Online Train Route Planning For Your Travels in Japan

Japan is famous for its extensive network of train routes. As a visitor, you’ll undoubtedly ride many trains as you tour the country, or to just get around in a city like Osaka.

Planning some of your train rides in advance is a good idea if you have access to the Internet. Using Google Maps, Wikipedia, and a route planner called Hyperdia, you can create a loose plan of where and how you intend to travel.

Looking at Osaka with Google Maps, you’ll notice that train stations (marked by square blue icons) are thankfully written in English, as well as in Kanji. In Maps you can search for various tourist destinations that you wish to visit, and then look around for the nearest train stations to help get you there. Although Google Maps offers a travel routing feature, you’ll notice that it outputs a lot of information in Japanese characters. This is where Hyperdia comes in handy.

Hyperdia is an excellent route planner that is available in 100% English. Simply plug in your “from” and “to” stations, and the service will figure out the available routes in the times that you’ve specified. Hyperdia will also link up trains with shinkansen, subway and monorail lines if necessary for your travels.

Untangling the complex web of train routes that link up Osaka and the greater Kansai region can be a bit of headache. Fortunately, Wikipedia has done an excellent job of cataloging every train station and train route in Japan! This is useful for when you’ve spotted a station on Google Maps that you intend to travel to, or when Hyperdia has routed you to various stations that you must walk and transfer from. Wikipedia lets you figure out if its a subway station built into the basement of a massive shopping complex, or a sleepy one-platform train station out in the countryside. It can be helpful to know what to expect in advance.

Finally, whatever situation you happen to find yourself in while traveling in this country, keep in mind that every station is attended by staff whose job it is to help you find your way. Don’t be shy to ask for help!