My wife and I are taking our first trip to Japan in a few weeks and we will mainly be using trains with our JR passes and Suica Welcome cards, but for the section of our trip in the Kamikochi area we will need to take the bus. But I am unsure how ticketing works for these.
There will be 4 bus trips in total. 1st from Matsumoto to Hirayu Onsen, arriving around 7pm (our accommodation). That one’s fine, we can just buy tickets at the Matsumoto Bus Terminal earlier that day.
But then there is the 30min trip to and from Kamikochi the next day for our day trip (6:30AM bus there and a mid-afternoon one back). And then the bus trip from Hirayu Onsen to Takayama the next morning.
Do I need to buy these tickets at a terminal/ticket office? Or online in advance? Or can we just buy them when getting on the bus? I can’t find the hours of the bus terminal in Hirayu Onsen, and since we’re planning on some early trips I’m hoping it’ll either be open, or we can buy the tickets on the bus. Or is it possible to just buy all the tickets in advance at Matsumoto?
It is a little confusing trying to figure this out. Any help would be greatly appreciated! I’ve spent so much time trying to figure this out, it’s embarrassing lol
4 comments
We just did this but starting from Takayama and ending in Matsumoto. Tickets are easy to get from an attendant or ticket machine at either Hirayu Onsen or Kamikochi Bus Terminal.
Edit: Enjoy Kamikochi! It’s wonderful.
I am looking to visit kamikochi with my wife on in June-July of 2024 and I’ve looked at doing a 2 or 4 day Alps wide pass from Alpico Group. I’m not sure how much benefit you could get from that, but if anybody more familiar wants to chime in https://www.alpico.co.jp/en/alps-wide-free-passport/
Hope you don’t mind me piggybacking, as someone who was also wondering about buses, can you use suica cards on buses? We are going to bus from Kanazawa to Shirakawago then to Takayama. Do we also just need to buy tickets at the ticketing office before we leave at each stop?
Are you not planning to eat breakfast in your ryokan? Grabbing the 6:30 bus will probably nix breakfast.