If you travel to Japan and want to explore a number of cities, rail networks are extensive, reliable and frequent. So long as you are mostly traveling fairly light luggage-wise, it's the way to go. JR offers inter-city Shinkansen bullet train, airport monorail, regular short haul trains, bus and even ferry services. Around Tokyo, there are other rail systems such as the Metro that JR passes do not work with however you can often find a relatively close JR station as an alternate. There are a number of ways to get tickets but an all-you-can-use JR rail card is by far the best and most reasonably priced option out there. The issue can be ordering the card. The JR site itself is very confusing and there are numerous third party sources that charge a varying handling fee. I found the Japan Experience site to be less confusing, transparent on costs and reasonably priced with support should you need it before or during traveling. I did not realize until the materials were shipped that Japan-Experience is actually based in Paris, France. However, the pass vouchers (which you will need to exchange at a JR counter in Japan to activate) were shipped overnight via FedEx and arrived in plenty of time for our trip. We purchased the Green level passes (first class) however we found the regular class was actually very comfortable too. Both classes can be reserved (another process that can be challenging for foreigners to do using the station machines so recommend the JR station office) If we went again around the same time of year, we would not get the Green pass, however if we went over a more popular period, a green class should offer more seating availability on more crowded trains.
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Since 1981, we have been a leading tourism company specialized in providing a wide range of travel experiences in Japan.
Our mission is to become the go-to brand for anyone who loves Japan and wants to experience this wonderful country to the fullest. We sell a variety of products to our customers traveling to Japan : individual and group tours, Rail Passes, activities, excursions, train tickets, accommodations, SIM cards, etc.
More info on our company and products, on our 5 languages website: https://www.japan-experience.com/.
In March 2025 Japan Experience also acquired FTC, a DMC specialized in large group tours in Japan, and in 2022 opened Irasshai, a 800 m2 Japanese concept food store in the center of Paris (https://irasshai.co/).See more
