Hello,
My wife and I will be in Tokyo and plan to watch the qualifying on Oct 6th & the race on Oct 7th. We will travel back and forth from Tokyo to Suzuka because we couldn't find a hotel in Nagoya.
Can you help us describe the trip itinerary and cost?
Hi there,
To get to Suzuka circuit from Tokyo you should aim to get to JR Kawarada near the Suzuka circuit with your Japan Rail Pass (sample itinerary). From Kawarada station you'll need to use the local non-JR Ise Testudo operated line to get to Suzuka Circuit Ino (sometimes written 'SuzukaSakittoIno' (sample itinerary). As this is not covered by the rail pass you will have to pay the standard ticket fare of ¥300 each way. From Suzuka Circuit Ino you can easily walk to the circuit.
Bear in mind that the travel from Tokyo to Kawarada is around 3 hours, so an early departure of 07:33 gets you into Kawarada at 10:47. After this you have to get to the track, find your viewing area and so on. As the main qualifying and race action will kick off in the early afternoon I think you'll be fine with this sort of schedule, but it's a long trip! The last valid train to leave Kawarada to get you back to Tokyo leaves Kawarada at 20:12, arriving back into Tokyo at 23:10. You may want to save this late one for race day!
To work out if a JR Pass will be worthwhile for your trip lets look at the overall JR ticket costs for the 2 days for you:
JR ticket cost: ¥44,260 for 4 legs
As you can see you'll make a good saving with the 7 day JR Pass so I can certainly recommend this option. It's worth also bearing in mind that if you did purchase separate tickets you have the option of leaving the circuit slightly later (~30mins) with the last train in this case leaving at 20:50.
Hope this helps!
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