Spring is here and in Tokyo the Sakura Blossom will be here in the next few days, and with the weather forecast to be good for the next few days this year's hanami (literally flower watching) should be good. 

We know that many inbound tourists to Japan get anxious about being able to view the Sakura at its peak and at the "best spots", but to let you into a secret, you can see the sakura almost everywhere and even before and after the peak, Japan is still very colourful (may be more so with the pinks and greens intermixed)! 

It is a great time to explore some of rural Japan by train, and there are many scenic rail lines to choose from!

One of Japan's best selling publications is the railway timetable. Even with the wide use of travel planning apps, the JR Railway Timetable still sells 100,000 copies each month! NHK World's Japan Railway Journal broadcast a program about the "Enduring Charm of Printed Timetables" which included a segment by TSJR's Turner. Read more below. 

Also in this newsletter we have a special offer for followers and client of TS Japan Rail on Japan Sim Cards from Mobal Japan, which in turn will make you eligible for a discount of 10% up to Y3,000 on TS Japan Rail's planning services.

TSJR's Turner was featured in NHK World's Japan Railway Journal on a program about the still popular printed Railway Timetables. You can ger the link to the program in the below article:

As you will see in the program, TSJR uses the full railway timetable in preference to the travel apps when designing itineraries for clients. According to Turner "the travel apps provide a 1 dimension view only showing the trains at the time entered and only the quickest or cheapest routes between A & B, whereas the full timetable has a 2 dimensional view. We also get some of our travel ideas from the timetable"

On our dedicated rail fan site we publish a news update most months, Japan Rail News that we think is of interest to International Rail Fans and those who will be visiting Japan soon.

We publish it most months. Our Rail Fan site is designed to give ideas for rail enthusiasts. You can view via a link on our main site or using the below button:

A lot of the information you see on social media and other sources about buying rail tickets in Japan is wrong!

In some ways the way the ticketing system works is very easy:

• Based on the length of the journey travel, with the marginal rate getting cheaper.
• Unlike in some places there is not a lot of different priced tickets for doing basically the same journey.

But there are several things that confuse visitors to Japan:

• There are many railway companies (e.g.  in Tokyo there are 9 major railway companies and a few minor ones) all of which have their own fare scales. On some journeys you will pass without knowing it through 2 or even 3 different rail company areas.
• There are extra supplementary fares for riding on shinkansen and Limited express trains.
• There are also many passes both available exclusively for inbound visitors and for everyone, but how they work can differ between passes.

Did you know for example that if you are travelling from Tokyoto Kyoto, staying there a few days and then going to Hiroshima that you can buy an ordinary basic fare Tokyo to Hiroshima, that will let you have 3 days in Kyoto before going on to Hiroshima, which will save you Y3,000 rather than purchasing Tokyo~Kyoto and Kyoto~Hiroshima tickets?

This can also effect whether a JR Rail Pass is worthwhile or not in some cases.

Find out more in this article:

Unfortunately most travel planning apps and JR Rail Pass calculators do not take this into account (unless you were travelling from Tokyo to Hiroshima with an intra day stop in Kyoto).

When TS Japan Rail works on client itineraries we will take this into account (and also the convenience factor).

We stress that this is not cheating (it is how locals would do it), if you go to a JR Booking office with your itinerary they will often work out for you what is the best ticketing.

Any questions or comments please feel free to ask / tell us! email address info@tsjapanrail.com