JR East pass and NE Japan recommendations

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Jeffrey O'Neill

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I'm planning to have 8 or 9 days in Japan next year and thinking to use the JR east rail pass as I've been all the way down to Hiroshima and a few stops in between from Tokyo on my last 2 trips.

Must admit the "top" part of Japan is a bit of a mystery to me. If anyone can recommend some cities / towns to visit would greatly appreciate it.

I'll arrive to NRT at 1730 on SQ - not sure if I'm best to just stay overnight near the airport and then pick up the pass early the next day and make my way somewhere, saving on the NEX fare, or if I should try to get somewhere on the first day, though not sure how far I could actually get.
 
I'm planning to have 8 or 9 days in Japan next year and thinking to use the JR east rail pass as I've been all the way down to Hiroshima and a few stops in between from Tokyo on my last 2 trips.

Must admit the "top" part of Japan is a bit of a mystery to me. If anyone can recommend some cities / towns to visit would greatly appreciate it.

I'll arrive to NRT at 1730 on SQ - not sure if I'm best to just stay overnight near the airport and then pick up the pass early the next day and make my way somewhere, saving on the NEX fare, or if I should try to get somewhere on the first day, though not sure how far I could actually get.

You could absolutely get far if you wanted to... but it really depends on how far you want to get. If you think you'll be tired and want to sleep in Narita, then you could stay in town and make your way further out the next morning.

You could quite comfortable get to somewhere like Maebashi within a couple of hours if you wanted to start getting out.

You could also spend about 4 hours travelling and end up as far as Sendai if you wanted to too. So I think it could be useful to work out what you think you'll want to do as there are lots of possibilities.
 
Loved Sapporo when we were there in august 2012.TR here-
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....otos/another-long-mini-trip-report-42670.html

In September we will be visiting Sendai and Sapporo again and will be doing a TR.actually our last longhaul JASA SYD-NRT so get in early in the morning so will be going on to Sendai that day.Might miss a bit of the scenery though.Just hope we can get some sleep on the flight.

PS the embedded videos don't work for me but the link does.

PPS-a little more tech savvy in the last 2 years so a quick visit to youtube and the videos all work now.Amazing!
 
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Loved Sapporo when we were there in august 2012.TR here-
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....otos/another-long-mini-trip-report-42670.html

In September we will be visiting Sendai and Sapporo again and will be doing a TR.actually our last longhaul JASA SYD-NRT so get in early in the morning so will be going on to Sendai that day.Might miss a bit of the scenery though.Just hope we can get some sleep on the flight.

PS the embedded videos don't work for me but the link does.

PPS-a little more tech savvy in the last 2 years so a quick visit to youtube and the videos all work now.Amazing!

Thanks for that. I'll be there in June so miss out, but the town sounds worth a visit. Will have to use a few night shifts for some productive travel planning of what I can do with a 5 day pass. Am starting to think I need to add a day or 2 to how long I'm in Japan.

I've been lucky enough to score SQ suites saver to NRT with a stopover in SIN so I can catch up with some friends for dinner, and get some decent F lounge time too the next day, so as long as I can control my sampling of the various treats on board I should be able to cope with a few more hours of travel after landing.
 
Just a thought, but it might be worth weighing up the 22,000 yen for a five-days-within-two-weeks JR East Pass vs. 29,110 yen for the standard seven-day Japan Rail Pass without the geographic restrictions. The latter would allow you to include Hakodate, Sapporo, or some other part of Hokkaido in your itinerary.
 
Oh and another idea you might consider is that (depending on your dates etc) Jetstar Japan has some great fares. You could potentially fly one way to CTS, and then slowly make your way down by train stopping in various places along the journey.
 
Use this site HyperDia | to plan your journey and where to travel. It also shows the cost of the ticket so you can see if your travel will be worth the cost of the pass (it virtually always is).

Once you've planned your travel go to a large JR station where there's a booking office and book tickets for all of your trips and choose your seat. This way you only have to do it once. Easiest way is to have them all written down in date/time order with the actual train number (like a flight number).

Happy travelling.
 
Oh and another idea you might consider is that (depending on your dates etc) Jetstar Japan has some great fares. You could potentially fly one way to CTS, and then slowly make your way down by train stopping in various places along the journey.

yeah, was thinking if maybe flying back on the day I leave is an option. They don't do very far in advance for booking - only up to October but roughly $80 from CTS to NRT so that's definitely an option. Or I might stay in Tokyo at the start of my travel instead of at the end. Decisions decisions :D
 
Use this site HyperDia | to plan your journey and where to travel. It also shows the cost of the ticket so you can see if your travel will be worth the cost of the pass (it virtually always is).

Once you've planned your travel go to a large JR station where there's a booking office and book tickets for all of your trips and choose your seat. This way you only have to do it once. Easiest way is to have them all written down in date/time order with the actual train number (like a flight number).

Happy travelling.

Thanks for that. I'll have ot check if it's going to be a busy time on the trains. My first trip to Japan I was pre booking but the second trip i just turned up and caught the train as there was always plenty of availability in the non reserved cars. I'm assuming there's less trains going up east but will do some research on that.
 
Just a thought, but it might be worth weighing up the 22,000 yen for a five-days-within-two-weeks JR East Pass vs. 29,110 yen for the standard seven-day Japan Rail Pass without the geographic restrictions. The latter would allow you to include Hakodate, Sapporo, or some other part of Hokkaido in your itinerary.

Ah, will have a think about that. Thought the pass did most of the "top" part of japan so better have another look as to what I actually get for me yen.
 
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You can just reserve a seat on the next service when you turn up rather than risking un-reserved.

I once turned up to pre-reserve a seat with a friend Hiroshima to Kyoto and when we got our tickets back we had green car seats on just an ordinary JR Pass!
 
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