g. via Takayama and Kanazawa for example).
3. Would still encourage or allow tourism off the beaten track to small towns that need tourism badly
I suspect that with the new price changes:
1. Tourists will stay in a single major city where they land
2. Tourists will potentially use cheap air routes (which further encourage just staying in cities)
3. Tourists may consider Japan is not as affordable or convenient (one of the main reasons to consider it) and consider alternate countries to visit
I saw the announcement a few days back and I had a communication with the local JTB outlet here in Canada. Apparently you can purchase a rail pass at the old prices until the end of September. You can purchase these for use 180 days prior to your intended travel but you have to make sure they issue the pass to you only 90 days before intended use as once you have it issued you only get 3 months til you have to use it (or lose it). Though I guess this is still all subject to changes - I was planning a long overdue family visit and contemplated suggesting this to a couple of friends who wanted to go at the same time but depending on how this all shakes out and if the 180 day purchase allowance timeframe is still allowed plans may change for them. I typically don't purchase the pass since my family is all in one area but anyone travelling multiple cities this is a big setback. Hopefully they will lower the prices some to make it worth it again.
I also heard beyond the buses and planes, there are ferries you can take if you're not travelling anywhere inland.
Great points. I’m in Japan now and just visited Kanazawa. A great place to visit via Shinkansen.I wouldn’t do it without a JR Pass.
It’s definitely worth doing a video to tell tourists about how easy it is to add suica/ pasmo cards to their Apple wallet (not sure if similar for non-iPhone users) - literally takes less than a minute to set up. Then you can just tap your phone on the IC pad on all trains/buses (except Shinkansen) to make local travel super easy. Another 10 seconds in Apple wallet to add extra funds if needed. And every time you tap - wallet gives you a notification so you can see how much you have left and if you need to add funds. Means you don’t need to buy a physical ticket like a one day pass, giving you more freedom to choose day by day. (Just came home to Australia from 3 weeks in Tokyo and Kyoto)
Oh how was it going to Japan from Australia? I'm planning to go probably next year or the year after.
Foreign credit cards (afaik pretty much all visa, some mastercard) don't really work for adding funds for smartphone IC. The 3dsecure system or w/e has been broken for a couple of years now and seems no intent to fix. I believe the only way to load money is with apples own card (apple card), which launched in my country the month after my trip QQ.
> not sure if similar for non-iPhone users
You need an android with the specific IC hardware, so Japanese model. I had one (as well as iphone), but most people don't. Still no luck for me with my Wise card or own countries Visa.
@@Simon-v4q I have my Australian Mastercard set up on my iPhone, and used that (in wallet) to add funds to my suica.
@@marydotjpeg I’m in Melbourne, and it was super easy. There’s only a 1hr time difference, so no jet lag which is great 😊 about 13hrs flight time, if you go direct (no stopovers)
We spent two weeks in the Tokyo area last month, aside from a two day trip to Osaka. I specifically wanted to take the Nozomi train (green car to boot!) which I knew was not going to be included on the JR pass. But honestly, for the price, it was cheaper to just have a Suica that would work on all lines and could be reloaded with smaller amounts. It was right around $300 US total for the two of us over 14 days. The bullet train was just under $450 US. So even at the current rates it was not a huge jump to pay for the trains separately.
The new increase is pretty steep, admittedly, and likely will deter folks from buying the pass. However, if you’re planning well in advance it will give plenty of time to work out the math to see if the pass is still worth it.
You're absolutely right. Advance planning and calculations are key. If, however, you are a free-spirited traveler that prefers to do things on the fly, that's not going to be for you.
@@lynda.grace.14 Totally agree! I always end up planning advanced activities (with set date/time) on trips. I forget sometimes that not everyone does that.
@@WiscoMel Right. I blend both strategies. I need to know where my bed is (and in Japan am a member of the Toyoko Inn hotel chain). I rarely stay less than two nights and leave most of the things I choose to do once that is settled to whim and chance. Occasionally I also book an appointment or perhaps a dinner reservation, but I love serendipitous encounters and surprises.
Can confirm, I didn’t know about the price change until recently and was planning on side trips. We staying around Osaka now
When I was in japan just 2 weeks ago, I have a family home in Kanazawa. I landed in haneda airport in Tokyo, used the JR pass then go this route, Tokyo->Kanazawa, Kanazawa->Tokyo(a few random jr pass uses in Tokyo, probably local trains), Tokyo->Kyoto, Kyoto->Osaka, Osaka->Kyoto, Kyoto->Kanazawa, Kanazawa->Toyko(to fly back to USA). I think after I made my little trip to Osaka it made the 14 day pass a little more worth it, but if I'd known more exactly where I wanted to go I definitely would have used it more for side trips. I saw this news while I was still in Japan and now I am debating on if it makes sense to buy a pass before October and then plan a trip way in advance for using it, but currently I don't know if they will make me pay the difference when I get there if I did do that.
I didn't initially consider your point when I heard this news but I think you're right, this is only going to discourage people from going on day trips or just any trips outside of the major cities, and will have the opposite effect of trying to reduce tourism in Kyoto like you mentioned. When I visited Japan in Nov+Dec with a couple friends it was really freeing being able to just visit wherever we wanted on JR lines that we travelled all the way from Tokyo to Itsukushima Island and everything in-between, including a 3 day stop in Kyoto (it was so freeing that one day we took 5 shinkansens during one trip just because we could haha). I think if we had to use these new prices we'd definitely have to cut out Itsukushima and Hiroshima completely, and would just end up spending more time in Kyoto.
Hi there! 👋🏻 The 7-day JR Setouchi Area Pass might be a good deal for you. 😊The pass allows you to go from Kyoto all the way down to Fukuoka in Kyushu, including parts of Shikoku. It even covers ferry rides between Hiroshima and Miyajima as well as between Hiroshima and Matsuyama on Shikoku. The pass costs around 19,000 Yen and is valid even on the fastest Nozomi and Mizuho Shinkansen between Shin-Osaka and Fukuoka, without a surcharge! There are plenty more regional passes covering the Kansai & Chugoku region that might be interesting for you. 😉✌🏻
@@josephinee.7008 Thank you! Our original trip was just for the one day, so assuming that a 7-day pass is the lowest we'd probably just stick to individual tickets, but if we were to visit again, that pass would definitely be something we'd consider! Both fortunately and unfortunately for different reasons, I'm moving to Japan in a couple months (woo!) but that means I'm ineligible for that pass (boo!). Still something to consider if some friends come and visit though!
@@Reach. Wow, good luck and have fun in Japan! ☺️ I‘ve only just gotten into the regional passes & I think it’s interesting that many of them will let you ride the Nozomi and Mizuho Shinkansen…never knew that any rail pass in Japan would cover those without a surchage, but it sure is an amazing deal! 👍🏻
Thank you so much for your detailed breakdown of costs. It’s sad to see the JR pass get obsolete… 😢
I appreciate the break down of all this information. I'm one of those types that want to visit the smaller villages and cites.
I just returned from a 3-week Japan trip, staying in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, and Yokohama (along with several additional day trips) and the JR 21-day pass (we did the green pass) was totally worth it with existing price, especially given how much we used JR-based local trains and buses (as well as Narita Express). With the new pricing structure, I'm not sure it would've been worth it (I haven't done the math yet). Glad we were able to take advantage of current pricing.
As for flying between cities: that might've been more cumbersome than rail travel. One thing we took advantage of, to make the cross-city trips easier, was baggage-shipping. Three large-ish suitcases ran about 6000-6500 (~US$45-50), and we didn't have to worry about dragging all our luggage to/from train stations and aboard the Shinkansen trains.
I totally agree with your points, I am currently in Tokyo but when I was in Kyoto I used the JR pass to go to Hiroshima, Himeji, Nara, Wakayama, Osaka, and in general around the Kansai region before using it to take the train to Tokyo. My favorite day trips were Wakayama and Hiroshima because there were far fewer tourists than Kyoto. It was a great experience and I would totally recommend it to others but with these changes I could see people being less inclined to make the journey. (edit: I had the 14 day pass)
I loved Wakayama too, I was so surprised about it as it was on a whim back from Koya-san to Osaka. I then decided to change my itinerary and stayed at Wakayama before moving on to Osaka
Very helpful. I thought exactly about regional passes instead and just fly whenecer going farther.
Thanks Allison for the info.
Great analysis. We will be traveling mid August And yes Tokyo to Kyoto Seems like we will be okay. Sounds like we will be flying. Thanks for the update.
imo They are meant to push the other JR Pass variant. Like the Hikoriku Arch Pass which is a Pass between Tokyo and Kyoto thru Kanazawa. That means it will be against your opinion that Tourism will be lower on those Areas
Thanks for sharing
Booked an autumn trip with my friends a week ago ... wow ...
Super happy I'm going end of this May!!!
I've rented a car before, it was more expensive than I expected with parking and paying for highways but it honestly seems like a good idea again!
Thanks for the heads up! Too high for 7 day, twice the price I knew (was always about $220.00/ 7 days). Definitely have to rethink travel plans.
Very helpful, very interesting video! Thanks for this important information dear Allison and I totally agree with your analysis. For me as a foreign traveler it’s sad to hear about these changes. On the other side, since I changed my travel lifestyle to staying on one area for a longer time I already switched to using those regional passes more often. Because even now, when you’re staying in one area for let’s say a week or two, you’ve get better deals out of these regional passes than the JR pass. But for first time travellers who do the „Golden Route“, those changes are really bad.
Wow now I'm really happy that I planned my Japan trip this July when the old JR ticket prices are still avalable.
Something to think about for sure. Planning on visiting Japan in October/November. This development will come into play when we figure out our itinerary.
100% agree with your analysis. I went with my wife in October and we went to some off-the-main-path places (from Osaka to Hiroshima to Arita down in Kyushu) and that Arita leg was something I would not have done without the JR Pass (and was one of our favorite legs of the trip).
Yes part of the greatness of the JR pass to me was it was a great deal and encouraged me to go further during my 2 weeks than i planned. If it works out to be around the same cost then i would have spent longer in each city and bought each ticket per. Ride instead of pass. Instead of moving on to Hiroshima knowing it was covered in the pass, prob would stay longer in Kyoto.
Compared to the JR Pass old price, directly buying Tokyo-Kyoto Nozomi early discount tickets on Smart EX made more sense for me.
It's faster than trains available for JR Pass.
I don't really have the energy to visit so many places just to break even a JR Pass. Even thinking about the planning gives me headache.
We are currently in Kyoto, and it's really busy, even mid-week. Btw. Another often overlooked method to get around are the ferries. These provide a reasonable (less paced) but fun way of getting around if you have more time.
Solo Travel Japan is a great resource for learning about all the ferries!
@@xaj I came here to say this! 😂
So so helpful thank you!!
We are planning on going in November so this is very helpful! We will be skipping the JR Pass this time. Thank you!
You can probably buy the exchange ticket before the price hike, as an FYI.
This is daunting, and as a first time traveler soon to Japan, I’m glad I’m traveling before the changes. Also I agree that I’m willing to pay for convenience so I wonder if this will work on the overcrowding because that is also disappointing.
Yeeesh... Sounds like no different compared to paying normal round tickets for some préfectures
Thank you for the great advice. I plan on going to Japan next year you actually mentioned the route I was planning to take so hopefully they won’t take a big impact on my itineraries. Still a bit confused on that but hopefully I’ll get it by then. Thank you.
You're completely correct. This will only limit people to the major cities and reduce tourism to other places.
I was in Kanazawa last week, the bus was also packed with tourists. Fortunately, I skipped Kyoto and went to Yohohama direcly.
We are planning to travel next year when things slow down a bit hopefully since there are a lot of people doing makeup trips for when they didn’t go during the pandemic. I think we will try to avoid the pass if we can we want to do a trip where we focus on one area at a time so we aren’t wasting a bunch of time traveling across the country. Do you have advice for first time travelers to Tokyo on where to go? That aren’t super touristy areas?
Thanks for this Allison, super helpful! I was thinking of travelling to Japan next year and the train is something I want to use for my travels. I am hoping that the rural passes don’t change as I am planning to go mostly to rural areas🤞🏻😊
I just came back from Kyoto and it really wasn’t that busy. Nothing compared to taking the subway in Tokyo for example. I was actually surprised that it was fairly quiet considering I was there during cherry blossom.
And I totally agree with taking side trips because of the pass. I visited 11 cities in 2 weeks only because I had the pass and thought may as well. Otherwise would have probably just done 3.
Very interesting video, thanks for these! Very handy.
Also in Kyoto we just walked everywhere we never even used the pass just to get from Tokyo to Kyoto
Your experience is interesting. Most tourists are flocking to the same handful of sights, so it likely depended on what places you chose to visit plus the time of day you went. On Facebook groups during sakura time, so many were complaining of throngs of people, extensive queues everywhere, & being unable to get food without reservations. March recorded over 1.8M incoming tourists and most probably headed straight to Kyoto. Figures for April haven't been released yet.
I think with my travel it will still be a bargain for 14 day Tokyo to Kagoshima, Kagoshima to Kyoto (plus side trips) , Kyoto to Hakodate , Hakodate to Sapporo, Sapporo to Sendai, Sendai to Tokyo. With maybe a couple more side trips
My November Japan plans have just now gotten more complicated 😂 thank you for doing such an in-depth video!!!!
Third party sites let you buy 3 months in advance while the official JR pass lets you book 1 month in advance. You'll be good to use the JR pass for your trip :)
Yup same here lol can’t move my date either cause it’ll be after uni as no idea what my exam timetable would be that far in the future, and I’m too broke to go sooner 🥲
@@SnowFoxPaperie For all that we know now, we don't know if they will make us pay the difference to use it after the raise if you buy it before. And that is one of the biggest questions still.
Oh, yes! November plans for me also got messed up now.
@@Bruxinhasorridente Nonsense! Where do you get your information?
My friend & I are planning a huge 3 month trip to Japan maybe in 2 or 3 years covering as much of the country as possible from Hokkaido to Okinawa so maybe the JR Pass will still be worth it & handy to us
Great info. Thanks!
the route trip from Tokyo / takayama/osaka how much is the total fare via bullets train ?
wow this gives me so much to think about. I have a 3 week honeymoon in November where we are going Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nagano -> Tokyo. I was just going to book a JR Green pass but now I've got to just sit down with pin and paper and carefully plan all my options before just shelling out for the pass
Keep an eye out for more clarification of how this will be implemented. If it starts Oct 1st and previous rules still apply, you have 90 days to validate your pass after it's purchased. Meaning you could purchase the pass at old price in September and still use it until December. IF...IF the rules don't change. Congratulations on the marriage.
We were there this April and the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and back was nowhere near full. Something you forgot to mention is the many JR trains apart from the Shinkansen that are very convenient that the pass can be used on, e.g. the Chuo Line in Tokyo.
Also, there’s the flexibility…mind changing is not a problem. You also didn’t mention whether getting reserved seats will still be free of charge. The increase in price is probably justified, but I do believe it will discourage purchases. Public transport in Japan is fabulous, so I think people will still go where they want to go.
so interestin!! thank you!!
I mean I’m speaking as someone who lives in Japan so I can’t even use the JR Pass (which is also annoying but whatever) so take my opinion with a grain of salt. But I mean they haven’t raised the prices for the pass in a longgg time, it was bound to happen with inflation going off the way it is. I do think it’s a bit excessive for prices going up but I still think a lot of people may find themselves still buying the pass regardless because of the ease of use primarily. Like to me, imagining only having two weeks or so to explore Japan and having to rely on local trains (which is what I use to go to Tokyo anyway. It takes me three hours lol) or even overnight buses sounds like a not fun experience with luggage, kids, hectic plans, etc. It’s a lot of time wasted so I’m not sure how this will change things.
I just got back from Japan and I'll admit, I was kind of confused by how the JR-Pass actually worked. To make use of it, I wanted to travel from Tokyo to places like Kyoto and HIroshima. But it seemed I would have had to ride Nozomi line. Because in all the apps I used, that was the only way to get to Kyoto from Tokyo. It almost stopped me from going there, but when I tried to buy a ticket, I was instructed by an attendant to just use the JRPass for the Nozomi train. Which I did, and it worked. There and back again. So it ended up seeming like buying the 7 day pass was a good idea, but with this information, I'm certain to not buy the JR Pass again. And as you said, I liked having it so I had the option of going to other places outside of the typical places tourists go. I'm a tourist, who actually likes to go to places not many tourists visit.
@Karl with a K That's cool you were able to visit so many other cities. This was actually my first trip to Japan, so the majority of my stay was in Tokyo, so I didn't need to use the JRPass much the second week. As I said, the confusion came in when I wanted to travel to places like Kyoto, but was instructed when I bought the pass it was not usable on the Nozomi line, but the attendant had me use it for that anyway. So again, it was just kind of confusing what I could or could not use the pass on. The first day I would have my JRPass or my Suica card in hand and have to try each one till I started to get a good idea of which train I could use which pass for.