Would the JRP be beneficial for my travel requirements?

Hi Stef,

After Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka and Nara) will you be traveling back to Tokyo?
That the 7 JR-Pass may be worth it, because the pass is about the same price as a return ticket Tokyo Kyoto.
Any travel after that basically becomes free!

If you plan on a one way trip to Kansai and travel around there, then it will be better to buy single travel as you go, because local travel between Osaka, Kyoto and Nara is not very expansive.

Places in Kansai are very close and you can reach both Nara and Osaka in an hour from Kyoto. I would recommand planning by the weather, for instance if it is a beautiful day go sightseeing in Kyoto or Nara and if it is cloudy go for the shopping streets and many in-door attractions of Osaka.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

We are planning a round trip from Tokyo and back.

How should we route our trip? Tokyo to Osaka first or Tokyo to Kyoto first? Based on the JR pass.

Also, are there any late night trains we would take? Ones that go past midnight? We are thinking about staying on the train overnight and sleeping to save money on hotel. Is this an option?

Thanks so much for all your help!!

Hi there,

It does not really matter where you go first, Kyoto and Osaka are about 30 minutes apart by train so it is easy to travel from the one to the other. Many people book a hotel in one place and make day trips to the other.

There is a night train from Osaka called the sunrise express but it is very popular and will sell out quickly. You can try this but I would recommend trying to reserve tickets for it the moment that you exchange your JR Pass. Have a plan B ready as well, just in case it does not work out!

Enjoy Japan!
-Daniel