Last Updated: Feb 4, 2024

The JR East Pass (Tohoku Area)

Five Days in Northern Japan

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium

At the beginning of January 2024, I embarked on an epic, five-day-long adventure across much of northern Japan. While the primary goal was to produce three reels to promote the JR East Pass (Tohoku Area), I also wanted to see for myself just how much travel I could pack into a mere 120 hours. While it’s true that the regional rail passes did not go up in price as much as the vaunted Japan Rail Pass, many, including the JR East Pass (Tohoku Area), still did see a minor hike. What this means is that travelers now need to make a much more concerted effort to eke out value from the ticket.

In the upcoming sections, I’ll detail my itinerary over these sleepless five days. Before we get to that though, it would be wise for me to first introduce a little bit about the JR East Pass (Tohoku Area) for those of you who haven’t heard of it before. If you already know your regional offerings from JR quite well, feel free to skip this and dive right on into what I did. For the rest of you, I suggest that you stick around because this is a wonderful alternative to the country-wide Japan Rail Pass.

So, if you haven’t heard of the JR East Pass (Tohoku Area), know that this alternative to the country Japan Rail Pass may very well be my favorite…