Japan Travel Forum
Oct 15
BudgetEast is proud to collaborate with LovingPerth and bring you a forum for travel related queries. If you have any questions about travel to Japan, no matter how obscure, post them in the forum and we’ll do our very best to answer them. Be it trains, hikes, shops or where to grab that nori-flavoured energy drink, our heads are packed with travel knowledge. So, head on over and pick our brains.
Undercurrent
Sep 30
I find Sho Uchida’s photos of everyday life in Japan utterly captivating. There’s something gritty and real about almost every photo he puts up, be they of closed office buildings, breakfast tables or train lines. Normalcy is beautiful.
Seishun Juu-hachi Kippu (Part 1)
Mar 6
The Seishun Juu-hachi Kippu (Youth 18 Ticket) is a little known ticket that is a boon for the uber budget conscious, in particular those already living in Japan on Instructor or Student visas, who are unable to qualify for the JR Pass.
It allows for up to five days of unlimited travel on the JR local service anywhere in Japan. With careful management and some time on your hands you can literally travel from one end of the country to the other for around 2000 yen. That’s not to be sneezed at.
That said, this ticket is not for everyone. Its limitation to local and rapid services means you will be spending a lot of time on trains. Additionally, if you are traveling long distance you will be forced to change trains every few hours as you hop your way towards your destination. Traveling along the central corridor between Osaka and Tokyo takes around 7 hours on this ticket; Between Kyushu and Tokyo, 17 hours.
In the end it depends on both your budget and what you are looking for out of your travel.
Pros
- Very cheap way to travel
- Social way to travel with friends
- Use train lines and see places you wouldn’t usually
Cons
- You will spend a lot of time on trains
- See point one.
- Did I mention the amount of time you spend on trains?
Travelling on Seishun
Remember the translation of Seishun Juu-hachi? Youth 18. As the name implies, when this ticket was introduced, it was intended for impoverished University and High School students and even now, traveling during a Seishun period will mean running into hordes of Uni students carting huge rucksacks who are heading home for the holidays, or heading off into the countryside with their friends.
The Seishun 18 remains a very social way to travel. With four people sharing a single ticket and a bag full of goodies from the local convenience store, a day spent hopping from train to train passes in no time at all. In fact, there are whole magazines in Japan dedicated to exactly this pastime: planning extended trips with friends while using a Seishun ticket. We’ll get to that later though, for now let’s look at how the ticket works.
How it works
You buy a single ticket that costs 11,500yen. On this ticket there are five sections, each comprising of one day’s travel, from midnight until midnight.
You can use these five days in any way you please: whether consecutively or non-consecutively, alone or in a group. The following would all be valid uses of one ticket:
- One person traveling alone for five days
- Two people traveling together for two days and one person for one day
- Five people traveling together for one day
It’s entirely up to you, you just need to make sure that when you travel, you’re traveling together with the ticket.
Period of Validity
It’s also important to note that the Seishun ticket is seasonal and can only be used during three major holiday periods during the year. These usually fall on the same dates each year:
| Spring | 1st March – 10th April |
|---|---|
| Summer | 20th July – 10th September |
| Winter | 10 December – 20th January |
Period of Sale
To make things even more difficult, you can only purchase the Seishun tickets prior to the commencement of the travel period. The general periods of sale are:
| Spring | 20th February – 31st March |
|---|---|
| Summer | 1st July – 31st August |
| Winter | December – 10th January |
During the period of sale Seishun tickets can be bought at the Green Window (Midori Madoguchi) of any major JR station. Generally, any JR station larger than three platforms will have Seishun tickets for sale. Outside of the period of sale, Seishun tickets can still be bought from discount ticket shops, we’ll cover this later.
Terms and Conditions
The Seishun 18 ticket is only valid for JR lines and on Local, Rapid, and some Special Rapid services. You cannot use this ticket on any Limited Express, Special Express, or any train that requires a seperate express ticket. If you are found on a limited express train with only a Seishun ticket, you will be charged for the full price of the express ticket and also the relevant distance travelled locally, so it’s important to make sure you’ve got the right train.
Additionally, you cannot use this ticket on any private line or non-JR service.
Coming up in Part 2
In Part 2 of our guide to the Seishun Juu-hachi Kippu we’ll cover tips and tricks with the Seishun including great routes, sneaky tricks, and how to get from Hiroshima to Tokyo for 150 yen. Crazy, I know. Stay tuned.
Mobile English
Feb 8
Japan on ¥425 a day is an interesting and hilarious article written by a journalist in Tokyo just after the bubble-era, who decided to run a “mobile English school” by hitchhiking around the country and taking donations after every ride:
“I’m back. I return to Japan for a mission, one which will not only allow me to see the entire country, but I will be paid for it. I have no backers, no grants, not even a stipend from this magazine. I am a one-man team with the dream scheme the Mobile English Teacher. Rather than be bound to a school with regulations and the minions that enforce them, I will be a full-fledged freelancer, teaching those lonely souls tooling along Japan’s expressways.
The idea bloomed from prior experiences and observations between 1991 and 1993. Two days after arriving in Japan I hitchhiked to Kyoto to explore employment opportunities. I waited a total of ten minutes, was fed twice, bestowed two packs of cigarettes, and handed ¥2000 for cab fare at the highway exit. My final driver apologized profusely for not dropping me at the door of my ryokan. The money meant nothing to him.”
Tokyo Journal, the magazine this was originally published in, is Japan’s oldest English-language magazine and is worth checking out. Their CityScope section covers all kinds of great events including events, music and film and if you’re chasing a bargain, their classified section is worth a look. Grab a copy next time you’re in Tokyo.
Yuzawa, Japan Ski Tips
Jan 17
If you’re looking to day-trip from Tokyo up into the mountains you could do a lot worse than Echigo Yuzawa. Outdoor Japan’s guide to Wintersports Activites describes Yuzawa as:
...the most popular (Niigata) ski area, mainly due to its close proximity to Tokyo. Tokyo-ites flock to Gala, Naeba, Kandatsu, Ishiuchi Maruyama and other resorts on the super speedy bullet train. It’s only an hour and 15 minutes from Tokyo to Gala’s own station where guests can step off the train and onto the ski lift.
Although this was the famous setting for Kawabata Yasunari’s famous novel Yukiguni (Snow Country), present day Yuzawa, with its clusters of mansion apartments and resort hotels, hardly resembles the quiet village Kawabata so famously wrote about.
So the big deal is that not only is it directly on the bullet train from Tokyo, but there’s actually a stop specifically for the resort. So for those flying into Tokyo on lightning visits that are just dying to hit the snow for a day or two, Gala (ガーラ湯沢) is an excellent deal. You could probably find cheaper a little further afield, but Gala is hard to beat on convenience.
Also of note is due to the JR station at the terminus, JR will occasionally do massive promotions for Yuzawa (the most famous of which featured skiing ostriches and won a place in AdAge’s 10 TV Ads America Will Never See in 2005) and offers deeply discounted rates on Shinkansen and ski-hire package deals. Look for brochures larger JR stations, ask at the Green Window office, or consult a tourist centre for more details.
On-line, We Love Snow have a lot of good information on the Yuzawa area and information on some good package deals for the day-tripper, including day trips to Kandatsu ski resort for less than JPY 20,000. Check their excellent information page for more details.
Now get out there, and get into it!
