we are planning a couple of weeks in Japan, and trying to work out our travel arrangements.
we are wanting to save as much money as possible in things like travel. (we got the super cheap jetstar flights so thats a good start)
I feel the 7 day JR Rail pass in not that cheap, so I have been looking at other options.
we intend to spend just over a week in Tokyo doing local things there, plus day trips to Yokohama, Mt Fuji, Kawago and Kamakura.
For these trips we would just buy daily train travel tickets to get to each destination.
from there a trip to Kyoto and perhpas Osaka.
I have found we can purchase a 3 trip bus pass on Willer Express bus for about yen10,000-
however, my question is the size of the seats, my husband is 6ft 2. and I know some asian seats can be very small for western travellers. as we are travelling a few hours, not sure if we just need to pay the extra for train travel.
also, we really want to do just one trip on a bullet train, so I think we can just go for example on a day trip from Tokyo on one and just get a slow train back?
I am finding this all very confusing, and probably more so as we hate wasting money, where we can save a few bucks!
If anyone can give me some tips on this, it would be greatly appreciated.
willer express bus vs train travel in Japan - help please
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If anything the buses are better than their Australian equivalent. The different names can be a bit confusing but make sure you book the best bus available - I think the pass lets you book on every type excluding the most luxurious.
People find the bullet trains really exciting for some reason, but if you want to spend as little as possible then there's no real reason to take one at all (except if you're time poor, they're obviously much faster than the buses though you can take them overnight if you need to). Its just a normal train, but faster!
I used to live in Japan, I'm 6ft. I used buses last time I was there for tokyo-sendai retun. your husband will be fine. Japanese highway buses are clean, modern and punctual (sums up most things in Japan).
willer express is ok but cheaper prices can be found using https://bus.travel.rakuten.co.jp/
I booked my bus through http://bus.travel.rakuten.co.jp from Tokyo to Sendai return. I didn't have (and didn't want a JR pass - JR passes are good if you want to check out a lot of places). Bullet train tickets were 14,000 yen each one-way. there were 4 of us. we caught a bus instead. it was ~1600 yen each. the bullet train took just under 2 hours. the bus took 5 hours. the bus stops at a couple of road houses on the way. I prefer the bus as you (A) virtually no westerners use them, (B) you travel with the flow of everyday people on the express ways. (B) it's slower so you have more time to take in the scenery - rather than shooting past at 300kms an hour - which is cool, ill certainly admit that. the precision of engineering and the stop watch timing of Shinkansens is something to behold.
I paid for the cheapest ticket and the bus was good (above average in comparison to Australian buses).
But for Tokyo-Osaka buses
a quick search shows the cheapest one way prices from Ikebukero ("inner suburb" of Tokyo) —> Osaka for 1700yen for a midnight bus arriving at 6:45AM(bus.travel.rakuten.co.jp)with google translating then it's relatively straight forward.
when booking you need to enter your name written in katakana (the japanese "alphabet" for foreign words/names). I just used this site and copied and pasted - and you enter them in surname first, first name last.
I rode on one of the cheaper overnight Willer Express buses on my last Japan trip, and it was pretty uncomfortable for me personally. I woke up frequently and ended up having a sore back and neck, and for me it was comparable to being on a long Jetstar flight. I was super tired the next day, but I would probably do it again if I could save a significant amount of money traveling between cities.
I caught a highway bus between Tokyo and Osaka this year. Not all buses are made equal. The cheap ones are like stock standard buses, and the more expensive ones are more comfortable, have more reclining angle, and you may get your own seat that's next to an aisle.
You can always just get a JR pass for a week, and only activate it to do all your intercity travel. Bullet train travel is pretty pricy on its own - the one week JR pass is actually cheaper than a return trip from Tokyo to Osaka.
thanks for your help, I have been checking out the links. one more thing I am finding confusing is I believe not all the shinkansen trains are the fast bullet train? is that correct? the shinkansen that can be taken to Nikko using the JR tokyo wide pass, is that the fast bullet train? that pass is JPY10,000 and would suit us to get a trip in the bullet train.thanks again
Shinkansen trains are bullet trains, but there are different speeds. Nozomi are the fastest, and JR passes can't be used for them.
The slower ones are Hikari and Mizuho, and I think there are a couple of other names too. JR pass can be used for these.
I believe the Nozomi doesn't actually move faster, it just stops at fewer stations, similar to how an express bus is faster because it stops at fewer locations.
Edit: found the answers you want here: https://travelwithamnet.com/learn-about-japan/different-shin…
With the GPS on my phone, I saw 270kph on a Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka, and that train wasn't a Nozomi as I booked it with JR pass.
Edit: oops, I thought I was replying to a different post, not one that is years old!
if you are just staying mainly around Tokyo then consider: https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/tokyowidepass/