JR Railpass

Japan is a train country. You can get just about anywhere in Japan by train and indeed it is the most convenient mode of transport in that country. Something that makes rail travel all the more easy is the JR Railpass.  It basically allows you to ride any JR train as many times as you want during the validity of your pass.

There are several different types of passes.  First you have the general pass which allows you access to all of JR.  Then you have an individual pass for each region of Japan (Hokkaido, East, West and Kyushu).  Personally I don't know why you'd want to limit yourself to one region.  I wander so much that picking just one region would be extremely difficult.  The passes also have a time limit.  They do not go on forever.  You can choose a 7, 14, or 21 day pass.

If you want to see a lot of Japan easily and in a short amount of time this pass is the way to go.  Not only will it save you money, but it will also save time.  Instead of standing in line to purchase tickets, you just flash your pass to the station personnel and away you go.  The JR pass is also very easy to buy.  I went to JTBUSA, got the contact info and called the Chicago office.  A fax and one more phone call and I had my passes (note that I had to do things differently because my wife is Japanese and you have to do some special things for Japanese nationals living abroad to get the pass, normal ordering can be done online with much less documentation).  The documents you get in the mail are actually vouchers that you must use in Japan to obtain the pass themselves.  Now, you must buy these passes before you go to Japan.  They cannot be purchased within country and you must have a tourist visa.  If you have any sort of long term visa (student, business, etc.), you cannot use the rail pass.

There is one other limitation to the pass: you can't use the Nozomi super express bullet train.  The other two, Hikari and Kodama are able to be used.  Also, keep in mind that not all trains in Japan are JR.  There are other rail companies and you cannot use the pass with them, so please check to make sure that your destinations can be accessed by JR.

I will be using a 14 day rail pass this summer.  I'm looking forward to being able to come and go where and when I please.  It'll allow me to explore at ease and to have a general liberty.  I've used the pass in the past and it was great being able to travel freely.