14 or 21 day pass?

Hi there!

That's quite a nice journey you are planning there!

Going to your questions:

1.) You rightly assume that the JR Pass is valid on both the JR Lines, Narita Express and Tokyo Monorail. Other ways of travel such as the Tokyo metro as run by different companies that don't accept the JR Pass. Here's a map that shows all station around Tokyo reachable by JR.

2.) There are some buses that you can use in Kyushu but only those run by JR, which are very limited. All places in your itinerary are reachable by train though. I do think that a northern JR Pass would be very useful here. Let me know if you had any specific bus in mind and I can check it for you.

3.) Both Hakone and Koya are some of the rare exceptions where they JR Pass won't cover you all the way. For Koya san I would recommend taking the JR to Osaka and travel on from there with the Nankai Express. A World Heritage Ticket is makes for a good supplement to the JR Pass. You can travel with the bullet trains all the way to Odawara, the front door of Hakone. From there only private railways run trough the area, so a Hakone Free Pass comes in very handy.

I think that a 7-day JR Pass + Northern Kyushu pass would be the most economic option for you and your husband. Usually it is better to just add a week (or two) to your JR Pass but it works out very well for both of you. I can also understand that it would be more convenient to travel on the same kind of tickets. Lastly your travel in Tokyo (To Yokahama and Haneda) is not enough to warrant an upgrade either.

For the rest, I love Kyushu and you are visit many of the best places there. If you have time I would say make a visit to Nagasaki or Kagoshima perhaps but I am sure that you will already have a fantastic trip with the your current plans.

Let me know if I can help with anything else!
-Daniel

Thank you very much -your suggestions gave me the clarity and reassurance much needed! Purchased two of 7-day passes.

As to the buses in Kyushu, I was thinking of travelling to Kurokawa Onsen eventually as a possible and there does not seem to be a train there. Evidently, I can get a bus from Hita to Kurokawa Onsen (no idea what time or how much and read something that said it could be tricky) but was thinking of doing it the other way in any case:

travelling from Aso to Kurokawa Onsen then onto Yuifin or Beppu (asume again no train so by bus) then back on train onto Hita for return to Hakata. Also, bus to Aso seems to do a good service for sites etc.

However, negotiating the bus information is really testing me. If I want to do Kurokawa Onsen it seems it must be a journey by bus which is fine if I can figure it out! Any ideas on routes, timings, fares ?

Thanks again for a great service!

Hi Again,

I have looked further into getting to Kurokawa Onsen for you. I know that it is a very beautiful place from previous forum visitors. However it is an adventure in itself to get there and you almost have to stay for the night without a rental car. That is of course the first option if either you or your husband feel confident enough to drive on the left side. An other option is to take the train to Aso station and take the bus from there. This way you could combine it with your planned visit to Aso san. These buses are run by different companies than JR so be sure to have some change ready.

I was able to track down the time table for the bus, it however is only available in Japanese. I hope that you will be able to understand it (a little) with this explanation.

阿蘇駅前＝Mount Aso station (nr 19 in the list) 黒川＝Kurokawa. (nr 21 in the list)

Here is the [time table for week days.] and here is the [time table for in the weekend and national holidays] The first bus arrives at Aso at 10:28 and arrives at Kurokawa around 11:26. I could not track down the exact fare but I don't think that it would be more than 2,000Yen/person.

From Kurokawa you can take the same bus on to Beppu or return to Aso and use the JR Pass to travel from there (the cheaper option).

Lastly the [official access page from Kurokawa] may also be helpful, which has some alternative ways to travel.

I hope this helps you to negotiate the difficulties somewhat!
-Daniel

Fantastic yet again - many thanks! Might be able to find a way to make it work after all- the timetables highlighted are helpful as is the Kurokawa access page.
Cheers
Carol

Fantastic yet again - many thanks! Might be able to find a way to make it work after all- the timetables highlighted are helpful as is the Kurokawa access page.
Cheers
Carol