Japan Travel - Smart Transit App Reviews

A Giant Advertisement. Despite having an expensive subscription service, it is LOADED with ads. The home page of the app is a landing page for advertisements. It will constantly send you push notification ads. The directions are marginally better than Google/Apple maps, it’s 100% not worth it.

Cluttered app upsells everything, undermining rail strengths. This could have been a good app if it focused on its rail timetable and planning strengths. Instead, it is cluttered with distracting and irrelevant offers and information for things one can search and find in a dozen other better content sites. This obscures and undermines the rail planning function which could have made the app uniquely worthwhile. It is not a question of paying for ad-free premium, it’s a question of app focus to do one thing well instead of ten things poorly.

A must for traveling to Japan. This app was a godsend during our trip to Japan! We used it constantly, so helpful to find the right route, especially with it telling me if the route would be covered by my JR Pass. HIGHLY recommend downloading if traveling to Japan.

This app is a life saver. I have been living in Japan for a little over a year now and I use this app all the time. It’s incredibly user friendly. I’ve used it to navigate the trains and subways in Tokyo with ease. Would highly recommend.

Never found it useful. We traveled most of Japan and found google to be better. Navigation seemed hard and it didn’t seem to come up with interesting things to do. I struggled to find the right trains to get on and just gave up as it was easier in google. I found the app a waste of money. Shame I had high hopes. Third visit to Japan with rail pass and three kids.

Very good (better than google maps). Very smooth great for trains ferries even busses. I wish that there’d be English characters for busses so you can search for bus stops, also to be able to look up nearby busses, maybe add/incorporate stops. Also maybe even a biking route option. Finds places google maps doesn’t have. And is much easier to see all times that bus stop leaves as compared to google maps. I use google maps just to get the name of the bus stop I need sometimes and plug that into this app or use the location of the bus stop. And I’m have reach my destination. These would all be very cool extras. As it stands, this is a fantastic app.

Indispensable. This app is absolutely indispensable for travel within Japan on the rail, subway and bus systems. The search results are clearly laid out with station numbers and your particular track information. Apps like Hyperdia are GROTESQUELY complicated in comparison. Couple this app with a WiFi hotspot ( I used Japan Wireless) and you will never be lost. I’d give it 10 Stars if I could.

User Friendly!. This is very user friendly when it comes to train transportation. It really details the trains & lines, duration, exits, and what car to go on. It really improves efficiency during your travels in Japan. All in one app for your trip.

Indispensable travel planning app. Incredibly helpful for getting around Japan. If you’re just looking for train times, it has a better sense than HYPERDIA of which sections of lines are/are not affected by service advisories, and it also seems to provide more optimized routings. Even more impressively, this app integrates bus and ferry times - and has fares and bus stop numbers/names too. A journey from a Kirishima ryokan to Shimabara Port that took me hours to piece together from the various local Japanese transportation services’ sites takes a few minutes to find in this app. Pretty amazing.

SUPERB APP!!!. this app is very helpful!!! tried using other apps but nothing compares to this. with my recent travel to tokyo and osaka, this helped us a lot and made our life easier. it shows your options on where to go and the fare you need to pay.

Super Useful!. I have used the app to help determine which trains to take in my travels across Japan. The information is very accurate and I have no problem calculating the fare to pay that can be especially confusing when looking at the station boards. It also allows the user to select the route based on individual preferences (time, cost, method). Useful for both intercity and urban city train travel. Can’t recommend it enough!

Life-saver!. Just the free portions of this are worth 5 stars. The routing system is a must when traveling. The platforms, changes, and times were spot-on. This made a 2 week trek around Japan by rail east.

Inaccurate , not worth it. I paid for premium version , had lots of hopes, but found it very underwhelming and this app has many errors getting me lost a few times during just a few days in Tokyo and Kyoto. For example, it has a wrong location for Glanz Kei Kyoto hotel besides others, making our family go in totally opposite directions and lost in residential neighborhood . Fortunately, google maps saved us. That is in addition that despite me paying for premium they still push advertising. Definitely can’t recommend this app. Not sure how they got those reviews. I understand that Japan is hard to navigate but if you charge people at least make sure that common tourist spots are accurately mapped

MUST FOR NAVIGATING JAPAN. I’m currently in Japan visiting and this app has been helping me navigate Japan. Once you get the hang of using it, the train stations are easy to navigate. Super helpful app and without it I would be lost in Japan. I love how it also has helpful articles like how to handle money and places to visit. Absolutely would recommend this to my friends. Thank you so much for creating this app!!

Overly Complicated. Does not show route maps! Even for paid version. Don't waste your money. Travel instructions lack clarity. One good feature: it *will* tell you when to leave Point A to arrive at Point B, at a specific time. Other than that, Google maps is far easier to use, plan, & view your route while you're traveling.

Great app. I rarely write reviews but felt compelled to do it here. It must be the best app there’s to travel using your JR pass. Has good routes, can optimize for JR pass, and even shows the platform numbers which is super useful.

ticket booking service is a SCAM. don't try your luck to book a ticket via the booking service in the app. they charge you ~20% for "admin fees" while it's not even an automated e-ticket. you have to wait for a HUMAN coming back to office and only available at working hours. what a joke as an "online" service in 2024. Instead, the best option is actually to buy one at the JR station.

Amazing App for Japan. This is the first time I’ve ever rated an app and this ones definitely worth it. I was nervous about traveling in Japan without speaking the language knowing most transportation is bus or train, this app made it so stress free. Easy to use, super accurate with timetables, could not have had a better app for travel. 10/10 recommend for traveling in Japan.

Essential travel app. This app was incredibly useful traveling to japan and navigating the public transport. It calculates your fair and has clear and essential information about the rail lines, and up to date info on times and delays. This app saved me a lot of confusion and stress visiting Japan for the first time.

Didn’t Work Well for Me. Unlike many of the other reviews, I found I could only plan train routes, but not buy the tickets via the app. And it wasn’t consistent allowing me to plans routes and times either. Clearly others have had much better experience with it than I did. I’ve just finished a couple of weeks touring Japan - ultimately Google Maps was far better and reliable.

Making free features paid. I have been using this app for years now, and it has been very helpful as a resident in Japan. With one of the more recent updates, they started to really push the paid plans. This took features that were free and monetized them. The station list for my route is no longer viewable which was great for tracking my time. In addition, they hide the cost of the premium plan to get you to buy it easier. Very sad. I will be looking for a new app to use.

Best navigation app ever. Have been using the app all over Japan for the past two weeks and it has performed flawlessly. The information is accurate, detailed and reliable. It is easy to use and has lots of great features, like letting you create a menu of your hotel names and addresses so you can quickly search for the best route to or from wherever you’re staying. You can also easily filter searches by whatever pass you may have and/or type of transportation you prefer to use. If you’re traveling around Japan on your own itinerary, you’ll want to have this app.

I’m enjoying this App. This is a great app for someone visiting Japan as well for people living here. You get all the shopping information from electronics to clothing shops and their discount and taxes save. I haven’t try the Navi drive yet. I hope it will save me a lot of time from using google map which usually take me to all the alleys in Japan before my destination. I like the train directions of this app.

Doesn’t work- blank screen when I open the app once I registered. I just downloaded the app on iPhone 14- I signed up and registered and also verified my email info and clicked yes for location access on my phone- then I got a blank screen- I tried turning my phone off- the app just gives me a blank screen when I open it on my iPhone- frustrating- made me feel like this was a potential scam to give access to my phone

Great J-Pass. This is a great rail app for free. I was using the other japan official app but it wasn’t showing my JR trains effectively, so i switch to this one and gets my planned and reserved trains. You can use both if you need to but if you want a one and done than this app is it.

Good for somethings, bad for others. I gave this app 3 stars because numerous times, the stores I wanted to find/shop at came up with no information. This is disappointing because they immediately appeared when I googled the same store name with all the information including a map and directions. While other portions of the app are fine, for me if I want to go somewhere and this app can’t even tell me it exists I’m sorry to say it’s usefulness is closer to a 1 star... especially considering I had to pay $7.95!!!

Literally a life saver!. Recommended by a Japanese friend of mine, this app turned out to be insanely crucial while I traveled in Japan. At places like Tokyo the metro network can be daunting, but this app tells you how to get from one station to another, which track, what time, and even which car you should be in so that transferring to another line is as efficient as possible. Use this when you are in Japan!

Great App for Train/Subway. This app has been very useful for me while traveling in Tokyo and beyond via train, subway, bus. It has definitely saved me a lot of time and stress when navigating the somewhat complex but wonderful transportation network. Information is updated in realtime keeping users in tune with delays, detours, conditions. Highly recommended download!

For the past several years.... ...I used an app called Japan Transit. Notice the verb tense above. Japan Transit got deleted after I used this app for all of 5 minutes. Much more info available with this new app, so I am still learning, but it is still much better.

Best route planning app. Best app among all the navigating apps I downloaded and tried out while in Japan. The most helpful feature was that it would tell you which train to take (on a JR Pass), which station to catch it, what time it would leave, and the track that it leaves from. Now if only someone would develop an app to guide you through the maze of underground tunnels and shopping corridors to find the right exit close to your hotel.

Absolutely superb app. Highly recommend for anybody traveling to Japan. Particularly anyone taking either the metro, Subway, or even Shinkansen. You just need to type in your starting point and destination, you can now only the quickest route, but also the fare you need to pay at the station. Worth getting the paid version since you get to see the list of stations and you have to travel.

App Stopped Working. I arrived in Tokyo and for the first couple days used the free version of this app. I decided to purchase the 30 day subscription for $15 to be able to see stops as I rode the trains. After purchasing, the app changed and was harder to use, and then shortly stopped working altogether. Now when I try to launch the app, the JapanTravel loading screen will pop up, then change to a white screen and never load anything. I’ve restarted my phone and tried other methods and cannot get the app to work. Ultimately wasted $15 for an app that I can’t even open. It’s been broken for a couple weeks now. In my opinion, for navigating trains and buses in Tokyo, just use Apple Maps. This app left me wondering what to do when it essentially broke while in a station and never worked again. I can’t even open it to tell what’s happening with my subscription. Could’ve bought like 10 ikura onigiri at 7-11 with the money I wasted on this app. :/

Tourist necessity!. This app is a must have for tourists coming to Japan who plan on taking the trains. It tells you exactly where to go and what lines to get on so navigation is a breeze. Just make sure you have pocket wifi with you otherwise the app won’t run.

Highly recommended. It makes seemingly complicated routes easy to find. I started using it on my 3rd day in Tokyo, and found it much easier to get around using the JR pass and the Toei/Metro pass.

Top!. I definitely recommend this app. I used it for travelling around Japan, see the hours of the trains and how to get to the places we wanted to visit in Tokyo. It was very easy to understand the transport system of Japan thanks to this app.

…Just Get It. If you’re going to be taking trains in Japan… just get this app. This is probably my first time writing a review, but I just had to get the word out that this is legitimately a bible for travel in Japan. I did not close this app like once my whole trip! It isn’t perfect, but it’s extremely practical and I would have never gotten through Tokyo without it. It was almost entirely accurate, with only a couple cases where it left me a bit confused, and even then it’s what saved me from that confusion itself every time. Some advice: Use the screenshot feature for every route you plan. I have roaming data but it still cut out in some places so you have to have things saved to access them at any point! Also, I liked to use this in conjunction with Google Maps for the walking routes since the path from this app was a bit hard to read for me. There are plenty of other features on this app that I’m sure other reviewers will talk about, but I’m just so grateful for this app’s help with trains and I think it’s a no-brainer to install it.

Back to the once upon a time. Place I call, “the HOME of my SOUL”. I was born near by town of Tomonoura. A long long time ago! Went to the U.S.A. to explore my curiosities. Then found the freedom!!!!! Decided to stay! Got married. Two kids! Every trip I, we, made to my native land, Japan, our trip included Tomonoura!!!! Now my kids want to visit there as their pilgrimage! I feel so warm inside of the core of my heart when I get greeted by the sign saying “WELCOME HOME”. In Japanese! There must be so many beautiful places to visit in Japan but Tomonoura will be one of the places you can enjoy Japan’s ONCE UPON A TIME!

Bad train information on this app. Tried finding train route from Tokyo to my resident city, Tsukuba, Japan, but the app gave me wrong information. I have taken this route dozens of time using the excellent Hyperdia website. But this app not only gave me a bad route, it could not even find the Tsukuba train station. Tsukuba is the Japan Science City and the second biggest city in Ibaraki Prefecture, so this is shameful. Do not get this app. instead, use the Hyperdia website.

Useful for finding trains, useless for booking tickets with rail pass. Pretty much as per title. I’ve paid for the Premium version and have a Japan Rail Pass, but it still wants to charge me for tickets when I go to book them. I have chosen routes that are included free with the rail pass.

Beyond essential for travelers to Japan. If you’re visiting Japan and don’t have this app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. The timetables and train navigation are fast, easy to understand, and accurate. It outranks other apps (including Google Maps) in almost every regard.

Absolutely the best. If you need to get from point a to point b in Japan, this app is your friend. It is the English version of the app widely used by Japanese speakers. In-app purchases are nice but not essential. Free version will get you where you're going.

Outstanding app. One of the best applications I’ve ever used. It always works with no issues. I’m planning my trip and this app gives me ideas where to go and what to see. Definitely will use it in Japan. Absolutely love it!

Best app for traveling in Japan. We spent two weeks traveling Japan with a JR pass and this app was essential- better than google maps because it gives you the option to “Prioritize JR pass”. Great!

Incredible app - for JR pass holders, Google Maps is useless. You can optimise for JR pass routes on this app, specially the Shinkansen Bullet trains you can take for free - Google Maps keeps suggesting more expensive options which wasn’t super useful. Sometimes it helps to check Google Maps to see which station is closer to your actual destination...so a map split view would be kinda nice right inside this app and something I might be willing to pay for. All the train stations are in English but I would have also liked if the local Bus stops which were often in Japanese were also in English. Google maps suffers from the same problem so they’re doing the best with the data they have I guess. This something we had to get by with by asking people in Japan around - who are also perhaps the best humans I’ve ever come across.

Must have. The amount of information given in this app is wonderful. Location of a.t.m’s, money exchange, free WiFi, and closest stations is great. Travel route are better than the app that my native japanese friend has, with multiple routes to choose from and distinct JR pass routes. Estimation on how much non JR trains cost and taxi travel is spot on. I’ve been to Japan several times and this app made this trip even easier. I utilized all its features on a daily basis. I thank the developers for a well thought out and very usable application.

Interface. The user interface is really bad and not user friendly. It’s difficult to search up a specific location like Google maps even though I search up a specific location it says not available, but if I search it through Google, it says the app has it?? and if I copy an address onto the route it would give you multiple different addresses, which doesn’t make sense. I put in one address why would I get an other for 5 others??? It’s just difficult to navigate this app and it not great.

Crashes/Doesnt Work. An app that I have spent money on doesn’t work. When trying to figure out plans it fails to open and only shows a blank screen. Most of the paid information can be found on apple or google maps. Highly recommend trying a different app before trying this.

Amazing!. I’ve never been to Japan before, don’t speak Japanese. Planned my whole trip using this, paid for premium, it’s worth it!! Would not have been able to get around the subways without it.

Only routing would be great. I really wish this app was only a routing app. It feels bloated and slow with all the other information that’s all trying to get my attention when all I want is to know which train to take, when, and which platform I need to go to. The routing function is fantastic and there are tons of other resources for tourists to plan their visits, so why jam those two things into one app?

Paid version is worthless. Great info on train times and routes but I wanted the navigation feature. Even with my pocket wifi it never worked. No turn by turn, no voice prompts, and it was very laggy. Wish I could get my $20 back. We ended up using Google maps. Not only was it more up to date but it tells you which entrance and exit to use. It even suggests which car to use for the fastest exit!

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User1234. Complicated and misleading searching for navigation. Google is much better.

Amazing travel app!. I'm in Japan right now using this as my navigation and it's hands down one of the most useful apps I've ever downloaded. Gives far more localized and specific info than google maps and the subway info is incredible. The only downside is sometimes the compass isn't accurate in the navi feature. I've gone with the full featured plan and would highly recommend it. If I could meet the creator I would give them a high five!

A must for JR Pass. This App made light work of utilising the JR Pass purchased prioritising the pass wherever it could maximising the value of the purchase. This has taken us in everything from ferrys to buses and of course bullet and all JR train lines. Once you work out all the features it becomes a planning must have. The from current position feature made getting to our destinations much easier.

Couldn't use. Looked exciting in the calm before I left on my trip but on the ground in Tokyo, just couldn't get my head around it. Gave up quickly on AR goose chases. Just doesn't seem to gel with the situation of a traveller. Maybe needs a help wizard, a novice exercise to start you off or an additional user interface? Great concept which I will look out for in future.

Makes getting around so easy!. Our first time toJapan as a family & it was my best friend the whole time. Couldn’t recommend highly enough

Better Apps Compared to the Rest. Japan's rail system can be confusing for a foreigner. This was by the better app we used to figure out where we were going. Extremely helpful when navigating around Tokyo with platform number details.

What kind of hell is this. We just wanted train schedules and seriously ut had us creating all sorts of bull shot itinerary. Once you get past that new type of hell you want to save places …. But it won’t let you Shove this app

Can’t beat it!. I’m coming up to my 5th time in Japan and have used this app every single time! Easy to use and helps with planning your transport with approximate prices, travel times etc. Recommend to everyone!

Slow/crashing on iPhone 6s. App is very slow on iPhone 6S. Heating up my phone like crazy and crashing. I know I have an old phone, but no other app has such poor performance.

Can’t go around Japan without it. Best app ever! I have only ever use the Route function. Two weeks in Tokyo, this app is a life saver ! I particularly like how it gives you alternatives e.g. it can you can choose a route with walk + metro + taxi , and it tells you which metro line to use, how much it each leg and how long it takes. It’s even better than google!

Japan Travel. Very easy to navigate the rail system using this app

Bug. The favorite stores will be wiped out in few days. Also the upgrade lasts only 7 days.

Trip Dates. Trip dates will slide back one day every time you view them, deleting your planned days. Developers need to fix this bug.

A must have when travelling in Japan!. I cannot recommend this app more! We used this travelling from Tokyo Disneyland, into Tokyo city, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto. It has all the info right there on your screen down to the platform number which was sooooo helpful as we were travelling in a group so when we were in a hurry I could at least tell everyone which platform to head to. I used this app to navigate us through our entire 2x week trip. We had a JR pass for 7 days of the trip and you can even put in the criteria that you want to see JR Pass compatible lines, really helpful when catching the bullet train as there are a couple you cannot use the train pass for. We saved all the ones we wanted into our schedule so it made it easy! Love it!

Please fix. Great app, but route favorites/history keep dissapearing :( this especially happens when there is an app update

Saviour.. I am incredibly grateful to this app. Without it, my experience in Japan would have not been nearly as enjoyable. I'd have gotten lost at every station. Honestly, this app was my saviour during my trip to Japan.

Amazing. Just the most amazing app. I used it last year for the JR pass and will so again this year. As an older person, I love the simplicity and accuracy of the app. Thank you so much.

used to bea great app. used this app last year on my first trip to Japan and it worked fine now features that used to be free you now have to pay subscription to use also search results don't give you the earliest train in the result and you can't see the timetable cause it forces you to subscribe have now switched to using Google maps instead

Visit Japan. Very handy to have while travelling in Japan.

Helpful but still missing data. App was a really useful help in relation to the JR Railpass but when it came to details on other ones like the Hakone FreePass details were lacking. The app provided no warning about some services that needed a reserve seat or additional cost when planning you day of travel. Over all it was useful but caused some long delays in time wasting when details were not clear at point of purchase ( ticket machines) or on signs at the platform (reserved only) like others trains advertised.

Utter garbage waste of $. This app is not intuitive. It’s a waste of money. I used google maps and it was free and 1000 x better

Is this reliable?. Thought great initially but… I am getting different results on doing a second search. Also the layout is very annoying - too much space between lines - you need to be able to take a screenshot and it doesn’t fit!

Life saver. I used this app only for the route planner. I like that you can select a date and time and it gives you multiple options. Highly recommend. Seriously great app.

Good and bad. Good points - generally very handy for trains, and recommend it for any visitor to Japan or expat living in Japan. Bad points - seems mainly geared to Japan visitors rather than expat residents of Japan who want a good English app. - extra services, I think, are costly, but again this is because the app is aimed at short term visitors, so this may be worth it for them. - if the app provided a yearly cost, for long term use of premium services, that was reasonable, I would consider it. - annoying request for personal details each time the app is first opened, you can skip it though. - seems to use a lot of battery life with background usage, so I strongly suggest turning off the location services unless you really need it.

Japan Travel. Outstanding

This app is a must. If you plan to travel to Japan, get this app, it is free and it takes the guess work out of the train and bus network. It only took an hour to work out the trains but still used the app for every trip we made. Do yourself a favour and also get yourself a Suica prepaid travel card when you get to Japan, no need to buy tickets for daily sightseeing then.

Not good.. Best there is, a little slow Need to edit favorited stations. Need for Ipad.

Missing water transports. Where are all the ferry services plying around the mainland and to the islands ? I was looking for ferry service to Okinawa from Kagoshima, all I was suggested was a taxi. Duration 1 day + and an incredible fare ! Sorry, but for an island nation with such good transport facilities, this is a big gap.

Bugboy17. Great and accurate

So much potential but a bit let down.. Useful app for transport information however the planning features are horribly glitchy and unusable.

Train travel. Amazing app, the best found

Otherwise perfect. I love this app as it takes a lot of information and puts it in one place. I dropped a star because as a user with a paid plan I found the app unusable without a data connection. Could not review past searches as the app just got stuck is a spinning wheel.

A rare app that is 100% reliable. I stumbled upon this app by accident and used it in my first holiday to Japan. It was 100% reliable, easy to use and useful. An invaluable tool to help navigate the rail system. Fully recommend it to anyone travelling to Japan.

A must have App for Japan travelling.... This app is awesome for any train travel within Japan...

Station and platform numbers. App works well when you have gps location services. Drop outs regularly. Platform numbers and directions when using could be easier, present. Time tables could be adjustable like choosing to not catch the current train should provide options and delayed times with out having to re search destinations.

Invaluable tool. This app is a must for every person planning a trip to Japan. Gives you all the information you need to navigate Japan’s extensive rail network in a clear and concise way. It has on the spot search so you can enter and search for a non station destination. I’ve used Hyperdia and the presentation of information is cluttered and can easily confuse a first time user. This app, however, is easier to understand as user interface is uncluttered. Highly recommended.

Useful tool. Great app, I am using it daily to commute ! Thank you

Good, easy enough to understand. When trying to plan my trip, I found that I wanted to explore areas/neighbourhoods but the app doesn’t allow that, so adding that would be great. Also allowing us to add our own locations if they are not in the app would be good. Adding photos as well would be great, such as wanting to add your own map. Being able to remove transport when the location is in the same place, such as a castle inside a park and there being travel between the two options. Changing the date of things you’ve planned without having to start over, just moving the days.

Frustrating. This App was one of the best when you need to find the right transportation when you are in Japan. However after the recent updates, this App cannot be used on my iPad Pro and iPad 6 to search the appropriate routes because there is a Navitime banner blocking the search button! Please fix this ASAP because I really need to use this App on my trip.

Best app ever. It not only tells you how to connect between places, it tells you which station platform to get on and which part of the car to get off, this is sooo helpful travel in confusing Tokyo train system.

Detailed but frustrating bug. Very detailed app with all the information you could want as a tourist down to which platform and car you want to get on. Unfortunately it has a fatal bug for me. It CONSTANTLY keeps popping up the iPhone compass calibration wheel whenever in the search screen. Every 2 seconds or so it pops up and makes using the app almost impossible.

A MUST for travelling through Japan!. I cannot recommend this app highly enough! We used Japan Travel everyday for 3weeks from Tokyo to Hiroshima and back. It was infallible for everything from subway, trams and for us, as Australian travellers, the JR pass! It never let us down and saved us quite a few times!! Highly accurate. The only thing to be aware of, is that the app defaults to stations nearby, so when you are organising in advance (and not necessarily geographically close to the station), you really need to know the name of the station you want to look up. I would give Japan Travel 10 STARS!!!!

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Essential for Train Travel in Japan. The app was worth every penny on our month long trip to Japan! It allowed us to easily plan train trips, screenshot itineraries, keep track of stops along the way so we didn’t miss our stop, and have back up plans at the ready. Super user friendly and easy to use. Haven’t found anything quite like it in any other country we’ve visited.

Better than Google maps in Tokyo. More accurate than Google maps (which would give incorrect platform numbers etc). I don’t know how a foreigner without any Japanese language skills would be able to get around without it! We had no problem navigating the confusing Tokyo metro system with this app. It gives multiple routes/options for getting around, including fare prices and all of them were accurate. We downloaded the Suíca IC card (the regular card; the Welcome card is not downloadable) onto our iPhones Apple Wallets and tapped everywhere we went including buses. It’s also very easy to pay with cash as the machines in front of turnstiles had English language options and gives change.

What kind of app is this ?. I’ve been receiving updates for an app that’s not even on my phone, nor old phone, nor hidden :( My husband even turned off background refresh AND IM STILL RECEIVING UPDATES !!!!!! Never in my life, have this happened, this is EXTREMELY ANNOYING !!!! HELP !!!!!!

Allebram7915. Best app to get around in japan,highly recommended

Battery Usage Issue. Check your battery health & Usage and check how often its open in the backround. Since I had the app my battery would drain like crazy. Now deleted it works fine. I don’t know why the app needs to run 24/7 on your phone.

Don’t buy access to maps!!!. This app is OK for finding routes that Google may not give you, however the amount they charge to see the actual map is RIDICULOUS! Highway robbery! The map portion actually doesn’t help at all. Your better off using a combination of Google maps plus this one if your interested in all transit options. I feel like I got scammed!

Useful - especially if you have a JR pass. This is a wonderful tool for planning your travel. Essential with a JR pass

Works great as planner. More to come

Worthless app. Doesn't recognize bus stops Can't adjust time to before current time Many other apps available for navigation This one is worthless

Average. Lots of ads, lots of ways to buy tickets. But not very accurate for public transport routing... I got much better results from 100% free google maps….

You need this app ! Excellent!. If you have a JR pass and need to navigate forget google or apple maps. You need this app. It will filter out Nazomi which is important. Very pleased with the apps functionality.

Tourist pass not update. Japan has just launched the Greater Tokyo Pass, which is valid for three or five days. The 5-day pass is valid for both train and bus travel; however, because the tourist pass function doesn't include a 5-day option, I was unable to check whether the charge for my bus route was included.

Poor user interface. A very confusing app. The user interface is pretty poor. You are better off using Google map than the navigation functionality of this app. Tickets are usually more expensive than buying directly from other places (in particular train tickets). Sorry but this is a waste of money

Be careful. The Shinkansen tickets on this application have a ridiculous handling fee which makes the price of some tickets nearly double and I couldn’t find any way to cancel even before issuance. Use the official JR application.

Rubbish program. Extremely NOT user friendly Website and app rubbish!

Extremely informative presentation.. Fantastic app to help prepare for future visits.

DO NOT INSTALL FOR privacy and security reasons. If you care about your security, do no create an account on Navitime! In allowing a maximum of 16 characters and only alphanumerical, your account can easily be craked! And the experience on creating an account is one of the worse I’ve seen, not telling you those restrictions BEFORE the attempt to create an account! Will use more secured and better options.

All great but…. I love this app and it make travel planning much easier. Although it is not perfect, I only want to complain that it doesn’t allow me to delete a certain day from the plan other than deleting the last day(s); neither allows me add one day in front or in the middle of existing plan.

This company is a scam for tourists. This company’s a third party middle man that steals your money. They have the worst refund and cancellation policies, so they can do nothing, take your money and let you die of anxiety while you don’t get to where you’re going. AVOID

Helpful App!. This app was great for my trip to Japan! It has options that are super helpful, like filtering by pass (like JR Pass), adjusting walking speed, and a button to screenshot your route. It also gives helpful details including exit name/number and platform number.

Great app. More concise and accessible than Hyperdia. My only peeve is the keyboard lag when you're typing in station names. Pls work this out but otherwise super helpful and I don't write a lot of reviews!

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Excellent app. Very useful app for getting around. Esp Tokyo. Nicely integrates with all train companies. Highly recommend getting this app if you are visiting Japan.

Not good for pre-planned trips. We had some events pre planned and I can’t add them. They only show you booking through them. I can find the routes etc, but definitely not worth the money if you just need help with some stops.

Super good app. Who says Google is the king of the world. This app blows Google Maps away. Awesome!

Blank Screen. Doesn’t work. Blank screen. IPhone 8 with iOS 16.7.8 (newest usable at this time). Requests location information, then the login screen flashes up. Almost immediately the screen turns white and nothing will alter that.

The best app ever. Seriously couldn’t have navigated around Japan without it.

Won’t let me buy. I would love the app but it will not let me but a subscription no matter how much I try, which severely limits my ability to plan my trip.

Reliable!. It’s very accurate. It gives you the exact time and information of where to go. Now, I am an expert with trains!

Excessive ads. Too many ads and limited navigation. Google Maps has better navigation info

Deleted. Navigation doesn’t work. No go button.

Great app for train travel. Just used this app to travel around Japan via train. It's completely accurate and very useful. There were only two drawbacks that I saw that could be fixed down the road. One is to save stations as a favorite versus saving the route. The other would be to show which track should be used for a particular train.

Paywalling useful features. I used to love this app, but they’ve made some very questionable changes lately. Seeing the station list used to be free, now they’re making you pay for premium to look at it. I’ve also seen a bunch more popups bothering me to upgrade. I’ll be using a different app from now on.

Travel Necessity. I've been using this app for two weeks now traveling all over Japan now and it's been a complete life-saver! I mainly use the route feature, and I love seeing the full line up of train stops for the recommended train lines as it helped me confirm I was on the correct lines. You will need WiFi to use it so make sure you have mobile WiFi or a Japanese SIM card to use it.

So Bad!. Latency is bad. Itinerary function is confusing and useless.

NAVITIME app. December 7th addition. I can no longer recommend this app since each time I try use it the ticket I purchased remains expired. Even after they gave me a free 30 days it still expires after a certain amount of time. Ok I'm happy with the app and its functions; however, I don't know if I like the ticket purchase function. It's nice if you only need the app for vacations which only last 1 to 2 weeks or if you can 30 days. I generally would use it regularly living here in Japan. I just don't know if I want to pay for a year. Now for the con, I bought a ticket on a Saturday and used it for the day. On Monday I got a notice that said my ticket expired. I contacted the company and then reinstalled it. It worked for awhile but then expired again. I'm on my 3rd download one more failure and I'm contacting apple for s refund and going back to hyperdia and google maps. ej

Absolutely Great. Very helpful app in planning our trip.

Multiple trains. I’m unable to pick other bullet trains it just defaults to one

Broken garbage. Fails immediately. Continues to fail as you struggle to use it. Paid for upgrade but no upgrade was applied. Use google maps. It’s better and it’s free.

Terrible. Doesn’t give enough information in real time. Previous app (that was free) was SO much better.

Great App. Very helpful, open it in conjunction with google maps and it kept me on track

Not so great with latest updates. The app crashes every time when accessing the time specifics. Plus, typing in stations is horrifically slow, where text is appears 1 second after pressing. Waiting for a new fix, but in the meanwhile I'm using Google Maps without a hitch.

Not working:. If you have a iPhone with iOS 11 software, this app doesn’t work. But it is a great app if it’s working.

Very good, recommended. Very well done, can't say anything else

Waste of Time. Haven’t been able to get it to work from day one! Deleted it and found something else.

Best Japan transportation info app. As foreigner I find this app very useful to know how to get from one place to another, truly the best app I’ve used for Japan Rail, subway, taxi, etc... very recommended

Great app!. Great app that helps you better learn and navigate Japan’s intense rail system.

Navigation Never Worked. Don’t buy the full feature. Navigation very difficult to follow and slow to update. Google maps worked better. This was only useful in finding train stations and platform.

Save your money. This has to be the most overrated app ever. Even after paying the ridiculous upgrade fee, the app is burdened with irrelevant and irritating ads that take up half of the screen. Just use Google Maps—free and much better.

Doesn’t work/ doesn’t have all stations.. I’m trying to use the Osaka subway route map and it “can’t find” any station I’m trying to search for. Useless!

Update 3.0.0 ruined it. I downloaded this app ahead of my trip to Japan 4 weeks. I was messing with it for a few weeks and loved it. Now, the night before my trip, I opened it up and was confused. Where was my app? Did I download something else? NOPE! The update ruined it. And I lost all my saved routes in the update. Now it’s confusing and difficult to use. Shame!

Ads in Premium Acccount. I paid $30 for a 90 day premium account partly so I wouldn’t have to deal with ads. The first thing I see when I open the app is an ad for mobile Wi-Fi.

Deletes everything. This app is great, but….. it always deletes my saved train routes. I live and work in japan, and it’s very annoying when I look to see what train I can take, and it deletes ALL my saved routes. To the point I have to save them all over again. This has happened multiple times.

No train platform info.. Useless without platform info. Hundreds of trains and options. There is no way you could get to where you’re going without platform info. Don’t bother with this app.

Disappointed. Ok for tourists... useless for residents. There is no option for those of us who drive in Japan.

Too small font and don’t allow to enlarge. Not recommended difficult to read

Was free. Great app when it was free

Life savor. If you love to travel your going to like this a lot 😂🎁♥️

True Japanese experience: perfunctory hoop jumping. Bottom line: just use google maps—I'm a resident and it is superior in every way. The other "features" of this app are attempts to upsell. Tracks you and collects user data. "Free wi-fi" requires that you already have internet access to confirm your email, which you must handover. If you do download however you can get the true Japanese experience: perfunctory hoop jumping for no benefit whatsoever and pointless "features" that clutter everything but offer nothing. Design by committee.

Best Train Application!. I use this everytime I leave my house. I live in Tokyo and this app tells me what trains to take, has the rail colors, suggests multiple routes, displays the correct prices of each ticket you'll need and is just all around amazing. It can drain your battery pretty quickly, though. To get around this, plan your trip at home with this app, snap a screenshot and retrieve it from the camera roll for later referencing. You WILL fall in love with this app quickly!

Not as useful as expected. It wasn’t user friendly. I ended up using Google maps the whole trip.

Awesome App. This app got me through the Tokyo subway system and made it very easy! Fantastic app!

Look up subway routes for later. I used this to look up the subway routes I was planning to take each day while sightseeing. You can save routes for reference later when you're offline and I found that really helpful in my travels.

Won’t login on iPhone. I can get it to login perfectly on an iPad, but it keeps saying that the password or email is incorrect when I try to login via my phone.

JapanTravel. Not a good interface. Too much junk and cluttering articles that you have to navigate through to get to the usefull stuff

Disappointing not worth it.. We had our own passes purchased direct from JR Rail so it was not very useful. Seemed “marketing heavy” to encourage purchases for other tours.

Not that useful. It supplies so wiki info about things to see but then breaks down and is no longer useful.

Great for using the trains. I used this for my week in Tokyo and it was amazing for getting you where you want to go. Would recommend.

Best train app for Japan. I was just in Japan and used several apps to try to get around. After going through 2 different apps I came across this one and did not have to look any further. This app by far exceeded the other apps for train scheduling and what best trains to use. If anyone is looking to go to Japan and needs an app, this one is a MUST HAVE.

Cost money. Anything worth using cost money. Might as well use Google Maps for free.

Missing components!!. I have lived in Japan for many months but still I don't get to the place on time that's why I needed a powerful app that will give me information about train schedule and status. Don't get me wrong, this app is almost perfect and I have been using it ever since the day I got here. The only missing components is "live timer", probably train status and platform number. Train's platform number is very important for those people who aren't aware to the line company name so I guess those three components are a must have.

Great app!!. If you need a navigation, how to get around japan, guidance on how to take the train this is it for you. I love this app.