Japan Rail Pass
 

Hello
I would like some advice on the Japan rail passes.

1. Would it be worthwhile getting the green rail pass?
E.g. more chances of getting a seat, more luggage space…

2. Question specific to UK residents (LapLap comes to mind :))
Where do you normally buy your passes from? The only place I can think of is the Japan centre at Piccadilly Circus.

Thanks!

The biggest difference between a green car and the ordinary car is that the seating layout of the green car is 2x2 and the ordinary car is 2x3. Japanrail.com reports that the the green cars have larger seats, more legroom, more luggage space than Ordinary Cars and are all reserved seating while ordinary cars have reserved and non-reserved seating.

http://www.japanrail.com/JR_trainandseattypes.html


If you go to http://www.japanrail.com/links/eupore.html they list all of the distributors of the Japan Rail Pass in Europe. I tend to purchase them from JTB via their NYC office. JTB does have an office in London.

Generally speaking I don't think it is worth it.

The luggage space is the same (I guess you can say it has more because fewer people are sitting in the car, but I never had a problem with ordinary carry-on luggage in the ordinary car), and the ordinary car seats are just as comfortable. The green cars are just a little more posh, 2-2 seating vs 2-3 seating on the Shinkansen (seating configuration maybe different on other trains), no real difference in leg room, just a more padded and wider seat and a footrest. Not all trains have green cars, especially if you plan on doing a lot of travel on the Sanyo Shinkansen, also as mentioned not all green cars are created equal, depending on train it can just be the same as regular cars you'd find on other trains, or it can be nicer.

wr_schwab has kindly posted a link to all the different places where you can purchase them. I've only bought railpasses once (until recently MrLapLap wasn't elegible) and Gendai have been good to me so I chose them.

Just pick whichever place is convenient to you, and try and pick a date when the exchange rate is favourable - around now is fine.

Bear in mind also that most of the Japanese companies will charge a 2% commission fee. You might want to pay in cash or see if someone like Trailfinders will waive it.

To give where credit is due, wr_schwab posted the location link.

corrected!

Green pass is not worth it. The question is how good is your Japanese?. Your best best is planning out your travel in advance and going to a Travel Centre and asking for a reservation ticket which is free. There are travel centres at most major stations. This guarantee's you a seat.

Try to avoid using un-reserved if you can. You will be VERY lucking to get a seat and I remember coming all the way back from Osaka stood up all the way in to Tokyo...that....HURT x.x.

-mrploddy

PS The Japan Centre last time I bought a pass in '05 added a booking fee on top of the original pass cost circa £15 I think

Having used both a green and normal pass to travel around, I'd say only go for the green pass if you're spending a lot of time on the Tokaido line or the Tokaido Shinkansen and you really want the few extra inches of space to yourself. Most trains I encountered around Tokyo and Kyoto didn't have green cars in the first place, so there was zero benefit from the more expensive pass there. Given most of my travels in Tokyo involved the Yamanote and Chuo lines, and in Kyoto the Nara and Sanin(?) lines, none of which had green cars, I wished I hadn't bothered with the more expensive pass. As others have said, there is no additional dedicated luggage space in green cars. Needless to say, that was my one and only time paying the extra for it.

That said, the green cars were way quieter and I never had any trouble finding a seat, even when the rest of the train seemed to be packed to bursting. I even managed to get a whole car to myself on the NEX into Tokyo.

On places to buy it, I had a pretty bad experience buying from Railchoice. They issued the voucher fine, but contacted me 7 months later to say they had no record of my payment and tried to charge me again. I had to scour my old credit card bills to find the transaction. :td: Next time around I used Inside Japan Tours who didn't cause me any grief, and were significantly cheaper ^

And that's not worth money?

To my mind, main benefit of the green pass is the improved chance of getting a reserved seat. Outside of peak travel periods, this may be unnecessary (especially if your plans are flexible). But for people who intend to visit Japan during certain holidays, a green pass might mean the difference between standing and sitting on some long journeys.

For short term visitors who come to Japan during peak travel periods, there are situations where the regular reserved seats on some trains are sold out long before the visitor even arrives in Japan. Planning in advance and going to the railway station won't help in those situations. But here are a few tactics that can help:
- If you go to the train's first station and join the queue for an unreserved car very early, you may be able to snag an unreserved seat.
- If you have a green pass, you may find that the green cars have available seats after the regular cars are sold out.
- If you are unable to reserve a seat for the entire trip, you may find that there are seats available for some portion of the trip. For example, you may find that Osaka to Tokyo is fully booked, but you can get seat reservations from Nagoya to Tokyo. (Few people who are paying cash for their tickets will try this).

Not for the amount of time I spent travelling on those lines, no. It made for a nice, comfy journey on the NEX and Shinkansen, but the normal pass would have gotten me a reserved seat too. As I mentioned, other than that, I spent almost all my time travelling on lines without green cars, making the benefit of dubious value.

Of course, if the op is travelling on lines which are served by trains with green cars, that's a different story ...

deleted - misunderstood post above.

I think the 7 day Green Pass is an absolute bargain for only about 80$/40 quid more than the ordinary pass IF you are planning to travel beyond the Tokyo/Kyoto comfort zone.

The extra comfort and space is well worth the money plus you wont be caught short at rush hour.

If you have any of the following go green:

Lots of luggage, travel during a holiday, or really want a big seat with a leg rest.

However, if luggage is the issue, don't forget you can drop it off at your hotel concierge and have it delivered to your next destination (usually next day). I did that for a Tokyo to Kyoto trip, worked really well, and it was nice not to have much to haul around at the train station.

No matter what, I'd suggest reserving your seats right away. When you convert your Exchange Order for the Rail Pass get the reserved seats right then and there.

Goes back to what I said before, depends on where you'll be traveling.

Pointless to get a Green Pass if your main travel is on routes that have no green cars.

Again on luggage space, there is no more or no less luggage space on a green car vs a ordinary car, the luggage compartments are the same exact size.

Finally its pointless getting a JR pass if you don't need a JR Pass (I've seen many people talk about getting a JR pass when in fact they were just flushing yen down the drain because they didn't need it), so it depends not only where you're traveling but how much traveling and the time interval.

Could you clarify for me, please? It seems to be implied above that a Green Car pass will get you a better chance of a seat on shinkansen routes that don't actually have these cars. (Obviously, you won't get wider seats with leg rests, but a seat is a seat...)