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samurai007 (Offline)
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Posts: 890
Join Date: Oct 2007
02-21-2008, 05:01 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by GhostBlade View Post
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I guess I will skip the Seishun ticket because I would much rather just relax without worrying about switching trains and would much rather take the bus since you said it's faster. The shinkansen isn't desireable because of the price and I'd like to budget my money. I'm not sure if I could sleep on the bus but as long as it has a toilet then I'm good. Are you allowed to drink alcohol on the bus? Well, it's not like they'll check my bag anyway. Perhaps if I do then I'll have an easier time of falling asleep on the bus.

Going from Tokyo to Nagoya and seeing Nagoya and then going from Nagoya to Osaka by bus seems like a nice plan. From Osaka I may just take the train around the various area in the Kansai region like Nara, Kyoto and Kobe. So for my first trip to Japan, would it be a good plan to start in Tokyo, travel to Nagoya, Osaka, Nara, Kobe and Kyoto? Any other cities I should check out perhaps? Mt. Fuji worth it or overrated? Yokohama? All this speak about Nagoya makes me wonder if there's much to do or see there. Please give some advice.

This site has the bus guide from Tokyo to Fukuoka for only 4,800 yen. Just looking at the map and the vast distance between these two cities strikes me as being unbelievable. It seems like it would literally take an entire day to reach there by bus and it seems like a grueling journey. How the hell do they make money for that particular trip?
Check Tokyo <-> Fukuoka on this site:

EASY BOOKING WITH 123 bus Japan / English service available.

Anyway, thanks for the insights Samurai and Nyororin. Please keep the advice coming. This is helping me greatly.
You're welcome, glad I can help!

Tokyo to Fukuoka is a very long distance by bus... in fact, I'm surprised it can make it in 1 day. By local trains, it takes at least 12 hours to go from Tokyo to Osaka, another 6 hours to Hiroshima, and at least 8-9 hours from Hiroshima to Fukuoka.The bus can do it in less time because it doesn't need to stop so often, and there's no changing trains, but you're still looking at a very long trip.

I only passed through Nagoya, never spent much time there, so I can't really say what there is to see there. For other places to see, Himeji castle is considered one of the best in Japan, so if you want to see a Japanese castle, consider spending a half day there.

Koya-san is a mountain in Wakayama Prefecture, south of Osaka, that has well over 100 Buddhist temples on top, it has the oldest and most famous cemetery in all of Japan (which may not sound like fun, but believe me, it's impressive!), and was the home of the monk who invented the Hiragana writing system. You can spend the night in a Buddhist monastery there, which is a neat experience.

Here are some pictures from the Koya-san cemetery

[IMG][/IMG]


JET Program, 1996-98, Wakayama-ken, Hashimoto-shi

Link to pictures from my time in Japan
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