Hi everyone! Would love to seek inputs from you experienced folks for an upcoming trip to Kawaguchiko.
I am planning to take an express bus from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko during the last week of Dec, departing at 7.30am and arriving at ~10am, and saw that the average bus ride would be ~2 hours.
However, understand that traffic jams are a norm in the Tokyo and the ride could stretch uo to 3 hours long so I wanted to understand what are the chances of encountering such traffic jams if the bus departs at Shinjuku at 7.30am?
Thanks a lot!
3 comments
>However, understand that traffic jams are a norm in the Tokyo
Not really. The traffic is usually quite fluid -except- on some very specific moments and directions. During weekdays, departing 730, you should be good. If a Saturday, things could be a bit more complicated. Towards Tokyo, things can get busy on Sunday afternoons for instance.
Took the highway bus from Tokyo Yaesu to Kawaguchiko in 2019, March. Left Tokyo at 8AM, got to Kawaguchiko just after 10AM. I would say the drivers know where to make up for lost time in traffic. Additionally, once they do their last pick up in Tokyo, they take all the expressways to exit, which helps to avoid traffic jams.
When booking online do you need to exchange the online ticket to a physical ticket at Shinjuku bus station?