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Japan Rail Pass

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Posts
    268

    Japan Rail Pass

    Hey,

    I'm looking to buy a Japan Rail Pass pretty soon.

    I know you can't buy them in Japan and all the agents I have found online are overseas and charge ridiculous postage rates (they'll only send them Fedex or similar).

    Does anyone know where the cheapest place to buy one in Hong Kong is? Preferably, somewhere I could use a credit card.

    P.S. Has anyone got any experience on August weather in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka)? How does it compare to HK?

    Thanks


  2. #2

    Join Date
    May 2005
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    You can buy them, at the very least, from Travel Expert branches all over Hong Kong... The price will be very similar everywhere, since the agents pretty much just sell them for the quoted Yen price, converted to HKD.

    MandM! likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2011
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    Yup. Travel agencies in HK will work. Prices are pretty fixed on the Japan rail pass. You can ask around if you want to confirm.

    They are not cheap FYI. Unless you are using the train 2+ times per day, it isn't that much cheaper than full fare.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Dec 2013
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    Quote Originally Posted by MandM!:
    Yup. Travel agencies in HK will work. Prices are pretty fixed on the Japan rail pass. You can ask around if you want to confirm.

    They are not cheap FYI. Unless you are using the train 2+ times per day, it isn't that much cheaper than full fare.
    This is not true. If you use the shinkansen they will pay for themselves in one or two trips. If you only use local trains it's harder.
    TheBrit likes this.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    May 2005
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    I've been using Hyperdia (HyperDia | 乗換案内 路線検索 時刻表 旅費精算 通勤費 ダイヤ作成なら) for years for Japanese rail planning and pricing. JPRail.com is also a pretty good guide to traveling Japan by train, covers a lot of passes, routes, itineraries, etc.

    One other thing that's worth mentioning - there are lots of different passes available which cover different parts of Japan, different levels of service, buses as well as trains, etc. The national JR Pass is great if you're doing a big multi-city trip, but you can save quite a lot (more!) by buying a regional pass if that's all you need...

    (Can someone remind me how to insert a simple link nowadays, rather than the silly big embed which destroys paragraphs?)

    Last edited by shri; 26-05-2016 at 03:01 PM.
    Open Casket and shri like this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    The regional passes are cheaper and for shorter duration.


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Aug 2014
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    Thanks for the replies. I'll go into a few agents to ask.

    I need the national pass as Osaka and Tokyo are in different regions.



    BTW, the rail pass offers SIGNIFICANT, and I mean SIGNIFICANT savings over buying separate tickets. You certainly don't need to travel twice per day. A return trip from Narita to Tokyo to Osaka to Kyoto to Osaka to Tokyo to Narita is close to a thousand HKD cheaper than separate tickets. That's without any local travel included.

    TheBrit likes this.

  8. #8

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    Even if the savings are small or none, any form of appropriate pass saves a lot of time and confusion (particularly for non Japanese people!) at the station in purchase avoidance. I have used Japan rail pass three times and regional passes twice and highly rate both for convenience.


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Aug 2014
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    268

    Does anyone know how the weather compares to Hong Kong?

    I'm hoping it will be a little cooler and less humid than here.