I Didn't Get a JR Rail Pass

Things You Should Do Before Leaving Japan

• Get a JR Rail pass (comes in the mail)
• Buy Ghibli Museum Tickets
• Book a Hotel

Things I Did Before Leaving Japan

• ITEM_GOES_HERE <--- This means nada.

The JR Rail Pass is Awesome

That's the downside of planning this trip on the spur of the moment. I'm sure I could have saved money on plane tickets and lodging, but the biggest loss of doing this at the last minute is not having a JR Rail pass. This pass, which you can purchase for one or more weeks, will allow you to ride unlimited times on almost all JR Rail trains. It's not the best solution for public transportation in Tokyo--you'll want to pay-as-you-go on a SUICA/PASSMO card or buy day pass tickets for Tokyo Metro/Toei Line, depending on that day's itinerary--but it's damned near priceless if you want to travel around other parts of Japan.

Japan has a great railway system, including high speed "bullet" trains (the Shinkansen), that covers pretty much any destination you would want to go. You can stay in Tokyo and make a day trip to Kyoto. Or you could go to to Kyoto, then Osaka, day trip in Kobe, over to Hiroshima, back to Tokyo, to Mt. Fuji, go to Kamakura, over to wherever the hell that steepest roller coaster in the world is...

...and doing it all will cost you a pretty penny. A trip to Kyoto is something like 145,000 yen.

That's one way.

A JR Rail pass for one week is 29,110 yen.

A trip to Kyoto and back, and you're roughly even. Add in _any_ other destination, and the JR rail pass becomes absolutely worth it.

You MUST purchase it before you leave. Like, at least a few days before you leave (it comes in the mail). They do not sell it in Japan, as it's only for foreign tourists.

I Did Not Get the JR Rail Pass

I did not have time to get the JR Rail pass before coming.

I tried to rectify this last minute. Some travel agencies sell it directly, including some Japanese airlines. My flight to Japan was from SFO, but I had a connecting flight from my hometown of Portland to San Francisco, and SFO has an ANA (Air Nippon Airways) ticket counter.

I crossed my fingers.

When I got to SFO, the ANA ticket counter... was closed. All I did was have to go through security an extra time, and waste a precious 30 minutes that could have been used to eat breakfast (it was already 7pm and I hadn't really eaten that day) or better deal with a last minute request from a customer at work.

I'll be going to Kyoto and back, doing a trip down to Kamakura, and probably a trip to Mt. Fuji. I'll have to avoid any further travel outside of the Tokyo area to make up for missing out on the rail pass.

Boo.