Your Japanese word of the week is...

"toukei" 統計 or "statistics". Since I've officially finished using my rail pass, I thought I'd let you guys in on just what exactly I did with it.

JR Rail Pass valid dates - May 10, 2009 - May 30, 2009
JR Rail Pass cost - Adult Ordinary, ￥57,700

Number of Shinkansen rides - 21
Most ridden Shinkansen - Hikari 501 for Shin-Osaka, departing at 6:34am from Shinagawa (7 times)

Note: All travel costs, distances, and time calculated from Takadanobaba to destination's main station. It does not include in-Tokyo use of the train pass or any train/bus travel at the destination

Total retail price of rail tickets - ￥287,910
Amount saved (Retail price minus JR Rail Pass) - ￥230,210

Total distance covered - 12,125km
Time spent (includes train changes) - 90hr 55min

Average speed - 133.35km/h

Unpunctual* train departures - 0 (!!!)
Unpunctual* train arrivals - 1 (on my way to Sapporo, late due to high winds)
*Unpunctual denotes a train that does not depart/arrive at EXACTLY the quoted time. In other words, a punctual train departs/arrives neither earlier nor later, even by a minute, than its scheduled time

Some notes/thoughts-

- my entire travel plan can be done at a lower cost than my quoted retail price by not reserving seats on the Shinkansen since the Rail Pass offers seat reservation at no extra cost. Reserved seats can cost an extra ￥1000-2000. However, reserved seats are much better than non-reserved because there are usually fewer people, which makes for a quieter and more pleasant journey.

- my entire travel plan can also be done in less time for retail-paying travellers since Nozomi trains do not cost any more than regular trains. Short trips make little difference (30min difference to Nagoya) but that quickly jumps the further you go (2hr difference to Hiroshima). Of course, doing my journeys in less time is mutually exclusive to doing them at a lower cost because of how the JR Rail Pass works (no Nozomi trains allowed).

- not included in my stats are various journeys on buses (Twin Ring Motegi), ferries (Miyajima), and local trains (eg- Sapporo - Otaru) I took at each destination. The Rail Pass is truly far reaching.

- obviously with many of my journeys being to nearby places (eg- Himeji then Osaka), it makes sense time-wise to have stayed overnight. However, with the Rail Pass, I can sacrifice a bit of time in order to save on hotels/hostels.

- reading train schedules a lot recently, I've noticed that Nozomi services are rather abundant. Assuming the Rail Pass continues to deny its users the joys of Nozomi travel, planning trips on dwindling non-Nozomi trains might prove difficult. However, JR's application of the pass is rather strategic in that anyone serious about travelling (business or otherwise) will travel on a Nozomi while more frequent, short haul trips are cheapest on non-reserve, non-Nozomi trains. This leaves the reserved seats on the non-Nozomi trains stuck in the middle and makes perfect seats for Rail Pass users.

- the Rail Pass requires you to carry your passport with you at all times. Number of times my passport was checked - 0

- the Rail Pass also requires you to be prepared to show it to any train conductor while he/she is checking the passenger's tickets. Number of times my Rail Pass was check on-train - 2

- considering the above odds, you might be tempted to try sneaking into a non-reserved seat on a Nozomi train. I would not recommend it lest your pass be revoked and a fine levied (and I would presume they're slightly more strict about tickets on Nozomi trains), but the possibility is there... I should warn that despite my Rail Pass being checked only twice on-train, my seat ticket was checked everytime.

Is the Rail Pass worth it?
In a word, yes. I paid off my Rail Pass within my first week of use and even those not going to all the places I went to can easily travel enough to pay off the ￥57,700.

However, it must be said that short-/day-trips may not be everyone's ideal way of seeing Japan. I liked it because it meant I never had to carry a heavy bag (or any bag, if it was a day trip) and I got to see lots of things. And lots of different things, as I could jump from cultural heritage sights to modern art museums. After which I could be back home to hang out with friends.

I will concede though that travelling like this leaves little time to really get a good grasp of a city. If you try really hard to can sense how one place might be different from another, but it is by no means a clear picture. It can also be a bit stressful, as a lot of time is spent on or catching trains, the latter being particularly hard when I just got home very late at night the day before.

But in the end, even travelling to only three cities within the three weeks, the Rail Pass would easily pay for itself. My only complaint is that they don't sell it in Japan; any tourist should be allowed to purchase a Rail Pass so long as they can prove they have a tourist visa and keep that status for the duration of the pass.