Travelling on budget: JR Seishun 18 Kippu and hop-on-hop-off around Japan
Although it has been almost a year I haven't written much about my trip to Japan. There was so little time during past year. JR Seishun 18 Kippu is probably first thing I would recommend to save money while improving your experience. Unbelieveble, isn't it?
Even though it doesn't look like on the map, perhaps because you always see it next to China or Russia :-) , Japan is indeed huge. And one must get around somehow if he doesn't only want to see Tokyo.
You notice that transfer is expensive in Japan, as anything else. You have the option to take these impressively fast trains in shape of bill of bird. They are called Shinkansen. One-way trip to Kyoto will set you back approximately 12,710. However, you will save a lot of time of course.
Nevertheless, there is other option. JR Seishun 18 Kippu gives you the option to travel for five not consequent days with local trains for only 11500 Yen! (It is sold only during summer season and you don't have to be 18...)
My best souvenir from Japan :). When you start your day, you just go to the manned window next to the tourniquets and you get this stamp. Then you always show the ticket.
Take an inspiration
My trip in Japan was, well.. improvized. Basically it was planned in two days before departure from Korea. I began it in Fukuoka and travelled towards the north for 14 days. I ended up spending 3 final days in Tokyo.
My trip was divided into the transport days and the walking around days. The first train departs around 4:30 a.m. It was me who took these trains. I transferred to some smaller place (like Nara, Uji, Yokohama, Himeji), spent there a day and left in the evening to the next location. Sometimes, I could see two towns in one day in row.
One can think: god, it's too hecktic. But believe me, I haven't been so excited in my whole life like here. Then, I rested in more popular locations like Kyoto or Osaka for more days... I loved to see different place every day. Like this I visited:
- Fukuoka
- Hiroshima
- Miyajima (btw, the ferry ticket is also in the price of the ticket)
- Himeji
- Kobe
- Osaka
- Nara
- Uji
- Kyoto
- Kamakura
- Yokohama
- and finally Tokyo (you can easily get around with the ticket also in Tokyo)
The only problem is, that you must change often and train stations far from Tokyo area don't often use latin signs so the orientation is a bit more complicated. However, it was the best way to discover the Japanese outside of Tokyo. The difference is indeed huge! Plan your trip before, use www.hyperdia.com . It will give you train departures and number of platform (that is espcially useful). Otherwise, you will get lost :). The local train lines are logical, however it takes time to understand the system.
The trains are not fast, sometimes not really straight to your final location. Despite that it got me from Fukuoka to Tokyo in four days (it is more than 1000 kilometres).