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Hi, I'll be in Osaka for 7 days. What would be the best ticket to get to travel around? I surfed the web but get rather confusing info as there are a couple of train companies and I'm not sure if there is a rechargeable card option like the Passmo in Tokyo. I read about the prepaid tickets but then have to purchase them every morning so that would be a bit troublesome? Any help very much appreciated!
Depends on where you want to go. If you are wondering about day passes and other regional passes, I doubt it is very useful. If you are wondering about a rechargeable card, they do have it. JR West has the ICOCA. Kansai has the PiTaPa. From what I can tell, they are both interoperable. Hopefully someone can confirm that as I'm not in Kansai. If you have a Pasmo, it won't work in Kansai. Suica works only on the JR Lines, not the subways or buses.
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Thanks dru46, I'll be travelling around the Osaka metro area, going back and forth to namba, dotonbori, nhk etc. I suppose then the most economical would be to purchase A pitapa and move around on the trains? Would the card be returnable after use? Is there a deposit Do you know ? Thanks
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PiTaPa is charged to your credit card, so if you aren't resident in Japan, and have a Japanese issued CC, then you can't get a PiTaPa. Check this out: http://www.surutto.com/index.cgi http://www.jr-odekake.net/en/jwrp/ Without PiTaPa, you aren't going to find an all in one solution. Living here, I rarely use JR trains so I might suggest that Surutto makes more sense. In any case you many have to pay out of pocket for the odd train here or there.
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Oh yeah, forgot about that... as mentioned, ICOCA is a card that covers a lot of the options. Again not 100% but probably the best option. http://www.jr-odekake.net/icoca/
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Oops. Didn't know that about the Pitapa. Couldn't translate it properly. :( Hopefully I'll get better information next month as I'll be down there for a couple days. If you don't mind, just buy single tickets. Doesn't take long anyways.
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Thanks all for your responses..I was expecting a Tokyo style Passmo or the Hongkong style Octopus card which covers all forms of transport. but sounds like the Pitapa or Icoca should be good.
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Just to make sure you got all the information correctly, the Pitapa requires a Japanese credit card, so looks like the Icoca is the way to go for what you want.
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Not to mention that after applying for PiTaPa, it took a couple of weeks for the card to be issued and arrive in the mail.
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Guys Thanks for the answers. I've got another question - how long is the train ride from Osaka to Kyoto? and how much does the ticket cost? I've got only 6 days in Osaka, do you think a day trip to Kyoto is worth it? Thanks.
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Yes, you should do a day trip, or two to Kyoto. If I were you, I'd do a day in Kyoto and a day in Nara. If you feel Kyoto is fun, you can do 2 days there instead of 1 in Kyoto and 1 in Nara. There are 3 options to get there. JR, Hankyu, and Keihan trains. The JR is the most straight forward, Osaka station to Kyoto. 30 minutes. I don't know the Hankyu or Keihan routes.
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Kyoto is a easy day trip from Osaka, or even half a day. The whole Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara area is just a big urban blob that blends together. Check www.hyperdia.com/en/ for travel times and details.
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