what is going on beautiful people of the
world today we are talking about the
Japan Rail Pass now if you're going to
Japan this is something you're totally
going to want to look into if you're
traveling from one city to another city
and you're doing it over let's say seven
days 14 days 21 days this is something
you're gonna want to have it's gonna
save you a ton of money now if you're
gonna go just to Tokyo and stay there
this isn't for you but if you're wanting
to dip around and get around the
quickest way possible and the cheapest
way possible stick around I'm gonna go
through how you purchased the tickets I
use the tickets and how you activate
them all right now so let's just hop
right into the computer and we'll start
there okay so let's talk about
purchasing the Japan Rail Pass now if
you just go in Google
Japan Rail Pass it's gonna be a little
bit confusing there's tons of ads on
here so you're not gonna want to go to
that what you're gonna want to go is to
Japan Rail Pass dotnet that is like the
official Japan Rail Pass web site or you
can get all the information you need
once you're there you have a bunch of
tabs that will tell you about the Japan
Rail Pass but this can be a little bit
confusing because this is just an
informational web site there really
isn't a whole lot else here so that's
why I'm making this video so that I can
go through some of the things that I
think you need to know so first thing is
eligibility what is it that you need in
order to have the Japan Rail Pass in
order to use it you can go to your about
Japan Rail Pass and read some of this
but I'm just gonna explain it really
quickly it's that you need to be a
foreign tourist entering Japan from
abroad and you have to have a temporary
visitor pass a visitor stamp in your in
your passport that's 15 days to 90 days
long and you're gonna get this no matter
what as long as you're tourists and
you're not on the official business in
Japan now there's also some ways you can
get the Japan Rail Pass if you are a
Japanese citizen living abroad but there
are some conditions here that I would
suggest you checking out if that fits
your eligibility requirements if you're
a Japanese citizen living abroad for
most of you you're gonna be a foreign
tourist in Japan so that's not gonna be
a problem my only tip is if you do enter
a place where there is an electronic
entrance which some people are now
installing in a lot of these different
ports and airports
you're gonna want to make sure that you
do get a stamp from the stamp guard so
even if you go through the electronic
entrance you're going to want to go to a
garden ask them to get stamp so that you
can prove that you are a temporary
visitor okay the second thing is that
there are two types of rail passes there
is the green pass and then there's the
ordinary pass now what's the difference
obviously the green pass is a little
more expensive and the ordinary pass is
less expensive the reason is the green
pass is like first class let's call it
and the ordinary pass is well just
ordinary class now the difference is
there are a few more trains that you can
ride with the green passed and you can
with the ordinary past and you
supposedly get nicer seating in the
green section than you do in the
ordinary section I did the ordinary
section and I can highly recommend the
ordinary section there were tons and
tons of trains to get where I needed to
go they aren't that much slower compared
to the ones that you're doing in the
green so that is the main difference
between these two it's just classes and
availability of trains but like I said I
don't think you need to splurge on the
green one the ordinary pass worked
amazingly well okay the other thing you
need to know is that there are different
durations for these tickets so you have
a seven day fourteen day and a twenty
one day so basically what happens during
these things is you can use the Japan
Rail Pass as many times as you possibly
want in between these durations of time
seven days fortune' day than 21 days the
reason I bring that up is because if
you're currently planning your Japan
trip you should plan your Japan trip
around these durations because you're
gonna want to have the full pass in
order to get back to where you need to
go or you're gonna have to plan
accordingly so that way your pass
doesn't run out while you're not where
you're going to be leaving okay now that
we've talked about the past and what
it's about and the eligibility of use
let's talk about purchasing the pass now
you're gonna want to go over to this tab
here Japan Rail Pass purchased to travel
and if you come down you'll see that you
can't actually purchase on this website
you actually have to purchase from a
sales office and you have to purchase
these tickets before you get to Japan
you cannot buy these in Japan well you
can but they're phasing that out and you
have to go to special agencies and
special locations within Japan to buy
the pass anyway it's a real pain plus
most of the information on that is in
Japanese so if you don't speak Japanese
and you don't read Japanese
I would highly highly recommend
purchasing your ticket before you enter
Japan so you're gonna go down and you're
gonna click the location where you are
these are gonna give you the list
official sales agents that are selling
the Japan Rail Pass you can see here
they give you some options they'll tell
you the location they'll tell you the
office and they'll tell you the phone
number what I did was I use JTB in
Australia and I would probably suggest
using them they were super helpful and
responsive to all of my emails and phone
calls and questions but again it might
not be in your area so that's up to you
to decide let's go into what the JTB
purchasing process looks like so you can
see that they give you the different
types and prices and options and you can
have it sent to you via FedEx you can
also pick these tickets up at the office
so if you choose an office that is close
to you you can go and pick those up so
you're just gonna go through the process
of ordering the JR pass through the JTB
website once you go through this you'll
see that they'll ship you your
activation directions and we're gonna go
through how to use those to activate now
so let's take it over to Japan and I'll
show you exactly how to activate and
then use these tickets konichiwa
I'm Japan Josh I'll be walking through
all your JR pass stuff here in Japan
okay so today we're gonna be activating
our JR pass we're going into a socket
station to do it we're in Osaka so
that's where we're doing it obviously
well in your packet you should get a
booklet that tells you all the places
that you can activate your JR pass so if
you're in Tokyo or
sometimes came in somewhere else there's
a list of information in that packet and
tell you where to activate your j.r pass
we're gonna go through the process now
in Osaka
[Music]
so you know Sacco you're gonna head to
the Central Station and then there look
for tickets and then they have to signs
for advance and today and season tickets
want to collect your ticket you can go
to the season tickets thing you can also
do it in advance and tell them when you
want to activate that was a little bit
confusing what I meant to say was when
you go to activate your pass in the
season's pass line you can tell them
that you want to activate your pass for
a day in the future meaning if you show
up on the tenth and you don't want your
passes start until the 14th you can
still go to the line on the 10th ask
them to activate it for the 14th so that
on the 14th you can start using your
pass that'll save you some time if you
don't want to do the activation on the
same day you're trying to grab your
first train alright back to the video
second thing is apparently everything is
booked so you probably booked ahead and
but you can also just hop on the train
in the non reservation cars so that's
we're gonna try and do now our three
cars turn on reservation parts 1 2 & 3
so just go there and wait and then you
see
I think we got here early enough that we
will get on so yeah no needs the
reservation I guess
[Music]
okay so we made our first junior pass
trip okay a few tips I would say is that
if you're going to be driving a
no-reserve car if you're like trying to
go the day of no reserve first three
cars one two three get there at least 30
minutes early so you can just hop on and
impossibly get a seat I'd say that's the
best bet at least 30 minutes ahead of
time also book your trip a day in
advance when you get into the station
and you want to leave like two days
later three days later just go in to the
same station you're at so right now we
went to Hiroshima we went and got our
tickets for tomorrow to Tokyo so we're
completely covered for tomorrow and we
have reserved seats I think that's the
best way to do it just kind of be a day
ahead of it and that way you won't be
standing up on any trip but you can get
on the train so that's not a really huge
deal if you're glassman you can get on a
train welcome back I think that's
everything that I have for the Japan
Rail Pass my only final tip would be
that if you're planning your Japan trip
right now and you're budgeting it out
this Japan Rail Pass is a huge part of
your travel budget but it's not the
entire thing this is only between cities
travel when you're in the city you're
still gonna have to pay for the metro
the subway the bus or taxis or ubers and
it is pretty expensive so just plan
accordingly and hopefully you won't have
any unexpected costs as you go thank you
guys so much for watching this video I
hope it was helpful if you have any
questions hit me up in the comments I'm
happy to answer anything that I can or
you can hit me up on Instagram if you
prefer at Josh Pavano and if this video
was helpful please subscribe that helps
me out a ton and I'll be posting a lot
more travel tips video over the next few
weeks to hopefully help you get to the
destinations you want to go to and do it
cheaply and have a ton of fun so I'll
see you guys the next one peace out love
y'all