Train transfer times

Most people have an IC card that pays for train fares with just tapping rather than having to buy a ticket.

A JR pass may slow you down, as you can only enter and exit at the manned managers gate and there is sometimes a line.

3 minutes is enough time to transfer inside most stations, BUT you should look at what your other options are if you miss the connection. 3 minutes or 63 minutes might waste you an hour and is perfectly acceptable. 3 minutes and then nothing for the rest of the day would be too close.

in this case Kii Katsuura is a very small station, I don't know if they would even have a window for the Kintetsu private line.

It being a small station has nothing to do with it. Kii Katsuura station doesnt have any Kintetsu services, so it will not have a Kintetsu ticket window/vending machine. ShinOsaka is a HUGE station, it also wont sell Kintetsu tickets because there are no Kintetsu trains there.

Great advice, I didn't even consider that I'd be able to use my Icoca card to wipe onto the Kintetsu line Matsusaka to Ise leg.

When they give you these 3 minute gaps,its often just get off one train,cross the platform and get on another.

Sometimes you might need to get up and down an overpass....you might need to run in that case ;-)

When they give you these 3 minute gaps,its often just get off one train,cross the platform and get on another.

I love that about Japan. Things run so smoothly that they can do that.

There are lots of trains from Matsusaka to Ise. And the local trains aren't too slow, so you might just want to wait for a local train if you're interested in saving some money. If you're there during the daytime, you might even want to have a wander around Matsusaka. I found it rather more interesting than I was expecting (admittedly I had low expectations).

Thanks guys. That solves my question for this specific journey, but I'm still wondering in a more general sense, when you transfer from JR to private lines, or vice versa, at what point do you pay for your second leg? I mean in some cases you can swipe in with an IC card, but if you're running across a platform, I don't imagine you can do that. Can you pay the conductor directly on the train? Or pay when you arrive? Grab a ticket from the window in the transfer station? Or better to book your ticket in advance? Let's say I am connecting onto a longer train, at a time that I really want to get, and it's not a case where I could swipe an IC card, but again my connection time is short. Should I try to buy that ticket in advance so I don't have to worry about trying to buy it during the transfer? (FYI I'm OK with unreserved, even if there's a remote possibility of standing, but I'd be traveling at non-peak times)

Incidentally, I live in Taiwan, which has a train system set up by the Japanese. However, we essentially just have one loop line that runs around the island, so we seldom have to transfer, let alone between lines operated by different companies, which is why this is all new to me. It's pretty impressive how vast and efficient a system the Japanese have at home! In Taiwan, from smaller stations, you are able to just hop on the train and pay the conductor, but at bigger ones, you'd need to swipe either a card or ticket to get on. Also, in Taiwan, the unreserved trains are ALWAYS packed to the gills; getting a seat is a rare and glorious thing, but I've read that this is not often the case in japan away from the ginormous metropolitan areas.

There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Sometimes the train systems are completely separate, you'll exist JR into the public domain, go to the private station, buy a ticket there, and then go through their gates. Sometimes a direct gate exists between the JR and the private rail systems: you buy your ticket for the private railway while you're on the platform of a JR station. Sometimes there's no gates between the two systems: you just cross the platform and get on another train. In such cases, you can often buy the ticket for the complete journey at your starting point: the machines will sell you tickets valid for lines operated by multiple rail operators. Or you pay when you get off. Japanese railway stations (at least when they're a certain size) have machines that you allow you to make up the fare that you owe before you exist.

It's complicated, right? I don't know of any country in the world with as confusing a railway system as the Japanese one.

Thanks for explaining. That's kind of the situation I was imagining, but wanted to know for sure. The only reason I'm concerning myself with it now is because I'm mapping out a trip with a few tight connections, besides the one I mentioned above, wherein I want to see some sights in one city in the morning of one day, and get to another city at a decent hour on the same day, in order to avoid having to spend a second night in the first city. I need to figure out what's feasible before I book my hotels.

On Seat61, the guy says the Japanese system is super simple, (but more importantly, I assume) once you figure it out :)

Maybe because the Man is very pro JR Pass....its a guide based on tourists using the pass to get on and off shinkansen.In that case,it IS very simple...