Did i save money?

Hi William, Top marks for curiosity, and yes you saved a great deal by my reckoning!

I've come up with the following rough overall individual ticket cost, indicating a pretty good saving with your 2 week rail pass of ¥74,320 (approx. $950 USD). Good going! Here are my workings:

1. Osaka > Nara: ¥780, (51mins, 48km)
2. Nara > Osaka: ¥780, (55mins, 48km)
3. Osaka > Kyoto: ¥540, (29mins, 42km)
4. Kyoto > Kanazawa: ¥6710, (124mins, 224km)
5. Kanazawa > Sapporo(jr): ¥30670, (823mins, 1589km)
6. Sapporo(jr) > Sendai(miyagi/jr): ¥18550, (446mins, 844km)
7. Sendai(miyagi/jr) > Tokyo: ¥10590, (102mins, 351km)
8. Tokyo > Odawara: ¥3640, (35mins, 83km)
9. Odawara > Hiroshima: ¥17530, (287mins, 810km)
10. Hiroshima > Aso(kumamoto): ¥13520, (211mins, 449km)
11. Aso(kumamoto) > Nagasaki(nagasaki): ¥10030, (234mins, 262km)
12. Nagasaki(nagasaki) > Hakata: ¥4580, (112mins, 153km)
13. Additional costs in Osaka of ¥1,500

TOTAL: ¥119,420 for 13 legs

I'm not sure about how you travelled from Sapporo to Lake Shikotsu so omitted this, and have priced your hops on the other Osaka trains at ¥150 each (¥1500).

I should also add that the costs of these trains will vary depending on time of day you travel. I decided to calculate these based on weekday travel at 10am (outside rush hour).

Hope this helps and you had a great time!

Mari,

thanks once again for you kind help

I was getting different prices on hyperdia website and it must of bin as you quite rightly pointed out from the times i was putting in as i did it when i got back.Thanks so much.

It was not a case of getting value for money as i think its not even a question now as you have pointed out./

thats a hell of alot of money.So im more than happy but in a way i guess i wanted to show the importance of the jr pass for tourists and the JR pass is not advertised enough in travel agencies and books and so forth and really should be as before i went i only found out about it.

I figured as i was going there and not knowing if i would be going back that i had to see as much of japan as possible.I mean i know i hit the so called HOT SPOTS but really i could of spent 5 days in Kyoto and a week up north and not to mention i did not even get to right down south.

None the less money was against me and not time so im really happy with my time their.

great people like yourself make travels very worth while in this case both money and places to go.

also friends of mine are going there and are using the local train deal called 18 seishun kippu (local trains only)so journey time would be 4 times maybe as long.thats not the right spelling but its only at certain times of the year and only maybe 110 us for 2 think people is what they told me.

I hope Jr gets its finger out with more advertising:)

Take care Mari and very kond of you:)

No problem!

Yes, the Seishun 18 kippu is ok if you don't mind the restrictions, but as you point out you cannot use the bullet trains so journeys can take for ever... Still, the more options out there the better I think - It would be great if JR advertised their rail passes more!

It's really nice to hear my itinerary helped you have a great experience in Japan - Glad I could help!