Bullet Blitz: How to Make the Most of Japan's JR Pass
The author half-awake before boarding the first Shinkansen train of the day.
Normally, I would choose depth over breadth when it comes to travel, but there are circumstances in which one can get the best of both worlds. A visit to Japan, at least for those with enough time and energy, is one such instance. Thanks to the JR Pass and Japan’s famous bullet trains, known as the Shinkansen, it is possible to visit the whole of Japan in just one week, but this is not an itinerary for the faint of heart.
This Bullet Blitz Route is ideally suited for someone visiting Japan for around a month (or more) who wants to visit Tokyo and Kansai (e.g., Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara). Depending on your individual circumstances and travel plans, you may want to play around with the itinerary a bit. However, hopefully this provides you a helpful baseline to work worth.
You can view my itinerary below or on the JR Pass calculator site:
I napped on the train a lot.
In total, I did roughly 29 hours of bullet train travel covering 5,607 km of Japan in that week. My longest single journey was from Kagoshima to Tokyo (roughly 1,467 km, 7.5 hours, ¥31,350). That might sound like a lot of travel, and it was, but zipping around the country by bullet train every day for a week was also some of the most fun I had during my stay.
The estimated cost of booking those trains individually would be around ¥159,410, roughly $1,081.12 USD. At the time of my travel, the cost of the 7-day JR pass was ¥29,650, roughly $201.04. This means I was able to get about an extra $880 worth of travel out of the pass and see Japan from top-to-bottom in just under a week. The views of Fuji-san from my seat were a nice bonus. Note that the optimal seats for viewing Fuji-san from the train may vary depending on your route. If in doubt, ask the train station staff which seat is best at the time of booking.
Passing by Fuji-san on the Shinkansen
Note that the small difference between my estimate and the JR Pass calculator estimate is due to differences in reaching Itsukushima (Miyajima). Without a JR Pass, it makes more sense to spend a bit more and save time by taking the ferry directly from the Hiroshima Peace Park for ¥4000, but with the JR Pass one goes to Miyajimaguchi station and gets the JR ferry from there.
In order to get the most cost benefit out of the JR Pass, one must be constantly on the move and travel between far-flung cities. For my intinerary, I woke up early each morning to catch the first bullet train, took a nap in the train, and then had a morning coffee and a bento box before exploring my next destination for the day.
For my itinerary, I had already explored Tokyo and Kansai before coming up with the idea. However, for someone who has not yet been to Japan, I would recommend touring Tokyo first, doing a modified version of my itinerary, and ending up in Shin-Osaka station to explore all that Kansai has to offer.
Like I said, not for the faint of heart.
Under this approach, one would end up doing 31 hours of bullet train travel covering 5,727 km of Japan in a week that would cost roughly ¥161,910 without a pass.
Many recommendations, such as from the JR Pass calculator website, will recommend something like the “Golden Route” (Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka -> Tokyo), but this approach has some major limitations. Firstly, it limits one to exploring Kansai to just a few days. Additionally, by JR Pass’s own calculations, one actually loses ¥14,400 due to the recent JR Pass price hikes.
Now that one must do at least ¥50,000 worth of travel to justify the additional expense, I felt it would be helpful to publish this to help those thinking about visiting Japan continue to benefit from the pass. By following the intinerary recommended above, one is still able to do an extra ¥111,360 worth of travel around the country — going from icy Hokkaido to the volcanic Kyushu by land in just a matter of hours — and still have plenty of time to leisurely explore Kansai to one’s heart’s content.
I hope this helps someone out there thinking about taking a trip to Japan! Are there any ways this itinerary could be improved further? Please let me know. :)
It would be remiss not to share some pictures from each day of the journey, as well! So please find a few photos from each day below.
