It was a sad day for travelers last April when Japan Railways announced that it was raising the price of the JR Pass, the rail pass that provided unlimited travel on all JR-operated lines in Japan. With JR passes having risen as much as 77 percent, it’s a lot harder to justify their expense in one’s travel budget, closing the door on many of the lavish single-day round-trip excursions to far-flung parts of the country many JR pass holders took using the shinkansen bullet train network.
But soon East Japan Railway Company, aka JR East, is going to be bringing back some of the thrifty, speedy luxury with a brand-new rail pass. It’s called the Kyun Pass, or the Kyun♡Pass if you’re adhering to JR East’s official rendering with a silent heart in the middle.
▼ The Kyun Pass logo
The Kyun Pass is a single-day all-you-can-ride ticket for all lines operated by JR East, including the Tohoku, Joetsu, and Hokuriku shinkansen lines. Though the pass doesn’t cover the archetypal golden itinerary of Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Hiroshima, it does give you access to attractively less-crowded travel destination gems such as Aomori, Sendai, Kanazawa, Nagano, Niigata, and Morioka, and at a price of just 10,000 yen.
▼ The area covered by the Kyun Pass, basically the entire Kanto and Tohoku regions of Japan, and the eastern part of Hokuriku too
To illustrate what a great value that is, here are some ordinary round-trip fares, using the shinkansen, from Tokyo.
● Tokyo-Aomori: 35,340 yen
● Tokyo-Sendai: 22,820 yen
● Tokyo-Kanazawa: 27,700 yen
● Tokyo-Nagano: 15,620 yen
● Tokyo-Niigata: 20,460 yen
● Tokyo-Morioka: 30.020 yen
The Kyun Pass allows you to reserve two seats in advance for the day you’ll be using it, and also provides unlimited rides on a number of non-JR lines that connect to the JR East network (Aoimori Railway, IGR Iwate Ginga Railway, Sanriku Tetsudo, Hokuetsu Express, and Echigo Tokimeki Railway [between Naoetsu and Arai Stations]). The Kyun Pass also gives you discounts at JR’s in-station New Days convenience stores and select station-adjacent rental car agency branches, in case you’re going even further afield than the train tracks can take you.
The Kyun Pass can be used on dates between February 14 and March 14, and goes on sale January 14 through JR East’s Eki Net online ticketing site (the pass must be activated no sooner than 14 days and no more than one month after purchase).
Really the only major downside is that the Kyun Pass price is the same, 10,000 yen, for both adults and children, with no discount for traveling tykes. Still, it’s an incredible value for all ages, and sure to provide a strong kyun (Japanese onomatopoeia for the sensation of your heart tightening in emotion and excitement) for anyone with even a hint of wanderlust.
Related: Eki Net
Source: JR East via Ascii via Yahoo! Japan News via Jin
Insert images: JR East
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- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2023/12/08/jr-east-announces-awesomely-cheap-one-day-all-you-can-ride-pass-shinkansen-included/
9 Comments
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JeffLee
It’s only good for one month during the winter mostly to very cold parts of the country, so it’s not useful for most folks. I would have liked to use it this spring to get up to Tochigi or Fukushima for driving around the mountains.
piskian
Absolutely bollocks.
GillislowTier
Bunch of places people wouldn’t normally go during the dead of winter unless there’s an event or you live there.
Try that going towards Kyushu or something
finally rich
Great campaign to explore a whole new area in Japan for just ¥10.000, even if its just for 1 month in the middle of the winter and only give you 1 day to enjoy the place.
Still would love to explore say Aomori for 1 day, it's just 3 hours away and I could catch the first shinkansen in the morning and get home before midnight.
YeahRight
It'll be good for those who want to get in some good skiing.
TrevorPeace
A pathetic gesture.
factchecker
Try that going towards Kyushu or something
I agree as I love Kyushu, but the independent JR's are too tightfisted to share the revenue from such a ticket. JR Kyushu would have to split the fare with JR Tokai & JR West. This is why there's no cruise train running across the country - each one runs it's own, in their area only. Very mean.
JeffLee
Not really. The transportation part of JR ski packages that include chair lift passes and food and drink coupons are normally around 10,000 yen in these regions. And you have the option of extending your trip for several days at the same price -- not just a single day!
Candy
Crying in Aomori…….where can I go that when I return my house/pipes won’t be frozen over? Honto bullocks