I think I've got the gist of it now. Thanks! I'm planning on booking through Lawson's online and being ready on the 10th the month before we go.If you search for it on this board you should be able to find out a lot more. I've seen people post about it before.
I wonder how they can sell 3 months in advance compared to the actual website? I'm interested in using them now because it says you can save $14 on the delivery fee by buying the JR Pass through them, too.I actually went through this website to purchase the tickets and found it very useful: https://online.jtbusa.com/Services/GhibliMuseum.aspx
You can purchase your ticket 3 months in advance and the feature I found most useful was that the tickets purchased through JTB don't have a specific time listed when you have to arrive. You can arrive at any time during the day of the ticket date purchased. We found this very helpful as we were still figuring out trains and scheduling and knowing we didn't have to get there during a specific window took a lot of pressure off.
I wonder how they can sell 3 months in advance compared to the actual website? I'm interested in using them now because it says you can save $14 on the delivery fee by buying the JR Pass through them, too.
Was it pretty easy to get your tickets through them? Did you have to get on the second they were released?
Oh okay that makes sense!If I remember correctly, I believe it's because the Lawson's tickets are part of the same pool of ticket sales that everyone in Japan uses so it's the same sale and schedule for everyone. Whereas with JTB the museum gives them a certain number of tickets for each day that can only be sold to Americans outside of Japan. So they can use their own schedule for selling them. And now thinking about it I ordered my late September tickets June 1, so I guess it's technically more like 4 months in advance.
When I purchased my September tickets, I filled out the form around 8am June 1 to reserve the tickets I wanted and then a couple days later they emailed me to confirm which day I got and then I called them with the payment information. So while I did have to wait a couple days for the confirmation, I had no problem getting the exact date that I was hoping for and they quickly mailed me the tickets and all the info I needed.
If you're worried about dates selling out quickly, you can always check their website the first couple days of each month to see how quickly the calendar gets filled up. But like I said, I didn't necessarily rush, but just ordered early morning and had no problems. Hope that helps!
Oh okay that makes sense!
We are planning on going in the middle of May so does that mean we could fill out the form on February 1 at 8 am? We will have a 3-4 days spent in the city in Tokyo so we could work with a couple different dates to visit the museum.
Did you buy the JR Pass with the museum tickets?
We will be there for 2 weeks and are going to Kyoto as well, with some other surrounding areas. I can't decide if we want to get the 7 or the 14 day pass.Yep, Feb 1 sounds right.
As for the JR Pass we ended up not getting it because we only stayed in Tokyo while on our trip and for us it didn't seem worth it. I would have used the JR Pass if we were traveling anywhere outside Tokyo, especially with the bullet train, but for what we did it didn't seem like it'd be any extra value for us.
We will be there for 2 weeks and are going to Kyoto as well, with some other surrounding areas. I can't decide if we want to get the 7 or the 14 day pass.
The reason I asked was because on their website they state that you can save the $14 shipping fee of the Ghibli tickets by also buying the JR Pass through them.
That's a super handy calculator! Thanks! It looks like we would want to get the 14 day and it will be less to get the JR Pass instead of individual passes. We are planning on doing Tokyo-Kyoto roundtrip, Kyoto-Nara roundtrip, and Kyoto-Hiroshima roundtrip so lots of train usage.Oh yeah, if you're traveling between Tokyo and Kyoto, then I would definitely recommend it!
I found this site that looks helpful by letting you put it your itinerary and it estimates whether or not the JR Pass will pay off or not. And should also help with determining 7 vs 14 day as well: https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/
Though take in to account that it looks like this site charges a little more for the rail pass ticket they sell, so take the ticket price difference into account when it gives you the totals. It's possible that shopping around for a JR Pass may yield different pricing results.
Oh really? Well that's good to know. Is it suggested/possible to do both Hiroshima and Miyajima in one day?I might have mentioned this on another thread, but the JR pass is also good on the bus around Hiroshima, and on the ferry to Miyajima island.
Oh really? Well that's good to know. Is it suggested/possible to do both Hiroshima and Miyajima in one day?
Also, is the JR Pass good for all of the trains inside the city in Tokyo? Or if we want to get from the city to Disney will it cover that too? I haven't had the chance to look at the routes yet.
We would only have one day for Hiroshima/Miyajima so maybe we will just take the whole day for Hiroshima. I really want to go to the museum.We did Hiroshima and Miyajima in a single day from Osaka, but we didn’t go to Hiroshima castle or the Holocast museum in Hiroshima, just walked around ground zero, and we didn’t go into the shrine at Miyajima, just spent a couple of hours looking around the island. So it’s possible but some people might recommend a day for each.
The JR pass is good for most of the rail lines in Tokyo but not for the subway lines. We were able to use it occasionally to move around in the city but mostly for day trips out to Yokohama and Matsumoto. I think there is a JR train from Tokyo Station to Mahaima station, but it’s been two years so my memory is a little fuzzy.
We would only have one day for Hiroshima/Miyajima so maybe we will just take the whole day for Hiroshima. I really want to go to the museum.
Are you talking about at Hiroshima?When you get off the JR bus at ground zero, there will probably be a guide to greet you and offer a free tour of the grounds. We definitely learned more from that than if we had self toured.