The use of travel apps in Japan has been of great help to Japanese people, especially tourists, in finding the nearest train as well as tracking train time. If you want to know more about these applications, follow us through the article below.

 

Yahoo! Norikae annai:

 

Advantages:

 

Yahoo! Norikae annai provides the travel time from where you are standing to the destination station and offers the most suitable route. Not only that, this application also has an alarm when arriving at the station you need to get off, helping you not to miss the line transfer. Because of this, Norikae annai is commonly used, and is a clever way to check trains while in Japan.

 

How to use:

 

In the box 出発 (しゅっぱつ – shuppatsu): Enter the starting point.

 

In the 到着 (とうちゃく – touchaku) box: Enter the place you want to go to.

 

Click on 現在時刻 (げんざいじこく – genzai jikou): Select departure time and arrival time.

 

To view the current departure trains: Click 現在時刻, the app will automatically display the current departures. If you want to look up the train at a certain time, select the date, time and minute, the system will give the results corresponding to the departure time.

 

If you want to search for a train to a certain place, instead of choosing 出発, choose 到着.

 

You can also find the earliest train of the day by selecting 始発 (しはつ – shihatsu), and the last train of the day by selecting 終電 (しゅうでん – shuuden).

 

If you want to go to another prefecture, you can choose a means of transportation by choosing 条件設定あり (じょうけんせっていあり – joukensetteiari). There will be many forms of transportation for you to choose from such as Shinkansen, Tokkyu, plane, express bus, regular bus, ferry.

 

To sort the displayed results, there are three buttons 早 (red), 楽 (blue), and 安 (yellow). For the red button 早, the system will give the results of travel time from fast to slow. The green button 楽 will sort the results with the number of transfers from few to many. The yellow button 安 will rank the prices from cheap to expensive.

 

▶ For iOS: 

https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/yahoo-cheng-huan-an-nei/id291676451?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

 

Norikae NAVITIME:

 

Advantages:

 

Navitime provides information about train times, and how to find trains. Not only that, Navitime also gives information about the location and travel time of the nearest bus stations for users to avoid unnecessary delays.

 

How to use:

 

The application will have 3 criteria for you to find the right train you want, including:

 

出発：Starting point (where you board the train).

 

経由：Specify to go through an intermediate station that you want.

 

到着：Destination.

 

After entering the 3 criteria, select the departure time in the 現在時刻 section. Here you will continue:

 

出発: Select the departure time.

 

到着: Select the time when the train arrives at the desired destination.

 

Similar to Norikae annai, you can also look up the information of 始発 – First train of the day and 終電 – Last train of the day.

 

検察 button to select the form of transportation, including: 新幹線 – Shinkansen; 有料特急 – Tokkyu; 空路 – Airplane; 高速バス – Express bus; 路線/連絡バス – Regular bus; フェリー – Ferry.

 

With Navitime you can also see more 1本前 – The previous train, 1本後 – The next train if you arrive at the station early or miss the desired train.

 

Navitime provides options: 時間順 – The most time-saving route to go; 回数順 – The least number of lines you have to transfer; 料金順 – The cheapest route to go.

 

▶ For iOS:

https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/cheng-huanavitime/id528532387?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

 

▶ For Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.navitime.local.nttransfer&hl=en

 

Japan transit planner by Jorudan:

 

Advantages:

 

This app is suitable for non-Japanese speakers. Japan transit planner by Jorudan helps users to quickly search for trains by location with time. Furthermore, it can find both flights and Shinkansen but will charge users for an extra fee.

 

How to use:

 

First, enter the departure station and destination station in the “From” and “to” boxes. Then enter the date and time. In the time section, you have 4 options: Departure time, Arrival time, The earliest and the last train of the day.

 

After pressing the Search button, the app will display several routes based on the specified criteria. You can see which route is convenient, fast or cheap for you. In addition, Japan transit planner by Jorudan arranges trains based on distance, travel time and number of lines to transfer.

 

You can also check for flights or Shinkansen, but these two options are not free.

 

▶ For iOS:

https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/japan-transit-planner/id524328198?l=en

 

▶ For Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.jorudan.japantransit&hl=en