How much do TRAINS cost in Japan? 🚃 Tokyo Metro / Subway Pass vs Suica 🚅 Shinkansen Prices
I recorded everything I spent on trains and transport, over two trips to Japan (both Tokyo and other areas of Japan), to show how much money you might need for your Japan trip.
✨ Get my Japan guidebook (worldwide shipping): https://cakeswithfaces.co.uk/product/japan-travel-guide-book/
How much money do you need for trains in Japan? The video includes how much I spent in Japan as a tourist, both in Tokyo on local trains and the Tokyo Metro / Subway, and on the shinkansen, travelling long distance. It includes example bullet train ticket prices and a regional rail pass I used around Gifu and in Takayama. It includes the average cost per day for trains (I only use taxis and buses very occasionally), and how expensive trains were on an example day in Tokyo. There’s an overview of the Tokyo metro and subway passes, and what they’re valid for, and whether it’s worth getting a metro pass, compared to Suica (IC card). For checking train routes and times, I recommend using the Japan Travel app by Navitime, because it often gives better results than Google. I’ll also mention day trips from Tokyo and how much they cost on the train.
▶️ SUBSCRIBE for Japan vlogs every Thursday.
🌈 CAKES WITH FACES MERCH (worldwide shipping): https://www.cakeswithfaces.co.uk
✨ FOLLOW CAKES WITH FACES:
http://instagram.com/cakeswithfaces
Tweets by cakeswithfaces
https://www.facebook.com/cakeswithfaces
00:00 Average spend on trains / transport per day
02:15 Shinkansen tickets
04:12 Tokyo metro pass vs Suica
07:28 Checking routes & times
07:53 Day trips
#japan #japantravel #shinkansen #japanesetrains #japantraveltips
17 Comments
Uploads back to back this day cant get any better 😆 Planning a trip to Japan by myself for the first time and these videos are the best way of learning
I believe the best thing to do (while in Tokyo) is use the 24/48/72 hr subway pass to do the bulk of your traveling and have a suica card to cover the remaining distance with trains. (Trust me I was doing A LOT of in city traveling in a single day)
Here's another tip for anyone out there: Utilize the night bus. You will pay only a third of the price, you will get your accommodation, sleep, and travel to the location all at once. Don't worry, they are very smooth rides. I did take the shinkansen, and as much as I liked the experience, it still burned 2.5 hrs of daytime, of which I found not very optimal for my short time in Japan. (Also, seeing that a lot of places close early in Japan, daylight is especially valuable to tourists not there for a very long)
Great book on Japan a great buy.
JR East also offers a 1 day Tokyo Metropolitan District (Tokunai) Pass for local trains in the 23 wards of Tokyo for 760 yen. For first time visitors, JR lines can be easier to navigte than the subway. 5:05 Don't wanna nitpick but shouldn't the price of the Tokyo Free Ticket be higher in dollars than pounds?
Nowadays the metro pass only really makes sense if you stay near a metro station and plan out a whole trip through the city using only metro, and even then you're saving a couple of bucks at best.
For the JR Pass, be it the national one or regional one, just plan ahead, look up the prices for all the long distance trains you would take and compare that to the cost of the pass or passes you would need.
I've been a long time user of the JR Pass myself, mainly because every trip I make it down from Tokyo to Hakata and back by train, usually also sidestepping towards the Hokuriku shinkansen or swinging by Shikoku. And than it can become worth it due to the vast distance travelled on the train. But on my next trip, where I'll be flying from Fukuoka to Tokyo in my final week, I think I'm even gonna skip out on the pass, despite going all the way up to Aomori and Akita.
Local transport in the big cities is inexpensive. No matter how you look at it. The few times I took out a daypass in a city, I ended up calculating that I sometimes didn't save at all and otherwise would have saved a few hundred Yen. So on that end, I am part of team Suica (or whatever IC card you might have, I don't discriminate 😉 🐧)
Nagoya-Hiroshima on a regular train is extremely slow, in part because there are, as far as I am aware, no more (Limited) Express services, but only local services. Before the Shinkansen existed, it was a lot faster. In the 1960 film Oinaru Bakushin (Devotion to Railway) we see a train journey from Tokyo to Nagasaki and they depart Tokyo in late afternoon and arrive at the final destination around noon the next day. Another YouTuber recently showed a trip from Tokyo to Nagoya recently with a Limited Express, but that did not follow the old Tokaido line, but used the Chuo line to then transfer in Shiojiri to the Shinonoi line. A scenic route where you don't save money, but spend more than twice as long compared to the Shinkansen.
Japan 🇯🇵 should be affordable not expensive when it comes to taking the subway! The Japanese government needs to find a way to get the Japanese yen 💴 strong instead of still weak.
Thanks for your helpful videos. We’re headed to Japan next week and have learned a lot from you.
Navitime is the best!
The Navitime app gives you bus prices to the neasest 1 Yen 🙂 Handy as a couple of the buses we took (Tokyo to Hakone for example) were cash only and no change given. (Also, awesome views through the mountains)
My 2 trips to Japan I got the JR pass first trip I started in Tokyo and went to Hiroshima then stopped off at Osaka and Kyoto on the way back to Tokyo. I also used local JR trains and went to Izu peninsular for a day trip. JR pass paid for itself. Second trip I started in Tokyo then went to Sapporo on the way back I stopped at Morioka took a diversion to Akita and then down to Sendai before heading back to Tokyo. Again I also used local JR trains as well during the trip and the pass paid for itself. Creators like yourself need to stop writing the JR pass off and actually explain to people that if they plan well the JR pass more than pays for itself and you don’t need to spend all your time travelling to make it work you can spend a day or two in each place before moving on
3 videos this week? Bloody hell! 😅
I keep going on about this but the Tokyo Metro Pass is like £2 something a day. I'd have spent £10+ going via Suica most days as you can just dip in and out of the stations with no worry about cost. If I went via Suica it would be "ah that's another quid"..and it really adds up.
One trip I took this month was ¥640 return (to one of the end of the lines on the metro). That's more than the cost of the 72hr metro pass for that day. Plus all the other trips I took. No brainer!
100% agree with Navitime – it's the only one I use for longer trips as Google gave dodgy info one time.
Greetings! Your book just arrived, and I’m looking forward to reading it! I’ll be taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya and from Kanazawa to Tokyo, and I’m also thinking of checking out their Gran Clas on at least one of those routes. Thanks for all the great content!
i spent 16k yen on the suica in 10 days and most of that was kombini haha. I have preloaded it this time with 20k ready for the trip.
that is true about the koogle maps and trains… one time i was on a train from hakata to kita-kyushu and it said "stay on same vehicle to go to shimonoseki" and the train got to kokura and turned around! That was inconvenient lol.
Hi amy. Been japan in 2019 for 6 days. Wasn't working. Flights cancelled due to covid. Bit late for japan. Train travel prices video. Can't get a diet cant get training. Always wanted japan and to workout. Did not get what I wanted in life. Too much of a dream. Been in a ferreri and an aston martin for a sit during covid. Put smile on my face till someone knocked my out in the street in the morning. Too bigger dream my basic goals.