Planning a Japan trip usually turns into three separate arguments: where to go, what it will cost, and whether the rail pass is worth it this time. The pass question is the expensive one to get wrong. A 7 day national pass costs 50,000 yen before you have ridden a single train, and whether it pays depends entirely on the legs you actually ride and the days you ride them on. This page runs the math once, free, on the filled sample trip inside the planner. The planner itself is the same math with your legs in it.
The free worked example
The pass verdict, run on a real route
The workbook's filled sample is a 10 day trip: Tokyo, Nikko, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka, Himeji, and Hiroshima. Its train tickets, priced one by one from the preloaded fare table, come to 68,490 yen per person. Here is what the JR Pass Math tab does with those legs:
- Pay as you go: 68,490 yen. Every leg bought as a separate ticket.
- A regional pass: 63,990 yen all in. The legs fit inside its consecutive day window, so it wins by 4,500 yen.
- The 14 day national pass: 80,000 yen at the official online price. On this route it loses by 11,510 yen, and the sheet shows that before you spend the money.
Sometimes the honest verdict is: do not buy the pass. On a trip that stays around Tokyo and Kyoto, the same math says no pass at all. The point of the tool is not to sell you a pass. It is to name the cheapest option for your legs and show the margin, per person, in yen and dollars.
The sample route ends in Hiroshima, which is exactly where the regional pass starts beating the national one. Photo: Glen Zi, via Pexels.
What is inside
The workbook and the guide
Japan-Trip-Planner.xlsx, 8 tabs. Start Here (inputs and honesty notes). Sample Itinerary, the filled 10 days. Itinerary Planner, blank for 21 days and dated from your start date. Budget Calculator, with Low, Typical, and High daily bands you can edit, and totals per person and per party. Reservations Tracker for flights, hotels, trains, and activities, with confirmation codes and cancellation notes. JR Pass Math, the verdict tab. Fare Table, 43 core routes in both directions with the basis and source for every fare. And the Options Bank: a pre-chosen backup pick for every stop on the sample route, for the days when weather or crowds change the plan.
Japan-Trip-Planner-Quick-Start.pdf, 9 pages. How the workbook works, how to run the pass math honestly, when the right answer is no pass, the sample trip worked in full, a phrases and etiquette page, booking order and timing basics, and a pre-booking checklist.
Yen is the primary currency throughout, because yen is what you will pay. One editable exchange rate cell (1 USD = 157.7 JPY, checked Oct 15, 2026) drives every dollar figure, so you can update it in five seconds before you book. The workbook runs in Microsoft Excel and in Google Sheets, and every total is a live formula. If a fare you are quoted differs from a preloaded fare, type yours into the Manual fare column and the math uses yours.
From our shelf
Japan Trip Planner + JR Pass Math
$9.99 · regular price $19.99
The sample above is our trip. The planner runs the same verdict on yours: your legs, your dates, your party size. Enter the trains exactly as you plan to ride them and it prices them against the national pass (7, 14, and 21 day, Ordinary and Green) and 14 regional pass options, counting a pass only if your legs fit inside its window.
Delivered as two files, the workbook and the Quick Start guide. It is not a booking service and includes no rail pass or ticket.
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The standard behind this page
Prices and pass data were checked on Oct 15, 2026. National pass prices in the workbook are the official online prices; agent prices rose on Oct 1, 2026, and the sheet notes both. Fares are regular season and can move a few hundred yen with seat season, which is why every leg carries a manual override for your own quote.
An independent planner from Summit and Spur, a publication of Oasis Investing LLC. Not affiliated with JR or any railway company, and not a booking service. This page is our own first recommendation, not an independent review: the planner it points to is ours, made by Summit and Spur and sold on Gumroad.