Travel to Tokyo & Karuizawa

Hi there,

While the JR Kanto pass could help you save some money, it is only valid for three consecutive days, meaning you could not use it efficiently for your trip to Karuizawa as you plan to get there for 4 days.

The most expensive travel you will do is
Narita Airport --> Tokyo 3110 Yen
Tokyo - Karuizawa --> 5,750 Yen
Karuizawa - Tokyo --> 5,750 Yen
Tokyo --> Back to Narita Airport 3110 Yen

for a total of 17720yen

In this case it is probably best to get the buy the Suica & N'EX deal and buy your tickets locally for Raruizawa.
Or if you are below 25 years old JR east offers the JR East Pass for 16000yen for 4 flexible days of use.
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/eastpass/

An other option is to go to Karuizawa by bus. This will save you some money for sure 2100-3000yen one way but can be hard to book if you don't speak Japanese.
www.japan-guide.com/e/e6030.html

Hope it helps a little.
-Daniel

Hi Daniel-san,

Thank you so much indeed for your kind advices and suggestions! It helps a lot indeed!

For my side trip to Karuizawa, as I won't be able to benefit from the 3-day valid period of the ticket, do you think it's still worth to get it and use for local rides?

8,000 - 5,750 = 2,250

Will I be able to use the ticket for train / bus rides during my 4-day stay there and fully utilize the balance (e.g. 2,250)? Thanks once again!

Best regards,
P

Hi Again :)

It would depend on what you would do, if you stay locally around Karuizawa I don't think it is worth it (it does not cover local bus rides in any event).

You could however plan a Day-trip to Nikko for instance. This would really utilize the pass it's value.
The trip takes only 159 minutes from Karuizawa and would cost 19280 for the return without the pass.

Here's a an example of the trip
http://tinyurl.com/9wgxq6k

And here's more information on Nikko, just in case you be interested.
http://gojapan.about.com/cs/kantoregion1/a/nikko.htm

Enjoy your trip!
-Daniel

Hi Daniel-san,

Thank you very much for your time & suggestions! I appreciate it a lot!

May I ask whether it is viable for me to use a JR Kanto pass (3-day validity) to travel from Narita to Tokyo, then to Karuizawa? If it is OK, then it will only cost me 8,000, right? Upon my return trip, since it is over 3 days, I might have to purchase single-trip tickets.

Thanks for your suggestions about Nikko, the place looks very nice indeed! I might have to go there in my future visits but not this time.

Many thanks
P

Good morning (from Europe),

Yes that would work!
You would save about ~860 Yen and you could use the pass to save some more riding local trains in Tokyo.

Hope it helps :)
-Daniel