Japan Railway Passes. What is the deal?

[Naniwan Kid]

I am supposed to host some high school kids in Kansai in June, and am wondering about Japan Railway Passes. These are for people on tourist visas, right? Do you have to be a certain age? Are they really a good deal? We'll do quite a bit of train travel. They don't work in the shinkansen, I would imagine. Do they work only for certain regions, or the whole country?

Thanks all!

[Lupine smile]

http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en01.html Should answer most of your questions.

I've used an all japan pass on 2 occasions and have saved loads of cash (tokyo-kyoto return by shinkansen is about the same as 1week pass).

[Naniwan Kid]

Thanks, Lupine

That site is really helpful. These are quite a deal, aren't they? Does anyone know what the age cutoff is for children?

[Lupine smile]

In the booklet i recieved with my pass, the childrens pass is for kids aged from 6 up to and including 11 years old.

[Ptyx]

It's awesome. My brother came here last christmas with one, you can't travel in all japan plus use the jr network in tokyo. He diudn't even need to make reservation, just enter the train and show the pass when asked for your ticket.