#023 One day railway trip with minimum charge
Making a one-stroke sketch of a map is an ultimate way to travel with only 140 Yen
The Japanese government announced on the 24th of August that it will ease the restriction of entry to the country. Negative certificates within 72 hours are no longer mandatory. This is the good news for long waited tourists from overseas and it may be a positive trigger to decide to visit Japan. At this moment I really don’t know if this is going to be a breakthrough for the recovery of Japanese tourism. We will get to know if there is any change of the trend either in October or November. Maybe I will talk about it some other time.
When the normality comes back to Japanese tourism, there will be lots of discussion such as where to visit, where to stay and the best way to save travel expenses. I believe most of travellers will purchase “Japan Travel Pass” to make use of all you can ride type of tickets. This time I will look at the travel expenses from a completely different angle and this may not suit ordinary travellers, but it should be interesting if you are a railway enthusiast.
I will list the element of your interests to make things easier. If all of elements apply to you, you will be able to utilize this rule. If you are….
A railway enthusiast who is happy being in trains all the time
A traveler who has plenty of times to look around
A traveler whose priority is saving money
A traveler who wants to visit many places in one day
So how does your interests are matched up with these conditions? This time I will introduce the exceptional rule of JR East. When travelling from point A to B in the area of Metropolitan Suburban Section(Tokyo, Niigata, Sendai, Osaka and Fukuoka) the fare is calculated using the shortest route, no matter how long the route is used…this is the exceptional rule. But there are more detailed conditions to make use of it.
You can’t go out of Metropolitan Suburban Section
Routes that pass through the same station twice are not allowed
Stopovers are completely unacceptable
Valid for one day only
Practically using this rule in Tokyo Metropolitan Suburban Section is more effective since the area is large and it is easy to make a one-stroke sketch of a map. You can make your plan like playing puzzles.
So, image by using this rule is very much like drawing one-stroke sketch on Metropolitan Suburban Section map. But the biggest difference is you can’t go out of the station for lunch or shopping for local souvenirs. So once you decide your “train expedition”, you are expected to have a very good preparation.
Make a very early start if you want to go remote places
Bring all of your food and drinks. Be aware that you cannot go outside the station. You can buy some simple things at KIOSK, but you may not have time for changing trains
Keep records of your journey. You will be asked by station attendants when you go out of the ticket gate
Most importantly, don’t lose your ticket no matter what may happen. You need to show it as the proof of embarkment station
So where do you want to go for a long day sightseeing train tour? This may be a suitable discussion topic for railway enthusiasts. And in recent days it doesn’t take a lot of time to make out the route and the connection thanks to lots of smartphone applications. Please leave a feedback if you have a special preference. It is a paradise which cost nearly nothing if you love trains.
As I posted JR East operation map above, it is really difficult to show the border of each line that you can go. But the farther you go out to the edge the less chance that you can make a one-stroke sketch.
Today I have to apologize to you all with an important notice. I have promised myself that I will continue to write until my 100th newsletter. But I have to take a short break from the newsletter for two weeks next for my personal commitment. Please don't be disappointed and wait for the next newsletter. I will try to bring you more interesting stories which may worth reading, especially when you are planning to visit Japan.
This is very interesting. As someone who loves travelling by train, I'd like to try something like that one of these days. Maybe you could suggest a route?