Which region is Kinosaki in?

During our 5 week holiday in Autumn we are considering using Regional Rail Passes instead of shelling out serious money for Japan Rail passes.

I have found the Rail Passes guide within Japan-guide.com most useful but for the trips from Kyoto to Kinosaki onsen (2 nights) and then to Kobe, I would like to know what Region Kinosaki is in, to then know what regional pass or passes to buy.

Is there a website where I can type in a town to determine which region it is in?

Thanks for any replies.

Hi, here is a tip that you can use for Kinosaki onsen, but also other train stations.

1) find the train station on Google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pZ5Fz8bEuwBxBLbTA (Kinosakionsen)
2) Scroll down on the left panel (if you are on a desktop browser), and you should see which train lines stop there (Hamakaze, Hashidate... these are the names of the train lines).
3) Just below the list of train lines, there's a link to "westjr.co.jp" (this is the company that manages these trains)
4) You can deduce from that, that any train pass will likely be sold by JR West. They are all listed on this page.
https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/

Another example with Tokyo station, which has these train companies listed:
- jr-central.co.jp
- jreast.co.jp
- tokyometro.jp
(--> you can look for train passes from either JR Central or JR East)

You can also use the calculator from Japan Guide, although not many stations are listed (but Kinosaki is). Select "round-trip".
https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/

Hi Ronzac,

To answer your question, Kinosaki-onsen is located inside Hyogo Prefecture which means that it belongs to the Kansai Region. You could have found that by Googling "kinosaki-onsen" that it is in Hyogo Pref., and then you could have Googled "hyogo prefecture what region".

But you should keep in mind that rail passes are available for certain train lines and trains. It's not that it covers everything inside a specific region such as Kansai and whatnot.

That's why you need to do what Mellye suggests. Or if you've decided not to use Japan Rail Pass, you can come to Japan and go to a JR counter to discuss your trip with a personnel to see what pass you should buy or not.

I don’t know if there is a page simply listing all the passes that include Kinosaki Onsen. It is technically Kansai, but very close to Chugoku. If you are using the Japan Guide rail passes overview page, you could click on Kansai to see the passes that MIGHT include Kinosaki Onsen, but to see the actual coverages of those passes you need to look at the maps provided on the respective detail pages.

To see which passes cover Kinosaki Onsen I find it a little easier to use the JR West link that Mellye provided. The little coverage maps on that overview page don’t give enough detail, but once you figure out where Kinosaki Onsen is on their little map you can fairly quickly figure out which passes (including the ones listed under “Other Rail Passes” towards to bottom of the page) cover it as well as Kobe. Then click the link for a given pass to see detail and confirm the coverage.

I am currently trying to figure out which pass to buy for Western Japan for an upcoming trip myself, and there are certainly a lot of options. Obviously, it will depend on the rest of your itinerary and how you plan to use to pass to go to other places. Some of the passes include the Sanyo shinkansen, which will be a deciding factor for me. Since I plan to develop my itinerary on whatever rail pass I pick, rather than buying a rail pass to suit an already determined itinerary, it is going to take me a long time, but the possibilities are intriguing. It was all so much easier when the nationwide JR pass was cheap, but the new option of using Nozomi trains is really quite attractive!

Hi Mellye, thanks very much :-) ,for the hour or so I have just used following up the most helpful links you supplied.

I found that these three passes: Kansai Area, Kansai-San'in Area and Kansai-Hokuriku Area all include Kinosakionsen, Kyoto and Kobe. With 7 days available they could be useful, in addition to my 2 nights at kinosakionsen, for use in Kyoto, Himeji and Kobe.

Thanks also for explaining how to use parts of Google Maps I have not used before. I got carried away within Tokyo Metro!

Also the Pass Calculator link was useful as I will use it for other trip considerations.

Thanks again.

Hi Uco, thanks for the tips on using Google to answer my query.

Asking for guidance at a JR Counter will be the go for most of my trips. However I intend to rock up there with Navitime search results and see if I'm on the right track or not.

Thanks again.

Hi Kim, thanks for your help with my Kinosakionsen query, especially in the area of how to negotiate within the JR West link that Mellye supplied.

Choosing a Rail Pass first and then choosing destinations instead of the way I have planned my holiday is a top idea for my next Japan holiday.

Good luck with planning your trip. It takes heaps of time, but well worth it.

Thanks again.