3 ms·

“How far can I go on just local trains” is a fun game to play here in Japan. I’m not sure my body could handle the bus version here, unless the roads of England

“How far can I go on just local trains” is a fun game to play here in Japan. I’m not sure my body could handle the bus version here, unless the roads of England are very straight and smooth!

lucb1e 5y ago
> I’m not sure my body could handle the bus version here Why is that, hairpins up mountains or abrupt driving or so? I hate buses for long distance (1h+) as well for what it's worth, would much rather catch a train even though the Netherlands has some very straight and smooth asphalt, but technically my body could handle it!
adav 5y ago
Maybe English motorways, but not many buses on there!
q-rews 5y ago
One of my most exciting bus journey was on a very straight and smooth road which the driver did probably above 80/100 Km/h regardless of the speed bumps we encountered along the way. My ass got some air that day (in the skateboard sense). - Bangladesh
asutekku 5y ago
From my experience with the Shishun 18 Ticket one could easily get from Fukuoka to Tokyo and even further in around 12 hours or so. It's awful after couple of hours when you hit those smaller trains with benches that have not been replaced in decades but definitely doable haha
Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
> unless the roads of England are very straight and smooth Hahahahaha nope. (English country lanes are great for cycling. They are not ideal for buses. I write as someone who has spent too much time on the very winding S3 Charlbury-Woodstock service in Oxfordshire.)
- dboreham 5y ago
  Except Raman roads.
hoipaloi 5y ago
I did this by accident from Tokyo to Kyoto. My idea was that I didn't want to take a bullet train to Kyoto and what I wanted was a slower train with a restaurant and a bar car. So without speaking Japanese I tried to buy that ticket, and the train office were slightly surprised then they did the ticket processing to make it happen. Turns out what I got was a local train all the way to kyoto. It fucking sucked. It was like riding a subway train for 11 hours. There was no restroom ,it was cold, the seats were uncomfortable and there was no food. When I think back on it, I don't know why I just did't quit. For food at a station I ran to get a bento within five minutes. At another station I raced to use the toilet. My eventual destination was Suntory distillery in Yamazaki and I got to drink 25 year old whisky so eventually it got better, but if you made it this far, yeah I had a good idea, that turned out to be stupid and I stuck with it because I don't know why.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  This is hilarious - a write up with photos would beat the London Bus journey. Well done and commiserations. Travel in foreign lands seems to regularly break down at ticket offices.
- paganel 5y ago
  Just wanted to say that trains without restrooms are the work of the devil. Actually access to restrooms is one of the major things which makes me prefer trains over buses, that and being able to read on a train because on a bus I get car-sickness pretty quickly if I try do to that.
ivan_gammel 5y ago
It was pretty easy to travel from Moscow to St.Petersburg only using local trains („elektrichka“), but I also heard stories about traveling entire Transsiberian route this way in 1990s. As of 2017 this seemed already impossible, but still quite close with only few gaps, as can be seen in this story where it took author only 24 days and just 400€: https://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic2130672.html https://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic2130672.html

“How far can I go on just local trains” is a fun game to play here in Japan. I’m not sure my body could handle the bus version here, unless the roads of England are very straight and smooth!

lucb1e 5y ago

> I’m not sure my body could handle the bus version here Why is that, hairpins up mountains or abrupt driving or so? I hate buses for long distance (1h+) as well for what it's worth, would much rather catch a train even though the Netherlands has some very straight and smooth asphalt, but technically my body could handle it!

adav 5y ago

Maybe English motorways, but not many buses on there!

q-rews 5y ago

One of my most exciting bus journey was on a very straight and smooth road which the driver did probably above 80/100 Km/h regardless of the speed bumps we encountered along the way. My ass got some air that day (in the skateboard sense). - Bangladesh

asutekku 5y ago

From my experience with the Shishun 18 Ticket one could easily get from Fukuoka to Tokyo and even further in around 12 hours or so. It's awful after couple of hours when you hit those smaller trains with benches that have not been replaced in decades but definitely doable haha

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago

> unless the roads of England are very straight and smooth Hahahahaha nope. (English country lanes are great for cycling. They are not ideal for buses. I write as someone who has spent too much time on the very winding S3 Charlbury-Woodstock service in Oxfordshire.)

dboreham 5y ago
Except Raman roads.

hoipaloi 5y ago

I did this by accident from Tokyo to Kyoto. My idea was that I didn't want to take a bullet train to Kyoto and what I wanted was a slower train with a restaurant and a bar car. So without speaking Japanese I tried to buy that ticket, and the train office were slightly surprised then they did the ticket processing to make it happen. Turns out what I got was a local train all the way to kyoto. It fucking sucked. It was like riding a subway train for 11 hours. There was no restroom ,it was cold, the seats were uncomfortable and there was no food. When I think back on it, I don't know why I just did't quit. For food at a station I ran to get a bento within five minutes. At another station I raced to use the toilet. My eventual destination was Suntory distillery in Yamazaki and I got to drink 25 year old whisky so eventually it got better, but if you made it this far, yeah I had a good idea, that turned out to be stupid and I stuck with it because I don't know why.

lostlogin 5y ago
This is hilarious - a write up with photos would beat the London Bus journey. Well done and commiserations. Travel in foreign lands seems to regularly break down at ticket offices.
paganel 5y ago
Just wanted to say that trains without restrooms are the work of the devil. Actually access to restrooms is one of the major things which makes me prefer trains over buses, that and being able to read on a train because on a bus I get car-sickness pretty quickly if I try do to that.

ivan_gammel 5y ago

It was pretty easy to travel from Moscow to St.Petersburg only using local trains („elektrichka“), but I also heard stories about traveling entire Transsiberian route this way in 1990s. As of 2017 this seemed already impossible, but still quite close with only few gaps, as can be seen in this story where it took author only 24 days and just 400€: https://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic2130672.html https://www.yaplakal.com/forum2/topic2130672.html