Everything you need to know about the JR Tottori Matsue Pass
What is the JR Tottori Matsue Pass?
The Tottori-Matsue Area Pass is designed for foreign tourists and provides unlimited travel on JR trains and select buses in the Tottori and Matsue areas.
How much does it cost?
- 3-day pass:
- Adult: 4,500 yen
- Child: 2,250 yen
Child passes are only available for those between 6 and 11 years old.
Where can it be used?
- JR-WEST lines within the pass area:
- Limited Express trains (reserved and non-reserved seats, e.g., SUPER HAKUTO,SUPER INABA,YAKUMO)
- Special Rapid Services
- Rapid Services
- Local trains
- Gurutto Matsue Lake Line Bus
- Loop Kirinjishi Bus
Important information
- May require a separate fare for travel on non-JR lines within the pass area.
- Valid for three 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.
- Youth fares (including student discount) are not offered for this pass.
- You can only use one JR Tottori-Matsue Pass at a time while travelling in Japan. (You cannot purchase two of the same type of pass if their validity periods overlap)
- Customers arriving at Yonago Airport who need to exchange an e-ticket must travel to either Sakaiminato or Yonago station.
Where to buy
- Purchase through online or offline travel agents outside of Japan.
- Travelers must collect the physical pass at a JR West Travel Service Center, JR West Ticket Office (Midori-no-madoguchi) or at a passport reader-equipped ticket machine in a JR West station.
- Available for purchase on the official JR West website.
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.
- JR West Train Reservation website (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 planning on exploring the areas around Tottori and Matsue.
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 Limited Express trains to do so.
Combining multiple 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 one-way trip on between Tottori and Matsue will cost approximately 2,310 yen on local trains, but will take over 3 hours.
A one-way trip on between Tottori and Matsue on a faster limited express train 5,100 yen and take around 1 hour 20 minutes.
As this pass costs 4,000 yen, it can offer significant savings if you intend to use the limited express trains in the area.
