Guidance to smooth traveling

Hi there,

I would first recommend purchasing a Kansai WIDE Area Pass. It is a 5-day pass which fits your schedule, and gives you access to all of the surrounding Kansai area including Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. More details on the pass can be found here.

From then it is probably easiest to purchase your tickets individually from that point. From Osaka you can get the Tokaido Shinkansen to Tokyo. Within Tokyo, look into purchasing a prepaid travel card such as a Suica card, to navigate the metro lines of Tokyo. more information on this can be found here.

It is recommended to purchase the JR Pass two weeks or more prior to your departure, to give time for the exchange order to reach you. Make sure not to purchase it any more than 3 months prior to your exchange date, as the exchange order won't be valid for any longer than that.

As for making sure your trip is as smooth as possible, I would suggest you make a detailed schedule of your itinerary, to ensure that you remain organised and have all of your seat reservations ready.

Hope this helps!

Alexis

Thank you so much for your guidance.

Would the Osaka- Tokyo Hokuriku Arch Pass let us get from Haneda Airport to Osaka and Osaka back to Tokyo with having to purchase an extra ticket? It also says that eligibility for this pass is only for 'temporary visitor visa.' As a tourist with a USA passport traveling Japan for 12 days, do we not qualify?

Trying to figure out the difference in the pass you recommended (Kansai Wide) and this one (Osaka- Tokyo Hokuriku Arch) besides price?

We want to make sure the regional pass we purchase will allow us to travel from Haneda airport to Osaka. We would be fine purchasing separate tickets to go back to Tokyo from Osaka.