Cheap travel across Japan

[Bob1]

For those who are planning to make short visits to Japan, of course the Japan Rail Pass can be purchased before arriving. But if you live here, that's not available. Nevertheless, there are bargains to be found such as overnight buses with deeply reclining seats for sleeping, and special tickets on JR. I will introduce one such bargain here, but feel free to add your own favorite bargain.

JR offers a Seishun 18 ticket at different times of the year when colleges and universities are not in session. For 11,500 yen, you get unlimited milage on JR on five days of your choosing, except that you cannot use any express, limited express or shinkansen trains. The 5 days do not need to be consecutive. Although there are no age restrictions on these tickets, it tends to be college students who need to travel cheap and have sufficient time and freedom to make good use of them. They are available for use during winter break from Nov. 28 through Jan. 25, during spring break from Feb. 22 through April 13, and during summer break from July 11 through Sept. 15.

If you want to check out what sort of JR connections you can make for the most efficient long-distance travel, you can use the hyperdia http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi web service with its English language interface. Uncheck all the options such as air travel, shinkansen and extra-charge trains, and find your way across Japan.


My suggestion for a JR promotion campaign:
Seishun 18: JR puts the hardship back into travel.
かわい子には旅をさせよう。

[Elfunko]

LOL. So that leaves you with what trains exactly? If your in the country, it's regular every stop for ya. I guess Osaka and other cities have faster rails to hop, but eventually your gonna be sittin in a regular (train)car. It's cool to save, and even if you had to pay some express fees you'd probably end up saving money for all the regular riding possibly, just gotta crunch those numbers and work out the math yourself.