Jamie's Japan Travel Logistics Guide

First of all, a disclaimer. I am not a travel expert nor a travel professional. I just like to travel, and over the last two years I have developed a travel method that (usually) works for me, and has enabled me to travel solo all over Japan and to a few other places as well without going broke. Everybody has their own expectations for travel and what works for me may not work for anyone else, but there may be some useful information here! Also, some of the information is specific to Hirosaki, because that's my home base.

 I wanted to travel a lot while living in Japan, but I also wanted to save up money for the future. Travel in Japan is expensive as it is, and ironically travel is even more expensive for residents than it is for tourists. Most discount packages seem to be for those with “temporary visitor” visas only, but those working in Japan have “temporary resident” visas that don’t apply.

After I finished my teaching contract, I applied to get my temporary resident visa changed to a temporary visitor visa specifically so I could finally travel on the much-celebrated JR Pass. In the end, it was pretty much a wash- I may have saved 2000-3000 yen over just buying the tickets outright. If I had traveled long distances every day, the JR Pass could have saved me more money, but for long distances domestic flights make more sense anyway. I don't think I'll buy a JR Pass again.

Table of Contents
  • How to Travel Expensively in Japan
  • How to Travel for (Practically) Free
  • How to Travel for Cheap(ish)
    • Travel by highway bus
    • Booking domestic flights in advance
    • Where to stay and how to book
  • Trains
  • General Travel Tips
  • FAQ
    • Where have you traveled?
    • I can't read Japanese. How can I use Japanese language booking sites?
    • Why do you care about paying in local currency when you have a credit card?
    • OMG I could never stay in a hostel or ryokan!
  • Sources and Links
  • Orionet Instructions

How to Travel Expensively in Japan
  1. Travel only by shinkansen (bullet train)
  2. Stay only in hotels with English language booking
  3. Wait until the last minute to book hotels and transportation
Let's be clear: there's nothing wrong with traveling like that. The shinkansen is hands-down the most enjoyable way to get around, in my opinion. I’d love to take a shinkansen anywhere. Booking hotels on English language websites is convenient and easy to understand, and private rooms are comfortable (although the beds are equally hard unless you’re staying at the Hilton or something). Deciding to take a spontaneous weekend trip can be fun. The down side is that your money will not go as far, and you will not be able to travel as frequently or as far as you could by using cheaper methods.


How to Travel for (practically) Free
  1. Hitchhike
  2. Use free lodging services like Tatami Timeshare or Couch surfing
  3. Camp in parks etc.
These ideas don’t appeal to me so I haven’t tried any of these things, but other people have. As a solo woman traveler I wouldn’t feel safe hitchhiking anywhere, even though Japan is probably one of the few/last countries where hitchhiking is pretty safe. I also really prefer to sleep on a bed (I’ll make do with a futon), and a night on the floor or in a tent is a sleepless night. If you are interested in trying to travel for free, here’s a link to a wikitravel article for more information:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Hitchhiking_in_Japan


How to Travel for Cheap(ish)
  1. Travel by highway bus ((高速バス, kōsoku bus)
  2. Book domestic flights (as far in advance as possible)
  3. Stay in ryokan, hostels, guesthouses and/or business hotels
  4. Book as far in advance as possible

You may have surmised that cheap(ish) travel is my area of specialty. I am a budget traveler but not a spartan traveler. I require a bed (or will make do with a futon). I prefer to have a secure locker for my bag. I prefer to spend less than 3500 yen/night on lodgings, but I won't stay in places where reviewers have complained of unsanitary or unsafe conditions. I prefer to stay in a hostel overnight rather than take the night bus, because I can't sleep on buses and if I don't get sleep, I can't enjoy my trip, and that's the whole point.


 Travel by highway bus 

Traveling by bus can be quite cost effective. Highway buses are also pretty comfortable, and they make stops every few hours at service stations where you can buy snacks and use the restrooms. 

 Here’s a comparison for the trip between Hirosaki and Sendai:

Highway bus: 8800 yen round trip, four hour trip each way (one way ticket is 5000 yen)
Shinkansen: 22000 yen round trip, two and a half to three hour trip each way including the local train from Hirosaki to Shin-Aomori Station (one way ticket is 11000 yen) 

In addition to being cheaper, bus routes are often more direct than trains, depending on the destination. Bus schedules may be more frequent or better-timed than trains. In some less-traveled or mountainous or remote regions, highway buses may be the only way to get where you are going.   

Buses are convenient, comfortable and cheap, but sometimes the tickets can be harder to obtain.
  • For any bus arriving or departing from Hirosaki, you can buy the tickets in person at the Hirosaki Bus Terminal behind Itoyokado. The same is true in most cities- you can buy tickets at the city Bus Terminal or Bus Center, once you find it. Note that there may be cheaper fares available online from discount bus companies like Willer.
  • For the more popular highway bus routes around Japan, you can find English language schedules on Japan Bus Online https://japanbusonline.com/ You can buy tickets online using this site, but you have to pay by credit card.
  • You can also reserve highway bus tickets on Orionet (オーライネット) at https://secure.j-bus.co.jp/hon however this site is only in Japanese and it takes some doing. You can choose to pay at a konbini, and then you have 24 hours to take the reservation code to a konbini and pay with cash.
  • You can also reserve highway bus tickets through JTB at http://www.jtb.co.jp/bus/. This is also a Japanese language site offering a konbini cash payment option.
  • For some regional buses that don’t require/allow advance reservation, you can only buy the ticket at the point of departure on the day of your trip. For example, the bus from Hirosaki to Morioka, or the bus from Sendai to Aizu-wakamatsu (Fukushima). In those cases you go to the bus terminal at your departure point and buy the ticket from the ticket agent or from a ticket vending machine, and then go wait in line at the stop. Occasionally you simply board the bus and pay (in cash only) when you get off. You can find the bus schedules with some deep Google searching. Start by searching "Bus lines in (destination city)." As a last resort, you can always get info about local bus schedules from the TIC (tourist info center) when you get there.
One important note of caution about bus travel: make sure you know where the bus stop is! Bus Terminals and Centers are usually, but not always, located adjacent to the main train station. Bus stops are sometimes well-marked, but other times nearly impossible to find. If traveling somewhere unfamiliar, make sure to give yourself time to locate the the bus stop. The easiest way to locate the bus stop is to ask at the TIC, but TICs often close by 4 or 5pm even in major cities. If you are planning to take a night bus, do your bus stop scouting well in advance, when TICs and ticket counters are open. I speak from painful, expensive experience!

 Booking Domestic Flights in advance

If you book domestic flights in advance, you can get discounted fares. ANA in particular has increasing discounts at 21, 28, 45, 55, and 75 days in advance. Depending on how far you plan to travel, domestic flights purchased in advance can be the cheapest, most reasonable way to get there.
  • From Aomori Airport, you can fly to Sapporo, Tokyo Haneda, and Osaka on Japan Airlines, to Sapporo and Osaka on ANA, and to Seoul on Korean Air. Some flights only operate on certain days of the week.
  • From Sendai Airport you can fly to Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Okinawa, Nagoya, Hiroshima, and others.
  • From Tokyo you can go just about anywhere, but you have to get to Tokyo first. 

 Where to stay and how to book
  • Hostels are great in Japan and Asia. I wouldn’t have considered them, but early on I tagged along on a friend’s trip and stayed in a hostel in Kyoto, and saw how great it was firsthand. Now hostels are my preferred lodging, especially for solo trips. Hostels are usually (though not always) cheaper than hotels. As a solo traveler you have a chance to meet other travelers in the common areas, which has been great for me in Taiwan, Seoul, Sendai and Okinawa. There are usually kitchen facilities available for cooking, and sometimes parties and other social events are set up for guests. I always try to book a bed in the female-only dorm rooms, which are usually quiet and peaceful. The hidden bonus of hostels is that they are comfortable enough to get good sleep and relax, but not comfortable enough that you want to hole up and stay there all day. It encourages you to get out the door and do some sightseeing. However, hostels are less common once you get outside of the major cities. Bring ear plugs, an eye mask, and a towel.
  • Guesthouses are very similar to hostels, but it seems like guesthouses are more likely to be Japanese-language only, may not have kitchen facilities, may offer cooked breakfast, the lounge may double as a bar at night. They seem to have a different atmosphere than hostels.
  • Ryokan are traditional Japanese lodgings, and they can be cheap or expensive depending on the ryokan. At the ryokan where I’ve stayed, you get a private room with tatami and futon. The bathing facilities are shared, onsen-style group showering and group soaking (often no private showers). Sometimes meals are included or can be requested. Small ryokan are usually run by a family that might live there too. I stayed at a ryokan in Fukushima where I was maybe the only guest (in the off season) and the proprietress and her aged mother took really good care of me, warmed up the bath even though it was late because I had been out walking in the cold, and chatted with me about living in Aomori and traveling.
  • Business hotels are cookie-cutter, unexciting but affordable hotels. You get a rock-hard mattress, a room not much bigger than the bed, a desk and a TV, and a private bath. They are usually conveniently located to a train or bus station. They have paper-thin walls and usually a lot of inebriated, snoring businessmen. Bring ear plugs.
  • Capsule hotels. I have never stayed in a capsule hotel, for various reasons: I am claustrophobic; they tend to cater to men; I want to have a little more leisure time. I don’t actually want a plastic molded interior with a television and control panel stuck in my face. A lot of hostel bunks are not too far off of the capsule hotel concept, but I think hostel bunks tend to be a bit roomier, based on pictures and my experiences, and they never have televisions inside.

I use a variety of sites to find a place to sleep, depending on where I am going.
  • www.hotels.com I used to use hotels.com as my primary site, before I found the others. I have the app on my phone. Now I mainly use for comparison, although I did book a hotel for a night in Okinawa recently, and I used it to find a nearby hotel in a pinch in Tokyo (but I just walked in to the hotel and asked for a room rather than book through the app). You have to pay by credit card in advance. I’m pretty sure the prices on hotels.com are slightly higher than if you just walk in and ask, or if you book directly with the hotel.
  • https://travel.rakuten.com/ I use Rakuten about half the time now. There is an English language version, which is convenient, but the Japanese language version usually shows many more available options for the same dates and same place. Everything from luxury hotels and onsen resorts to capsule hotels, guesthouses, dorms and ryokan (traditional inns) will show up, sometimes for very cheap. If you book on the English language version you may be given a choice of whether to pay in advance (credit) or at check-in (cash). If you book on the Japanese language version you should always have the option to pay at check-in.
  • www.hostelworld.com I use Hostelworld as much as I can, although there are not hostels in every city I go to. There are very few hostels in Tohoku at all, but there are tons in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc. and also in other countries like Taiwan and Korea (and around the world). Some fancy hostels can cost more than business hotels though. You have to make a small deposit online (credit card only) at the time of booking, and then pay the rest of the balance at check-in using local currency.
  • www.booking.com and sometimes www.agoda.com I think I’ve used both these websites exactly once. Usually I check them for comparison. They tend to have a lot of overlap with Rakuten.
  • www.airbnb.com In big cities there can be a good selection of Airbnbs available. The good points are that Airbnb can be cheaper, much more convenient for groups of 3 or 4 or 5, and you usually get access to a kitchen. It seems like Airbnb is still not too popular with Japanese tourists, so during holiday times if all the hotels are booked, airbnbs may still be open and for relatively cheap. The bad points are that Airbnb hosts seem to be a little flaky; full-time Airbnb is still not quite legal in Japan so there can be issues with upsetting neighbors and local authorities.
    • Personal story: during my Golden Week 2017 trip, my friend and I stayed in 3 airbnbs, in Tokyo, Nagoya and Kanazawa. After we had reserved the Tokyo Airbnb, the host emailed us and told us the location was moving from Ginza to Shinjuku, and we could keep or cancel it. Then at the last minute she told us it was back in Ginza again. When we checked in we noticed there was a sign in the lobby right by the elevators that said, in (paraphrased) English, “if you are a tourist staying here, it is illegal. You are not welcomed by the other residents of the building. You should stay somewhere else.” I got a funny look from someone in the elevator. Otherwise it was fine. In Nagoya, our first reservation canceled on us only a few weeks before our trip with no reason given. We were able to find another place and it was fine. In Kanazawa, we got an email from the host warning us that the previous guests had been super noisy and complaints had been made to the local authorities, so we should be really quiet and avoid answering the door, especially if we saw people in suits, they might question us because of the complaint. We didn’t see anybody in suits and we didn’t have any problem, but we did sneak around like mice for three days.
Trains

No matter how you choose to travel, you are probably going to use a train or ten. You can find train times and prices on www.hyperdia.com. HyperDia is a nationwide database with local, express, private, JR, shinkansen and pretty much every train ever included. I like to look up train schedules and times and put the information in my daily itineraries, even if I don't need to buy a ticket in advance. Some trains may only come once an hour, or even once per day. Limited Express trains cost more than local trains, but may not get me to my destination any faster. It's good to know.

 Hyperdia does have some quirks. Here is the japan-guide.com guide to understanding those quirks:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2323.html 

 General Tips

  • When in doubt be early. It can be very challenging to find the right bus stop, train platform, elevator bank, whatever. Give yourself extra time to get lost, make a wrong turn, ask a police officer for directions, walk to the other side of Ueno Station, etc. Also, if you have lots of extra time, you might be able to make friends with the person who gives you the right directions. Tourist info desks and guide services usually close around 5 or 6, so keep that in mind if you need to catch a late bus or train.  
  • When in doubt go talk to the staff of the TIC in the station. If you don't know where to get the bus or how often the bus runs, or whether it's better to take the express train, or you just haven't decided what you want to do tomorrow, go find the Tourist Information Center in the station and ask. In bigger cities the staff will speak English, and in most smaller cities they will at least have an English pamphlet. If you approach them with openness to communicate in whatever way possible, be it writing, google translating, hand gestures or whatever, you will get the help you need.
  • When in doubt ask a police person. Seriously. They will give you directions and help you out in whatever way they can. They probably won't speak English though.
  • When in doubt, write it down. Most Japanese people under the age of 45 have had about three to six years of English classes or more, and you'll notice there are English words everywhere in Japan. The English education curriculum in Japan emphasizes reading and writing over speaking and listening. If you are speaking slowly and clearly in basic English and still not getting anywhere, try writing your question, or the keywords of your question, on a piece of paper. 
  • When in doubt, eat ramen. You can't go wrong with ramen. It can be harder to find vegetarian or vegan ramen, but they do exist.
  • Always carry cash. It's the easiest way to get business done.


FAQ

Q: Where have you traveled?

 A: In alphabetical order: Aizu (Fukushima) x 2; Aomori + environs; Hakodate x 2; Hirosaki + environs; Iwaki (Fukushima); Kamakura, Kanazawa, Kaohsiung (Taiwan); Kitakata (Fukushima) x 2; Kyoto x 4; Matsushima x 2; Morioka x 2; Nagoya; Niigata; Noboribetsu; Odate; Okinawa; Osaka x 3; Otaru; Sado Island; Sapporo; Sendai x 5; Seoul; Shirakawa-go; Taipei; Tokyo x 5+; Yamadera x 2; Yokohama; Zao Onsen.

 Q: I can’t read Japanese! How can I use Japanese language websites?

A: Japanese language booking websites can be ridiculously dense and hard to navigate, compared to English language counterparts. The main benefit to dealing with them is that you will find more and sometimes cheaper options, and in many cases English counterparts do not exist. My method is:
  1. Visually scan the website to find the headings of each section and locate the search box. 
  2. Leave the Japanese language version open in one window, and in a second window drop the website into Google Translate. 
  3. Compare. 
  4. Do the search as much as possible on the Japanese site (find out the kanji for my destination city and copy-paste it into the search box, etc)
  5. Have a third window open with Google Translate, and copy-paste individual sentences and/or phrases from the Japanese website, to get more accurate results than just translating the whole website.
  6. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. 
Q: Why do you care about paying in local currency when you have an American credit card?

A: I prefer to pay in cash yen (genkin in Japanese) because it’s just more convenient to use, and if I end up canceling the reservation I don’t have to worry about the hassle of getting the money back. My US credit cards are tied to my US bank account, which has a finite amount of money in it for payments. It’s a hassle to wire money from my Japanese bank account to my US bank account, so I’ve never actually done it. Also, my US credit cards hit me with a foreign transaction fee any time I use them here. Finally, even though my US credit card companies have been notified that I am living in Japan, sometimes trying to book a hotel in Japan sets off a fraud alert and my credit cards get declined and then I have to call and sort it out. What a pain. Cash is king.

 Q: OMG I could never stay in a hostel or a ryokan! I need privacy, quiet, and I can't stand the idea of showering in a room with others or having no private toilet/shower.

 A: I, too, could not imagine wanting to stay in a hostel. I figured they were all similar to the top bunk at the West Side Y where I spent a miserable night in the winter of my freshman year at college and swore never again. Then I stayed at the K's House Kyoto Backpackers Hostel with a friend, and it totally changed my mind. There is a mental adjustment necessary in order to go from requiring a solid door and a lock between you and the rest of the world, to sharing a room with four or five others. This mental adjustment is by no means impossible. I was helped along in no small part by the fact that the shared showers found in most hostels in Japan are actually several steps nicer than my own shower in my apartment, i.e. I don't have to crank up the gas heater to get hot water, and the shower rooms are usually heated above freezing in the winter. I read lots of reviews and choose hostels based on reviewer comments regarding security, atmosphere and comfort. Hostels can cost anywhere from 1800 yen to 4500 yen for a dorm bunk; business hotels in major cities start around 5000 yen; and nicer hotels in major cities are usually 8000 yen and up depending on location and season. You can stay in a hostel for five days for the same price as a single night in a "nice" hotel. Pick your priorities!
Sources and Links

Buses
Trains
Domestic Flights
Food

 I don't really want to do a "what to eat" food guide because everybody likes something different. Instead I'll try for a "how to find something to eat" guide.

Personally, I am not at all spontaneous when it comes to breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I make sure to choose exactly where I want to go for each meal when I'm traveling, and I research dining options around that area in case I need a backup. If I don't do this, I tend to miss meals or eat unexciting food.

Here's my method, which I use before I head off on my trip.

  • Specialties. Start by google-searching the specialties of the destination. Most prefectures, regions, cities, etc. have at least a few specialty items that they pride themselves in. These specialties fall into two rough categories- fresh whole foods and prepared dishes (usually using those whole foods).
  • Tabelog. If there is any specialty that sounds good, search for recommended places to eat it on www.tabelog.com. You can also search tripadvisor and other sites, of course. You can also just go to the google map of the area and start clicking on restaurants to see what is available.
  • Youtube. I follow an assortment of channels on Youtube that post videos about what to eat where to get ideas. There's something about seeing someone eat something that is more compelling than seeing a picture of food on a table.
  • TICs. You can usually get restaurant maps and maybe even recommendations at the TICs. If the city has a well-known specialty, they will most likely have a detailed maps and guide to where to eat it. For example, Kitakata is famous for ramen, and the TIC has an English language map to more than 70 places to eat ramen in the city.
This note for first time visitors to Japan: get food from a convenience store. If you find yourself hungry and without a plan, you will most likely find a Lawson, 7-11, Family Mart, Sunkus, Daily Yamazaki, Aeon Mini Stop, or something about a block away. The food is good and cheap and they'll warm it up for you.

Orionet (highway bus) Booking Instructions
Here are step-by-step instructions to book a bus ticket on Orionet.
  • First, you have to create a user profile. From the main page, click the slightly smaller red button in the upper righthand corner:
     新規会員登録はこちら 
  • The next screen is the terms of service. Scroll to the bottom, agree to the terms of service by selecting the radio button next to "会員規約に同意する" and then click the "next" button:
  • .
  • The next screen is for your personal details. Use my patent-pending "how to use a Japanese booking site" method found in the FAQs to fill this one in.  Really the most important ones are the first one (password) and the third and fourth (email address). The katakana name could be whatever you want, and the phone number too (I've never received a phone call). Just make sure you remember what you entered for those items, because it's necessary for paying at the konbini. When you are finished, click the "registration" button:
     .
  • Start your booking process on the main page, in the search box in the upper left corner, by opening the drop-down list and choosing your departure prefecture, and then your destination prefecture, and the date.
  • Click the orange button, and you will be shown a page with every bus route that runs between the two prefectures, in chronological order. Scroll down until you find the route you are looking for at the time you want. Isn't this fun?
  • For a one-way trip, click on the red button to the right. For a roundtrip ticket, click the yellow button. If there are no red or yellow buttons, that means the bus is fully booked.
  • On the next page, under section 1, choose the locations where you want to board and get off from the drop-down lists. Some buses pick up passengers along the route, and have multiple drop-off points, and the ticket price will vary accordingly. Under section 2, choose the number of passengers of each category. Once you do this, the price of the ticket will appear in section 3. Click the "next" button to continue. 
  • If you haven't logged in yet, log in at this point to continue.

  • You can choose to pay at a konbini, and then you have 24 hours to take the reservation code to a konbini and pay with cash.

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