Value for JR Hokkaido Rail Pass

I am travelling to Hokkaido in Feb 2012, landing in Hakodate with the following itinerary in mind.

Day 1 Hakodate
Day 2 Hakodate to Sapporo
Day 3 Sapporo to Asahikawa to Sapporo
Day 4 Sapporo
Day 5 Sapporo to Otaru
Day 6 Otaru to Sapporo New Chitose Airport

Read about the Hokkaido Rail Pass here.
(http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/english/railpass/rail01.html)

Will it be worthwhile to get the 3 day pass for the first 3 days of my itinerary considering I will only be using the pass for

One-way trip from Hakodate to Sapporo
Return trip from Sapporo to Asahikawa

Tried to calculate the fares, but the website lists 22,000 yen for the example provided (Return trip from Sapporo to Hakodate + Return trip from Sapporo to Otaru + Return trip from Sapporo to Asahikawa) whereas I kept getting 27,160 yen

Many thanks in advance for reading.

One-way trip from Hakodate to Sapporo
Return trip from Sapporo to Asahikawa

The most economic way to pay for this journey is to buy:
1) one way base fare ticket from Hakodate to Asahikawa: 7450 yen
2) limited express supplement for Hakodate to Sapporo: 2520-3230 yen
3) limited express supplement for Sapporo to Asahikawa: 1750-2460 yen
4) one way base fare ticket from Asahikawa to Sapporo: 2420 yen
5) limited express supplement for Asahikawa to Sapporo: 1750-2460 yen

For the limited express supplements, the range indicates the price for a non-reserved seat and a reserved seat.

Total: 15,890 to 18,020 yen

This compares to 15,000 yen for a 3-day pass

Hi, Uji-san

Will it be safe to buy the tickets when in Japan. Any worries that tickets will be sold out, say during the month of May or June.

Thank you.

According to the calculation, the Hokkaido Rail Pass will pay off. It will be your ticket. You can buy it inside or outside of Japan.

Seat reservations cannot be made until you are in Japan. And free seat reservations for Hokkaido cannot be made until you have the activated Hokkaido Rail Pass in your hands.

May and June are generally not very busy months, but still some trains can get booked out. If you make reservations a day ahead, you should usually not run into any problems. Even if you travel without seat reservations, you might be okay, but I recommend to make reservations.

I read from another travel forum where one of the contributors mentioned that the Hokkaido Pass commence on the day the ticket is purchase and not when first travel. Is that right?

Another question: I tried Hyperdia and searched for Lake Toya station. But apparently the nearest I could get is Toya (Muroran). What should I type to get Lake Toya.

thanks.

I read from another travel forum where one of the contributors mentioned that the Hokkaido Pass commence on the day the ticket is purchase and not when first travel. Is that right?

That would be a big surprise to me. And it is certainly not true in case when you purchase the pass outside of Japan. But the official website is not clear about it.

I tried Hyperdia and searched for Lake Toya station. But apparently the nearest I could get is Toya (Muroran). What should I type to get Lake Toya.

Toya (Muroran) is the closest train station to Lake Toya. Here are more details about accessing Lake Toya:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6730.html

I was in Hokkaido this summer and with the consecutive day passes, you can designate when to start the pass (it doesn't start when you buy it).

However, if you use the flex pass, the ten day window starts the day you buy the ticket, not when you first use it. Learned this this the hard way...

But for you on the 3 day pass, you'll be fine--you can write down when to start the pass.

I went through the Hokkaido Pass website again. I noticed that it stated that the day starts upon issue. I presume it could be this way - Purchase the pass outside Japan, when reach Japan get the pass issue and the day starts from the issuance day.

Uji-san, from the link that you gave me, there seems to be Toya Station, which is next to Muroran. The puzzle is Toya does not appear as a valid station

There are two Toya Stations in Japan. One along the JR Muroran Line near Muroran and one along the JR Senmo Line near Kushiro. Toya Station along the Muroran Line is where you want to go to visit Lake Toya. "Toya" (“´–ê) is the official name. "TOYA(JR-MURORAN)" is how Hyperdia calls it to differentiate it from the other Toya Station.

Thanks, Uji-San

This finally explained and cleared all my confusions for the past weeks.

HI all

After making more detail research and calculations, individual tickets will cost me less compared to buying a Pass.

But how do I buy these individual sectors tickets. I can't seem to be able to find information from previous blog.

I will be flying to Narita and then a domestic flight to Sapporo with ANA.

Can anyone advise how I can purchase the rail tickets.

Thank you.