On a Floating Bridge

For those living in Japan without a healthy salary from a foreign firm, being frugal is an important pastime. Especially if you are an English teacher or a student here, life can often seem to be on a strict budget. Finding myself in a low income bracket, I have been looking for ways to enjoy slow travel on a budget. It’s not true that traveling without planes is for the rich and in this post I explore options for budget travel between Japan and Korea which are cost friendly and low in carbon emissions. I hope I can convince you that the two economic capitals of the furthest east, most often connected by airplanes, can be bridged cheaply, more comfortably and with a lower environmental impact using alternative transportation.


This can be a hard sell. Unfortunately, we live in a world where international airlines avoid paying fuel duty, in many countries, unlike other modes of transport which incur heavy fuel taxes. Considering how much extra fuel airlines use per passenger, it is no wonder they seem to be the most economic option in the current climate since their running costs are billions of dollars less than they rightly should be. For those living in Japan, this often means people turn away from the expensive shinkansen, and other options available, but there are some offers out there to make lower carbon choices.





I have found a few savings, tested out when I went to Korea recently. This is what they are,

The All Inclusive

My favourite is a plan run by the JR group and Korean KoRail. Its all inclusive transport costs from any major city in Japan (South of Tokyo) direct to Seoul. However you must go direct, this ticket only goes the whole journey in one stint. But, having said that it covers all the transport costs from your nearest shinkansen station, to Fukuoka or Shimenoseki city, transport to the port, the ship / hydrofoil, transport from Pusan port and the high speed train to Seoul. I’ve translated the original info page here for your information, but my suggestion for non-Japanese speakers is that you take this information and go directly to the Tokyo branch of the JR travel agency “JR Tours”, in Ginza, or give it a go at the other branches or less reliable travel agencies outlined in my translation of the ticket info site (or to an equivalent in Seoul), or last resort try to find someone who can help you at a JR station.
Price: Starting at approx. $200 return if you already live by the port in Japan, to $570 if you come from Tokyo.


Japanese Ability:
☆☆☆☆☆None if you take the Japanese, and my translated version of the package itinerary and go into one of the JR agencies that will know about the plan. Otherwise:
★★☆☆☆ 2 fluency stars out of 5 to wing it at a regular travel agency / do a phone call.

Japan-Korea Ticket details translated into English
original Japanese info is here
JR Tours Tokyo Branch map and hours translated into English.

The Half Inclusive Plan (plus Japan-side Transportation)

This will be most useful for those who live close (ish) to Fukuoka or Shimenoseki, or who specifically do not want to go direct to Seoul. There are various travel companies in Japan that will do package deals on the boat from Fukuoka / Shimenoseki and a hotel in Pusan included. If you can plan more than a week in advance and particularly if you don’t mind going on a weekday, this can be quite cheap. For example, an average saver-package on a weekday might include round trip on the ferry plus 2 nights (more can be added for a fee) in Pusan, at an average hotel, for $200. This starts to rise if you need to go on a weekend, public holiday etc.


Price: Starting from as cheap as $80 for a one night package with obligatory stop at selected souvenir shop –for those who really just need to get off the island for *ahem* visa renewals…….? Spans the whole range up to $400
Japanese Ability: ★★★☆☆3 fluency stars at least, the packages are slightly unusual in most travel agents eyes, and when I went into a travel agency recently I was told flatly they had no such thing. (Their website saying otherwise)
Its pot luck whether the sales staff will know about these flight-less packages – expect quizzical looks – and this could leave you with no recourse but a phone number to Japanese sales staff.

The Rest

The problem with the above ‘half’ plan is you have to be able, of course, to get to the port in the first place, and this really is the most expensive part of the journey.

Bus
• If you live west of Hiroshima, you could probably live through a 6-8 hour bus journey starting from $80 return, but any further away and the bus journey will take 10-20 hours, a lot of buses don’t go direct – so to go from Tokyo might involve a change at Hiroshima – and the cost starts to go up as far as $200 for a return on a long and unpleasant bus ride. The cheapest buses are unfortunately found on Japanese only sites. Going around a few travel agents may also get the same results. Don’t be afraid to take the cheaper no-toilet buses. They make regular stops at very clean service stations with much nicer loos than the bus with the toilet.

Car
• Driving is out of the question in every respect – time, comfort, emissions, and particularly economically with the charges per km on the highways. So this leaves about 3 options.

Domestic Ferry
• One is the ferry from Tokyo to Kitakyushu, (1 per day) but the savings from the $440 shinkansen return fare is only about $120 and instead of being 6 hours its 34 long ones, but its a nice way to travel if you have the time, and quite easy to take your bicycle aboard too! Try to buy the tickets at a local travel agency with experienced looking staff, they are usually available in most places. “fwe-ri-” is Ferry, “katamichi” is one-way, “oufuku” is return. That, and your “destination-’ma-de’” should get you through

Overnight Train
• Next is the overnight train to Tokyo-Hakata, or part way Tokyo-Okayama, which is actually no saving on the shinkansen fare but may save you a night in a hotel in Fukuoka if your schedule was arranged that way. I hear rumour that the long distance Tokyo-Kumamoto Hayabusa night train is being discontinued March 2009, so catch it while you can! Tickets were all booked up when I tried recently. The Okayama bound train is called Sunrise Izumo and will continue to run as far as I know. Check the Hyperdia link below for organising your schedule. Tickets for night trains should be easy to buy at major JR trains stations. Take your itinerary with you if your Japanese is shaky, but many places will have English speaking, or at least skillful hand gesturing, staff.

Local Train
• Lastly is the trusty Seishun 18 Kippu. This ticket is a steal at about $120 for a 5 day pass on all non-shinkansen, non-limited express trains, the ticket is only valid in special periods usually matching Japanese school holidays, within that period you can use the ticket on any consecutive OR non-consecutive 5 days you like meaning it covers your return as well, but being as the trip to Fukuoka can take at least 25 hours without express trains, and the number of times you would have to change trains is around 13, either go slow and take a little time out in cities along the way or expect it to be mightly unpleasant. Again, Hyperdia is the best English language schedule checker, and you can deselect shinkansen and limited express so it only returns results for local trains. See links below.

Conclusion

Any which way you cut it, without the Japan-Korea ticket, flightless trips between Japan and Korea are not very financially competitive at the moment. Where the boats are concerned its a worsening cycle because the ships are only viable with high volumes of passengers: They cut the number of sailings and raise the price, so the customers decrease further and the cycle gains momentum.
So, until the airlines are taxed the same way as other modes of transport, or other modes of transport are given the same subsidy to compete on a level playing field, the options for flightless travelers are to be more proactive in looking for bargains, being more organised to book early, to sometimes accepting higher costs, or to go slower and enjoy the journey. For some people, soulless air travel is a preference. For the majority I suspect however, with just a little additional forethought, the idea of a hotel standard train berth on a comfortable night train, with a skylight window over your bunk out over the changing landscape, or an onsen-style bath with windows onto the ocean, and traditional Korean food served in a spacious dining room on a ferry are actually more preferable. And I’ve found it doesn’t need to cost much either.

At that I leave you, see you in Korea…. ~~
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Links

Long Distance Buses
• 123bus low-cost bus journeys in English
• Handy English bus route planner
(Not displaying the cheapest buses but shows a way to get almost anywhere in Japan by bus)
• Long distance bus guide by japan-guide.com
(Includes loads of links at the bottom to individual bus companies.)

Trains
• Japan Train Schedules by Hyperdia
• Night Trains Guide by japan-guide.com(prices are a little out of date)
• Official JR page for Seishun 18 kippu
• Seishun 18 kippu guide by japan-guide.com
• Seishun 18 kippu guide by WikiTravel
• Seishun 18 kippu guide by japan visitor

Package Tours
• Japan-Korea Ticket details translated into English
• Brief official introduction to Japan-Korea Ticket
• JR Tours Tokyo Branch Information (Japanese)
• JR Tours Tokyo Branch map and hours translated into English.
• Boat & Hotel tour packages recommended by JR Beetle(Japanese)
• Ubiquitous travel agency HIS’s cheapest boat and hotel plan, Hakata-Pusan (Japanese)
• tour.ne.jp (Japanese)
(Loads of listings here for boat and hotel packages, including really cheap ones. You will have to navigate it in Japanese though. Copying and pasting 韓国　フェリー (Korea Boat) into the search on the middle of the front page will return most of what you are looking for, good luck with the rest!)

Boats
• Domestic Ferry guide from Japan-Guide.com
(Prices have risen quite sharply on some boats since this was written.)
• The Ocean Tokyu Ferry company Tokyo-KyushuJapanese

Korean Rail
• Korail website