JR Rail Pass is usually purchased abroad before arrival to Japan (at which point the Pass can be activated). Beware of sticker shock, as its cost has risen shockingly in the last year - IMHO the JR Rail Pass is no longer a deal unless you are planning travel to >5-6 cities in Japan.
… or were you speaking of Suica or Pasmo cards?
What is the difference? Are those all you can ride too?
I might be doing a month in Japan.
Edit I just googled and saw that jr rail pass is 1100 dollars us damnnnn. There’s this nifty calculator that tells you whether it’s worth it or not.
Wow congrats on driving never heard of anyone driving through Japan that’s pretty cool tho. Hope you were able to get out of the snow!
Some users on here encouraged me! Was a good time and surprisingly straightforward!
How was the car driving experience? Did you find it better than traveling by train?
Was it more to visit out of the way places or travel at your own pace? How long did you drive for?
Car experience was amazing. Highly recommend. I’d never driven on the left side of the road, but it was really easy after, say, an hour. I drove for 5 days. Even returning the car in Sapporo proper was super straight forward! (Road conditions were kinda wacky, given that we were in some of the snowiest places on earth, but they were rarely if ever slick. The Japanese drivers are super courteous—for instance, on mountain roads, nobody would tailgate me. When I could, I’d let people over, and then they’d zip past, but they never made me uncomfortable.
It was mostly to get to ski resorts rather than rely on buses, but, it also enabled us to meander to places off the beaten track. For instance, went to a bakery 20 minutes driving from the nearest train. Explored a little fishing port just because!
I have to imagine it would be a wonderful way to move through the countryside or to onsen hop. Trains are great, but I’m a road-tripper at heart.
So glad that worked out. We love driving in Japan for exactly the reasons you point out.
Will we get to see and read about your chow?
Yes but not quite yet. As I type this, I’m at Seirinkan 
That’s a baller live post!
Suica and Pasmo are basically transit cards that can actually be used for a variety of things like buying stuff at convenience stores, vending machines and maybe even paying at some restaurants. They can be a physical card or, if you have an iPhone, you can get a digital one in your Apple Wallet app. You buy physical cards and load them with cash (usually) at designated machines which are generally very easy to find at train stations. The machines usually have English language options. The physical cards can be a nice little extra memento of your stay.
The lines can be long at the airport to purchase a physical card so I personally prefer the digital/app version. Plus, you can load them from the comfort of home (especially useful if you want to protect against adverse exchange rate changes). Just use a credit card and load it up. The digital app is also the easiest way to load a Suica with a credit card that I’m aware of. Before you couldn’t even load them with credit cards but apparently now that’s a thing? Saw a reddit thread on it.
If you’re taking the bullet train/Shinkansen, that’s typically an extra ticket unless you have a rail pass. And yeah, rail pass isn’t worth these days.
