A small break from my personal adventures: I would like to make a brief post about places to go and how to get there in Japan. Now, I am no expert in this field by any means, nor do I think I have the “cheapest” methods or the most efficient .HOWEVER these are the things I’ve used, seen, and worked for me thus far.
Traveling in Japan: NOT as cheap as you would think. Flights with in Japan aren’t the cheapest unless you land special time brackets which they have on occasion or based on holidays. However during holidays that the Japanese DO take off it’s best to either stay put or get your bid in early. An example of this is during Japans Golden week. During this time (which falls normally in late April to early May) the Japanese tend to go off country or vacation. Since EVERYONE is on holiday you can imagine the price hike. Prices can quadruple at this time, and only if you are fortunate can you land a flight for a decent price. (I have been fortunate to do that this year!)
If Flights aren’t your thing there is always the Train. Shinkansen (which I believe is the fastest train within Japan) travels to most notable destination points and some that aren’t. The prices can get steep but generally not more than flights. If you are willing to take a bit longer to get to some place then this is the route I would suggest. I live in Toyama ( a prefecture even most Japanese people who aren’t in Toyama don’t know about ) and I’ve traveled to Tokyo and Osaka via Shinkansen/Rapid train.
There is also night buses. Now unless you have the stomach/patience to handle long bus rides I wouldn’t suggest this, however it the cheapest option. On the Shinkasen it cost me around 20000\ ( $200 some odd dollars) to Tokyo round trip I believe. Night bus round trip can land you maybe 8000\ ( $80 bucks). I have taken both and though I prefer the train, if I am low on money I will take a bus.
Finally the local train which consists of JR ( which takes you a lot of places even far away) and local trains that are just within a city. These trains are used for normal day travel.
Here is a site for Local/ some Far away train services as well as my local Airport links:
Hyperdia Trains
Toyama Airport
Tokyo Airport
Thanks for posting this. :p I thought Shinkansen would be a lot cheaper than flights... do people usually fly around Japan on the same island? o_O Oh yeah, and do you have to fly to the islands or are any connected?
ReplyDeleteYakou buses were not fun for me, but I think I might still use them to save money. $200 x2 for shinkansen isn't what I want to be paying very often.
Can't you buy JR rail passes in the states ahead of time for traveling? That would probably cut down prices, but I wonder if that's mainly for short trips. Do you know anything about that?