Dinkwads Abroad

Have you ever found the perfect spot you’d like to travel to, looked at the Google Maps directions, saw 6 different transfers between a combination trains, buses, rickshaws, and maybe horseback or other questionable methods, and thought, “Naw, that’s not worth the trouble!”? That’s almost how this trip was at certain points as I was planning it. While Japan’s train system between its major cities, especially the shinkansen, is renowned for its engineering, reliability, and easy navigation, things get a little more complex when you go off the beaten path.

Not to fear though! I’m here to provide specifics on how we got from place to place so you don’t have to spend hours trying to figure it out like I did, as well as share some general tips you might find helpful for transportation in Japan and South Korea!

General Tips

Shinkansen Tickets
Let’s start with the biggie: shinkansen tickets. Let me start off by saying that we booked our Shinkansen tickets ahead of time. While I read that you can easily just book your tickets day of, I’ve relied on that in the past in Japan and ended up with standing room only on a 3 hour train ride. So I didn’t want to risk it again and just decided to book our tickets ahead of time. And this is my general practice everywhere I go. I’ve had experiences in the past where we didn’t prebook and almost didn’t make it to our next destination, so my MO is just book it and make sure I have my way out! If plans have to change, I’m either out a minimal change fee or AT WORST a fairly inexpensive ticket. Thankfully, shinkansen tickets are pretty flexible and allow for changes or even use on the same route same day (forfeiting your seat) should you miss your initial train. So worst case scenario, you just might have to stand for a bit!

If you want to book ahead, you can book either directly with JR, which is what I did for the majority of our tickets, or via Klook. Klook is convenient because all your tickets will be stored in the app, which is much more user friendly than JR’s website, so they’re easy to access. But I found they were slightly more expensive than buying directly through JR. So if you’re looking for the cheapest prices, maybe go with JR. But if you’re looking for a much better user experience, go with Klook.

Japan Rail Pass

JR also offers a rail pass that you can get as a 7 day pass for $330 or a 14 day pass for $528. I’ve used this in previous trips to Japan, and while it’s nice to just be able to get on the train without a ticket, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. It does not reserve you a seat. If you would like a reserved seat or the train requires it, you will need to book that separately.
2. Not all trains accept the JR Pass. If you get on a train and it’s not accepted, you could be fined, or will at least have to pay the fare when you get off the train, which could be a hefty unexpected expense.

So if you’re curious if the Japan Rail Pass might be worth the investment for you, I’d suggest pricing out your route if you bought the tickets outright versus the JR Pass. In my experience, it was far cheaper to buy my tickets outright. I just calculated mine by looking up the costs on JR’s site and manually calculating it, but I did find this calculator that can do it for you!

Payment
Many forms of transportation can be paid with an IC card, which is kind of like a prepaid debit card, primarily used for transportation. See my general tips post about buying the Welcome Suica card when you get to Japan or the similar WOWPASS for South Korea. It’s helpful to have because you can just tap to pay with it, even when venturing outside the main areas! Not everything takes it, so I’ll try to indicate which routes did take it versus did not. But most forms of transportation within major hubs will accept this card, and it seems more and more routes are accepting it every day!

You can also load your JR tickets on your Welcome Suica card if you get one! It’s fairly easy and it makes getting your tickets in the station so much easier, if that’s an option! You’ll just log into your JR account (where you bought your tickets), and follow the steps to attach your Welcome Suica card number to your ticket (if that option is available). Once at the station, you swipe it at the ticketing gates, and it will give you a paper ticket to present on the train. Super easy!

Planning
Also, wondering how I put this all together? I just referred to either Google Maps or Rome to Rio to pick the route that best fit our necessary departure and/or arrival time with the quickest route and fewest transfers! And then this is how I mapped it all out in my itinerary so I knew how it worked into our schedule (more on my spreadsheet building in a later post – get ready to nerd out with me, because I LOVE a good spreadsheet!)

Getting To Tokyo

Most people flying into Japan are going to fly into Tokyo, either Narita or Hanada airport. In Narita, there are two options for trains: Keisei Line and JR Line. Which one you take depends on where you want to go.

Keisei Line -> Nippori or Ueno
JR Line -> Tokyo Station, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro

Once you determine which is the better train for where you’re going, just follow the signs! Don’t worry, they’re clearly marked in English and easy to navigate.

I can’t speak for the JR Line, but for the Keisei line, you’ll see the booth where you can buy a ticket for the next available train. Tickets are timed, so you have to make sure you get on the correctly timed train. If you try to get on the wrong one, like us, they’ll stop you when they check your ticket! They also require you to stand in a specific area based on your assigned car and go through specific doors. So, like a lot of things in Japan, it was organized chaos! But once in, it was smooth sailing to Ueno!

Tokyo to Shibu Onsen

This is where things started to get a little tricker. It wasn’t as simple as just hopping on the Shinkansen and sitting back and taking a nap on the way to Kyoto. However, don’t let that scare you away! If a warm, inviting, Miyazaki style onsen town is on your bucket list, this one is fairly easy to get to!

Ueno Station -> Nagano via the Hokuriku Shinkansen towards Kanzawa. As a Shinkansen, we booked this ticket ahead of time.
Journey Time: About 1.5 hours
How to pay: IC Card, credit, cash, or book ahead online

Nagano -> Yudanaka Station via the Nagano Denetsu Express Line. I could not find a way to buy this one ahead of time. It seems you can only buy the ticket via some ticket machines at the station when you get there, so make sure you plan some time to allow for that. It took the IC card, so we were able to pay with that, but it could also take cash. It may also take credit card, but plan to have the others ready just in case. I believe we had a total of 20 minutes, and that was just enough time to get our tickets and get on the train. If you know you’re doing a round trip, you can buy a round trip ticket, but double check the timing.
Journey Time: About 45 minutes
How to pay: Purchase at the station using either IC Card or cash (possibly credit card)

Yudanaka Station -> Jigokudani Monkey Park We took the bus up to Jigokudani Monkey Park. Yudanaka Station is pretty small, and there are signs pointing you to a small window outside where you can purchase your ticket for the bus up to Snow Monkey Park. There’s really no way to miss it, and there was only one spot for buses to park, so it was pretty easy to assume that was the bus to take! Most of the signs were only in Japanese, but despite English not being as prevalent, we were able to ask “For snow monkey park?” and get points and nods that got us in the right direction.

If you’re strictly going straight into Shibu Onsen, you can either walk from Yudanaka Station (about 20 minutes) or take the same bus, just get off earlier.
Journey Time: About 10 minutes
How to pay: Cash at the station

Jigokudani Monkey Park -> Shibu Onsen We stored our luggage and walked up to Monkey Park, but when we made it back down, we had the option of waiting for a bus or walking back down. The bus only came every 1-2 hours or so, and so at the point we were there, it didn’t seem like it was worth waiting. It was only about a 20 minute walk (all downhill) to get to the middle of town, so we opted to just walk instead of wait for the bus.
Journey Time: I think about 10 minutes
How to pay: Unsure since we didn’t take this bus, but I would guess cash and IC card

Shibu Onsen to Shima Onsen

Now I’m used to traveling on public transportation. But looking at this path, I started to think, “Is it worth seeing how much it is to hire a car transfer?!” But at about $600, it was NOT worth it. So despite my feelings of doubt, I stuck with my plan. And given how AMAZING Sekizenkan in Shima Onsen was (seriously, check out my where we stayed blog), it was absolutely worth it!

Kanaguya -> Yudankana Station Our ryokan gave us a ride directly to the station, and I think many ryokans there do. You can also walk to the station or there are some buses that will take you there as well.
Journey Time: About 10 minutes

Yudanaka Station -> Nagano Station via the Nagano-Denetsu Express Line. Similar to the first time, you have to buy this ticket at the station unless you came through previously and bought a round trip ticket. But if you don’t have a round trip ticket, you have to plan to buy it with a cash or your IC card.
Journey Time: 45 minutes
How to pay: IC Card or Cash at the station, maybe credit card

Nagano -> Takasaki via the Hokoriuku Shinkansen towards Tokyo. Again, as a shinkansen ticket, we booked this ahead of time, but I’m sure you could buy at the station.
Journey Time: 40 minutes
How to Pay: IC Card, credit, cash, or book ahead

Takasaki -> Nakanojo Station via the Limited Express for Takasaki. We booked our tickets ahead of time same as the shinkansen tickets. I know you can pay in the station with cash, but I’m not sure if you can pay with IC card or credit card.
Journey Time: 40 minutes
How to pay: Book ahead or cash, maybe IC or credit card

Nakanojo Station -> Shima Onsen via the Shima Onsen Line. This one you can pay for either with your IC card or cash. This bus will wait for the train to come in, because it seems most people coming into Nakanojo Station are headed towards Shima Onsen. It’s also a fairly small station, and so similar to others, it was clear which bus was ours. It was also easy to just follow the crowd, because that bus was PACKED! We were crammed, standing shoulder to shoulder for 30 minutes. So be prepared to be slightly uncomfortable, even when it’s not peak season!
Journey Time: 30 minutes
How to pay: IC card or cash for 1049 yen

Shima Onsen to Nagoya

We actually went to Okazaki from here, but that route took us through Nagoya. And as no one really needs to go to Okazaki, I’ll just include the route to where people would actually WANT to go.

Shima Onsen -> Nakanojo Station via the Shima Onsen Line. This is the same bus you came in on, dropped off at the station right at the edge of the town. It’s really more of a bus stop than a station, and I don’t think there are a ton of different buses passing through here in a day. Just check your time to see what time the bus is expected there and if there’s one sitting there around that time, it’s probably the bus you’re looking for!
Journey Time: 45 minutes
How to pay: IC card or cash for 1049 yen

Nakanojo Station -> Takasaki via the Agatsuma Line. Now this is where things got a little tricky. We were confused as to how to purchase our tickets to get through the gate, so we asked someone at the window to help. He indicated to just scan our Welcome Suica cards at the gate when our train arrived. Well, we tried that and it didn’t seem to work. We kept getting an error message. But when we tried to find help, the attendant was nowhere to be found, and our train was there! So we just hopped on, knowing it would sort itself out at the next stop. And it did! When we tried to scan our Welcome Suica cards to exit the gates at the next station, it directed us to the attendant stand, and they were able to subtract the fare from our cards as if we had just paid at the previous station. So while it didn’t work as planned, it still worked just fine!
Journey Time: 45 minutes
How to pay: IC card or cash

Takasaki -> Tokyo Station via the Joetsu Shinkansen. This was another simple one where we had our ticket booked ahead of time. Pro tip: Takasaki looks like a pretty cool place, and the home of the Daruma doll! We kind of wished we had time to explore the city itself – next time!
Journey Time: 50 minutes
How to pay: IC Card, credit, cash, or book ahead

Tokyo Station -> Nagoya via the Tokaido Shinkansen. Yet again one that we booked ahead of time.
Journey Time: 1.5 hours
How to pay: IC Card, credit, cash, or book ahead

Nagoya to Kyoto

While we had a personal car service (AKA, my sister-in-law) for this route, this is the route we would have taken, had we needed to! This is specifically to get into Gion District, which is close to where everyone would likely want to stay when visiting Kyoto. Once in Kyoto, you can use your IC card to pay for all local transportation!

Nagoya Station -> Kyoto Station via the Tokaido Shinkansen. I would have booked this one ahead of time if I needed to.
Journey Time: 30 minutes
How to pay: IC Card, credit, cash, or book ahead

Kyoto Station -> Shijo Kawaramachi via the 7 City Bus. Without having experience, I don’t know for sure, but I would guess you could pay via IC card or cash.
Journey Time: 13 minutes
How to pay: Probably IC card or cash

Kyoto to Osaka

This is a pretty standard route that almost everyone will take their first time to Japan as they complete the Tokyo -> Kyoto -> Osaka triangle. Depending on what part of Kyoto you’re coming from, this can of course vary. However, if you’re coming from the Gion district, we found it was easiest to just walk to Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station, and go straight from there. It was only about a 10 minute walk from our AirBNB, which was right at the edge of Gion.

Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station -> Osaka-Umeda Station via the Hankyu-Kyoto Line. We bought these tickets right at the station using our IC card, though I’m pretty sure you could also pay in cash or credit card there. From there, it was a straight shot right into Osaka, where you can then connect to a local train to get to wherever is most convenient based on where you’re staying!
Journey Time: 40 minutes
How to Pay: IC card, probably credit card or cash

Osaka to Kansai Airport

Osaka was where we took off for Seoul, so our trip was just to the airport the morning we left. Any buses or trains we did in Osaka itself we paid with IC card. How you get to the airport varies greatly depending on where you stay, but if you’re near the Dotonbori area, the route we took would probably be similar!

Nagahoribashi Station -> Tengachaya Station via the Sakaisuji Line.
Journey Time: 10 minutes
How to Pay: IC card or cash, maybe credit card

Tengachaya Station -> Kansai Airport via the Nankai Line
Journey Time: 30 minutes
How to Pay: IC card or cash, maybe credit card

Incheon International Airport to Seoul

Our first stop in the airport was to get our WOWPASS, which similar to the IC card in Japan, acts as a prepaid debit card. And this was the only thing we used for payment within Seoul, aside from our bus ride back to the airport.

You could take a combination of buses or trains to get from Incheon into Seoul proper, so it does depend on where you’re staying. However, the easiest way is to get to Seoul Station and branch out from there.

Icheon International Airport -> Seoul Station via the AREX. You can buy your tickets at the station, I believe either with cash or the WOWPASS or credit card.
Journey Time: 45 minutes
How to pay: WOWPASS, cash, or credit card

Seoul Station -> Changdeokgung Palace via the 162 bus. From there, if you’re staying in Bukchon, you would have to walk a decent distance, depending on where you are staying. If you’re staying in a different area of Seoul, you may need to take a different bus or train.
Journey Time: 10 minutes
How to pay: WOWPASS or cash

Seoul to Incheon International Airport

We took the 6011 bus, or the airport limousine bus, that picked up from Anguk Station and took us directly to the airport.

Anguk Bus Stop -> Incheon International Airport via the 6011 or airport limousine bus. We just paid with our WOWPASS, which was very easy, but I believe you could pay online ahead of time either on Klook or other similar travel apps.
Journey Time: 1 hour and 20 minutes
How to pay: WOWPASS, cash, or book in advance online

Conclusion

And that’s it! If I were to summarize this into a few quick points, it would be these:

1. Get an IC Card, whether it’s the Welcome Suica, WOWPASS, or something else! And keep them topped off so they’re ready to pay any fare you come across! They’re so convenient and easy to use – just make sure you tap them as you get on AND off the bus or enter AND exit train stations!
2. Research, research, research! Use Google Maps, Rome to Rio, blogs like this, and whatever other resources you can find to plan your route ahead of time and make a plan for how you’re going to get your tickets!
3. Use Google Translate when you’re stuck! Don’t be afraid to ask for help using your phone as a translator. It’s better to ask for help than get stranded.
4. If you know what your route is going to be and roughly what time you’re going to leave, save yourself the headache of figuring it out the day of and just book tickets in advance where you can. Don’t get stuck standing on a train for 3 hours when you could have just reserved your seat ahead of time!

But at the end of the day, don’t fret over a missed train or a travel mishap! I’ve been there, and it’s lead to some of my favorite travel stories! So go with the flow, and if you hit a bump in the road (literally or figuratively), it just means there’s a different adventure than planned waiting!