All About Japan Rail, Bullet Train aka Shinkansen and Keisei Line to Narita

Before going for my trip, I heard so much about the efficient Japan's railway system and the impressive bullet trains also known as Shinkansens. 

Even with the reliable website www.hyperdia.com. I was overwhelmed by information and felt a nagging need to double check on some of the minute details.

And Tokyo itself has 3 railway companies, the Japan Rail (JR), Tokyo Metro & Toei. And many many lines for each of the railway companies....

As such, I shall dedicate 1 whole post on my experience with JR and the Keisei Line to Narita Airport.

Firstly, our itinerary of the train rides was:

Inside of Narita Express Ride (NEX)

Luggage Compartment In NEX with Key Lock Provided

1st Day (16,820yen)

- Delta airline to Narita Airport Terminal 1 (lands around 2pm)

- Narita Express (NEX) to Tokyo City

- Tokyo to Osaka

- Osaka to JR-Namba station near our hotel

2nd Day (1,780yen)
- Osaka to Rinku Town
- and back

3rd Day (3,390yen)
- Osaka to Kyoto
- and back

4th Day (1,080yen)
- Osaka to Nara
- and back

5th Day (340yen)
- Osaka Castle
- and back to Namba

Chancing Upon a Double Deck Shinkansen in Tokyo Station

6th Day (14,320yen)
- Osaka to Tokyo
- Explore Tokyo (Akihabara, Shibuya) (500yen)

7th Day (640yen)
- Explore Tokyo (Ameyoko, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku)

1st Tickets Bought From Machine

8th Day (300yen)
- Travel within Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku)

Slower (76 mins) BUT Much Cheaper Keisei Limited Express Train to Narita Airport 

9th Day
- Tokyo to Narita Airport Terminal 1
Shinjuku to Nippori (190yen)
Nippori to Narita Airport Terminal 1 by Keisei Limited Express Line instead of JR line (1,000yen)

The prices in blue are those that we had to pay after our 7 day Japan Rail Pass expired. The red ones are covered by our 7 days JR pass.

JR Pass

As you can see, if you have the intentions to travel from Tokyo to Osaka or other long distance, it may be more worthwhile to get the JR pass to travel on the Shinkansens (bullet trains). These JR passes are available solely to foreigners and can be bought only outside of Japan. Read more about where I got mine from.

In my opinion, the ordinary one is good enough, there's no need to get the green one. Just the to and fro trip from Osaka to Tokyo already more than cover the 7 days pass cost of 28,300yen. The rest of my trips from the 1st to 7th day were taken only on the JR lines and they're all covered! Saving about 170SGD!!

The JR lines are extensive and cover the major touristy places I wanted to go. It covers the rides on NEX (Narita Express), all rides on the Shinkansens and all rides only on JR trains.

JR Ticketing Office in JR Namba Station

Basically, inter-cities traveling will be by Shinkansens and when traveling within the cities, it's by JR trains which are like the MRTs in Singapore. To ride on the Shinkansens, you need to get a train ticket from the JR Office found in the JR stations.

JR Office in Narita Airport Terminal 1

To turn the exchange order (activate) into a JR pass, just head to any of the JR offices here. I activated by JR pass the day I reached Japan and got it done at the Narita Airport Terminal 1 JR Office.

It's pretty easy to get to the JR Office Counter or Keisei Line Counter at Narita Airport. Just head to the basement and the 2 counters are very nearby.

Keisei Counter at Narita Airport Terminal 1

Some helpful info:

• When changing trains, try to change at smaller stations like Shinagawa instead of Tokyo station as there won't be so many tracks and trains to confuse you further. This was for our trip from Narita Airport to Osaka. You can select the different routes from hyperdia.com. (refer to the maps to see which stations have more train lines to it to guess which are the major ones)

 

Reserved Train Tickets for Shinkansens

• Plan, plan, plan your route, go hyperdia to check out.

• In hyperdia, for those rides with unreserved or reserved seatings drop down options, you'll need to pay that in addition to your fare. So the ride to Narita airport is 3,110yen actually.

• In hyperdia, you can streamline your route options. Eg, tick only Japan Railway(JR) if you intend to use only JR pass to travel.

• Be on the platform as early as possible as the trains, especially the shinkansens are moves off ON time and will close the doors 30s or so before departure time. If you cannot make it to your car, just get your butt in the right train first and move within the train.

•  Rapid and Limited Express trains skips some stops and get you to your destinations faster. You may want to take a Limited Express train instead of the Normal one even if it comes later.

Cute Shinkansen Chopsticks

• For Shinkansen rides, you can reserve your seats at the JR office. If you can confirm the timing and it's peak period during the time you travel, it's better to reserve your seats early. We got our seats a little late and ended up in the smoking car.

• Check the timing here for the cheaper Keisei Line to Narita Aiport and do note that there's 4 tabs on top of the table to choose from. The Limited Express which is the cheapest one is on the 3rd tab. Took me a while to realised they were tabs!

• And of course, you should have brushed up on your Chinese in Secondary school, it'll help you to read your way around in Japan. ;)

It was fun figuring our way around and was quite an adventure to get on the right trains. One of my happiest moments were chancing upon the many Shinkansens at Tokyo station when we were wandering around to check out how big the station was. I'm glad my cute chopsticks serve as a remembrance.

Click here to take a look at the new bubbly-gummy 2011 Shinkansens launching in March 2011 too.

**Read more about my Japan trip here.**

http://life-bite.blogspot.com/2010/09/cheap-japan-rail-pass-jr-pass-in.html