Everything you need to know about the Hokuriku Arch Pass
What is the Hokuriku Arch Pass?
The Hokuriku Arch Pass offers foreign tourists unlimited travel around the Hokuriku region, including Kanazawa, Toyama, and Takayama and between Osaka/Kyoto and Tokyo via the Hokuriku region.
This includes shinkansen, limited express trains and local trains, as well as JR buses and several private railways.
How much does it cost?
- 5-day pass:
- Adult: 30,000 yen
- Child: 15,000 yen
Child passes are only available for those between 6 and 11 years old.
Where can it be used?
- Unlimited use of JR trains in the Hokuriku Region and between Osaka and Tokyo.
- Includes Shinkansen, limited express trains, and local trains.
- The following lines are included:
- JR EAST
- JR WEST
- Tokyo Monorail
- Limited express, rapid, and ordinary trains on the HAPI-LINE FUKUI (between Fukui and Echizen-Hanando).
- Limited express, rapid, and ordinary trains on the Noto Railway (between Nanao and Wakuraonsen stations).
- Limited express, rapid, and ordinary trains on the IR Ishikawa Railway (between Kanazawa and Tsubata).
- Limited express, rapid, and ordinary trains on the Ainokaze Toyama Railway (between Toyama and Takaoka).
Important information
- May require a separate fare for travel on non-JR lines within the pass area.
- Valid for five consecutive calendar days (midnight to midnight) from the date of your choice.
- Exclusively for foreign visitors to Japan (on temporary visitor status).
- Not valid for Japanese residents.
- The age of a child is defined as the age on the date of purchase. A passport or other such document is required to prove a child’s age.
- Children under 6 years old who do not require seat reservations do not need a pass.
- A separate fee is applicable if you wish to use the Green Car or GranClass.
- Youth fares (including student discount) are not offered for this pass.
- You can only use one Hokuriku Arch Rail Pass at a time while travelling in Japan. (You cannot purchase two of the same type of pass if their validity periods overlap)
- The Hokuriku Arch Pass cannot be used on the Tokaido Shinkansen.
Where to buy
- Purchase through online or offline travel agents outside of Japan.
- Travelers must collect the physical pass at a JR East or JR West Travel Service Center, JR East/West Ticket Office (Midori-no-madoguchi) or at a passport reader-equipped ticket machine in a JR East/West station.
- Available for purchase on the official JR East website or the official JR West website.
For a full list of JR East Travel Service Centers, or for ticket machines locations for collection of passes booked via the official JR East website, the JR East website has a full list of locations and facilities.
For a full list of JR West locations where passes booked via the official JR West website can be collected, the JR West website provides a search function that will find the all locations where the pass can be collected in their area.
How to reserve seats
Free seat reservations available at:
- Seat reservation ticket machines.
- JR ticket offices.
- Online (collect physical tickets at a ticket machine or ticket office):
How to use
Insert only your rail pass into the automatic ticket gate.
Make sure to pick up your rail pass after passing through the gate. The rail pass cannot be reissued even if it is lost or stolen etc.
Value
The pass offers value for those making the trip from Tokyo or Osaka to cities such as Kanzawa in the Hokuriku region.
It is not good value for those seeking to make one or two short journeys within the pass area, however it can be cost saving if you plan to make multiple journeys within the timeframe and predominantly use the Shinkansen or Limited Express trains to do so.
Combining multiple Shinkansen and Limited Express journeys with daily use on local lines and buses would likely give good value for the ticket price and in many cases exceed the cost of the pass.
For one adult, a round trip on the Narita Express between Narita Airport and Tokyo Station, combined with a round trip on the Hokuriku Shinkansen between Tokyo Station and Kanazawa Station, will cost approximately 34,000 yen.
This is 4,000 yen more than the cost of the Hokuriku Arch Pass.
The pass provides similar value if instead of a round trip between Tokyo/Narita Airport and Kanazawa, you travel from Tokyo/Narita Airport to Kanazawa and then onwards to Kyoto or Osaka.
