I'm staying in Shinjuku, Tokyo for 3 nights and 2 days and would like to visit most of the locations listed below. I'm buying a JR Rail pass and would prefer to travel on JR lines to not pay extra costs. Out of the locations listed below, does anybody know what can be accessible by JR trains? Is it costly to take private subway between these stations?
Harajuku
Roppongi
Rainbow bridge
Tsukiji fish market
Ginza
Kiyosumi
Ueno
Asakusa
Roppongi, Rainbow Bridge, (Odaiba) Tsukiji, Kiyosumi, and Asakusa don't have JR stations, so you'll need take subways. Subway fare is really cheap in Tokyo--starts at 160yen and increases according to distance you travel.
If you are just staying in Tokyo and the Tokyo area the JR pass is a humongous waste of money.
But if you are going to another city like Osaka and back to Tokyo then the JR pass makes sense economically.
Harajuku, Shibuya, Ueno, Akihabara, Ginza (via Yurakucho Station) you can go by JR train.
Roppongi - NO JR train, but very easy from Shinjuku if you take the Oedo Subway Line
Tsukiji fish market - No
Asakusa - You can take JR train to Kanda or Ueno Station and change to the Ginza Subway Line there to Asakussa.
"Rainbow Bridge" (I think you mean Odaiba), you can take JR to Shimbashi Station, where you can change to the Yurikamome Line which crosses the rainbow bridge.
To answer your question, is it costly?
No, single fare tickets in Tokyo cost roughly 130-250 yen one way per ride depending on distance. Somtimes private rail and subway end up cheaper than JR fares, just depends on the route you take.
The only costly route is crossing the rainbow bridge to Odaiba, those fares tend to be a little higher than average because of the cost to build those rail lines. One way from Shimbashi to Daiba Station across the rainbow bridge is 310yen.
If you know the exact name of stations, then you can calculate routes and fares using hyperdia.com note you must know the start and end station names exactly.
Edited: 5:33 pm, September 20, 2012
I guess I'm debating between the Japanican evoucher from tokyo-osaka+roundtrip suica/NEX for $29,500 yen or JR Rail pass+one way suica/nex for $34,000 yen. I would not be able to activate the JR rail pass until my second day in tokyo as its a 7 day pass and I'll need it for the trip from Osaka back.
The difference is 4500yen, if you use that 4500 yen + 1500 yen credit on the Suica card (that comes with the Suica & nex package) for the 2 days/3nights traveling around in Tokyo, that's 6000yen.
I can tell you that 3 days of transit for the places you mentioned in Tokyo will not cost you 6000yen, so economically, the Japanican voucher + suica & nex roundtrip at 29500 is economical.
Edited: 6:00 pm, September 20, 2012Hi. We are a family of two adults two children(10 & 14) travelling to Japan for three weeks from 24th dec 2012. We arrive at narita.gostraight to Tokyo for 6 days. Head up to Nagano. Then to nozawa onsen for seven days The following six are touring from the Nagano area towards Kyoto and fly out of Osaka. Trying to work out if should get jr pass for whole three weeks?? Thanks for any help. Sue
Simple answer is no. Buying single ticket for the route is even cheaper than 7 day JR Pass.
The 21 Day pass definitely won't pay off with your itinerary. Stick with individual tickets.
Thank you for your help. Would the suica-nex be best purchased at narita? We arrive about 1830 hrs. Would I need to per book these seats from Australia? We are staying in the ginza area. Thanks sue
The only place you can buy the Suica/NEX package is NRT. When you purchase a package, they'll book you a seat on the next departing NEX. You could theoretically book seats on NEX from your country, but there is no need as NEX trains are hardly ever full. In addition, it's not a good idea to pre book seats on the airport train in case of flight delay.
