I was about to book thenormal JRpass for my one month trip to Japan in March, but after seeing the 70% price increase I don’t feel inclined to purchase it.
An alternative I found was this
https://willerexpress.com/st/3/en/pc/buspass/?aid=525
It basically let’s you travel around Japan on long distance busses, up to 3 bus rides per day.
Does anyone have experience using this pass to get around in Japan?
Are the bus stops in some outskirt part of the city or fairly easily accessible?
I know flixbus in Europe always has the most ridiculous locations for its bus stops to cut costs.
Let me know if you have any thoughts ✌🏻
8 comments
If you think Flixbus has ridiculous location – you haven’t seen some of the stops in Japan. If you intend the pass to travel between major cities/terminus location or on rural routes – it’s OK. If you intend to use it chiefly for in-between locations via highway routes, be prepared for a world of pain.
Unless you are going to places only accessible by bus, I strongly recommend using a combination of cheap domestic flights (low cost carriers, JAL Explorer Pass) and regional rail passes (especially in JR West / JR Kyushu territory). Rather than subjecting yourself to much longer travel times and often lower schedule flexibility.
Haven’t used the bus pass but even my tiny Asian friend complained about the cramped conditions on the night buses. On the plus side, if you can sleep anywhere, you’ll save money on accommodation.
Also considering this… I am heading to Japan for a month, next Thursday and I need more transportation options like this.
I’ve used the bus pass before, mostly for the night bus. Very convenient, and the stops are in fairly urbanised areas and train stations so they’re not dropping you off in the middle of nowhere.
The only trouble is for some reason I literally could not sleep on them. The seat was more comfortable than most, they give you a nice cover for privacy –but I just couldn’t. If you can sleep anywhere or are willing to risk your holiday being zonked out, go for it. Also bear in mind the bus will stop and make announcements about toilet breaks and stops, which might potentially wake you up. If you don’t speak Japanese you also may have to be very careful about what your stop sounds like.
Some cities the bus terminals are quite well located, others not so much.
Japanese traffic tends to be really bad on the highways so you may be taking a lot longer than you think.
Personally I can’t think of much I would rather do less than ride buses all over Japan when the train network is so good and comfortable.
I am currently rounding up my trip. Used the bus pass a lot. It’s great. It’s saves you travel time (because you’re sleeping), and money on trains and accommodation. So 3-in-1. I recommend it!
Only downside is nights are a bit short. It took around 6 hours to go from Osaka to Hiroshima for example. So the next day might be a slow day depending on how used you are to short nights.
Honestly, I think your best bet for maximizing convenience and lowering cost would just be to load up an IC card and not use the Shinkansen. It will be slower, but it will still be faster than the bus and you will see so many more places and can get out any time you want if you see something that looks interesting. It will also let you ride on different train and bus lines. It’s a great way to people watch and see different places in Japan.
Getting the bus pass, you will be on a highway, often at night, and you will end up in a city where you’re still gonna have to pay for trains/buses/subway, so I don’t even think the savings would be that great.