Nagoya Travel Forum

Hi!

I'll be making a 3-week trip to Japan this June. While I'll be taking the JR Rail Pass for one week in order to tour the easters parts of the country, I'm still interested in travelling with the highway buses some trips (mainly because it's cheaper).

I have found information from http://www.japan-guide.com/ about the highway buses, but I'd like to ask some more:

- how difficult it is to reserve the tickets (I don't speak Japan)?
- is there a website where I could find the timetables and prices?
- do the buses leave typically from train stations or are there separate bus stations?

These are the trips I'm interested about:
Nagoya - Kyoto
Kyoto - Tokyo
Tokyo - Nagoya

Thank you all for your replies!

I've taken the highway bus a few times, mainly from Osaka and Kobe to Tokyo. It is cheaper than the train, that's for sure. I've only taken the night bus, about 9 hrs or so. It's comfortable enough and the seats go down further than normal so it's easier to sleep.

I don't know the timetables but since you are leaving from major cities it should be easy to find out where the bus station is. In Osaka the bus ticket office was at JR Umeda Station. JR Kyoto Station has a bus station office and there are people there who speak English. You could probably inquire there.
In Tokyo, the buses are at Shinjuku Station.

It's ok if you don't speak Japanese. It won't be hard to find your way around. And the Japanese are very helpful even if they don't know much English.

Here is a better site for you to answer your bus questions. There are links to the timetables by bus company and it is in English.

http://www.bus.or.jp/e/index.html

Hello.
If you will buy a Japan Rail Pass, you can take both JR trains & JR highway buses.
For your info; www.japanrailpass.net/
Have a nice trip.