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Other Options For Planning Your Train Trip
By thomas | October 31, 2007
I received a lot of great comments from readers on the jr-odekake.net post.
Reader Jethro writes about an English train-scheduling service, hyperdia:
While I was in Japan studying abroad, I used a very similar website to plan out trips– http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi
I’ll have to try out this one too, though!
~ Jethro.
Reader Deas of Rocking in Hakata fame adds:
Hey there, Thomas. I also use Hyperdia for my train scheduling stuff. It works wonders - and has an English page, which Jethro pointed out. (Though it requires further clarification for some stops since their are homophone names involved and in English you don’t input kanji. I obviously prefer the Japanese end of the site to circumvent that problem.)
Reader Lee from Tokyo Times sends a tip about another English-language train-schedule site, Train Route Finder:
There’s also this one too: http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/e-norikeyin.html
Finally, reader/hiker Chris offers another option, good ol’ Yahoo! Japan:
I’ve always used http://yahoo.co.jp - under 調べる｜路線 - it has an option to include plane travel as well, and links to weather and lodging along the way.
It looks like the jr-odekake site allows you to book online as well. JR had the most brain-damaged online booking system imaginable for a while, which they thankfully decomissioned. Has anyone used this new system yet?
Thanks for the tips guys!
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November 1st, 2007 at 12:38 am
I guess the one other way I’ve looked up train times is by purchasing the actual bound copy in mini-book form. It’s called the JR時刻表 (JR Jikokuhyou / Timetable). It’s unbelievably helpful to take a hard copy with you, highlighting your estimated timing along the route you’ll take. Take 20 minutes to figure out how to read it, buy a 青春１８切符 (Seishyun Jyuuhachi Kippu / Young 18 Ticket) and rock along, improvising as you go. Makes a killer holiday.
November 12th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Deas: Thanks for the tip! I’ll be posting it up soon. Do you know if they sell copies at most JR stations?
November 14th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Though I can’t wholly attest to its accuracy, Google Transit has a variety of train schedules that you can search and , overlaid on top of their (excellent, I think) maps. Sometimes the routes are a bit goofy, but that’s mostly a matter of taste.