Guide to Seishun 18 Kippu (3/4): Cross Japan Travel Guide
This part three of a four part series on the Japanese train pass, Seishun 18 Kippu (青春18きっぷ).
- Part one introduces what the Seishun 18 Kippu is and how to use it.
- Part two features some of my thoughts and musings on why people use it.
- Part three shows you how to travel across Japan with the Seishun 18 Kippu.
- Part four shows you how to use the Seishun 18 Kippu to go on day trips from a base city.
Seishun 18 Kippu Cross Japan Travel Guide
Itinerary at a Glance
Planning Resources
My First Solo Seishun 18 Kippu Adventure
Sample Itinerary (Fukuoka – Hamamatsu)
Final Itinerary Stats
Itinerary at a Glance
For Travelers Interested In: DIY travel planning, off-the-beaten-path adventures, budget travel, curiosity
Travel Pace: you decide – between ultra-leisurely to fast-paced
Recommended Travel Time: two weeks – one month
Recommended Pre-planning: flexible – moderate planning required
This is a straight forward way to use the Seishun 18 Kippu.
Start your journey at one end of the country and make your way as far as you’d like to go in the opposite direction by local train.
Tokyo to Sendai, Osaka to Hiroshima, or if you’ve got the local train guts, do a true cross country adventure from the southern most tip of Kyushu up to the northern most point of Hokkaido.
Wherever you decide to go, I recommend planning your trip across Japan in advance.
Book accommodation in advance as places tend to get booked up quickly in Japan, especially during peak seasons. Good luck trying to get a last minute hotel that won’t gouge your wallet during cherry blossom season in Kyoto!
If you are travelling outside of popular tourist destinations and want to live your best vagabond life; you could be more loosey-goosey with your planning.
But, I still recommend looking up train schedules and planning the actual transportation itself. The further into the countryside you deviate off towards, the less frequent trains are. Some trains only come once every two hours.
In this post, I’ll share travel tips and highlight my 2016 trip from Fukuoka to Hamamatsu as an example of using the Seishun 18 Kippu to go across Japan.
Planning Resources
Japan Guide Japan Guide is a comprehensive one-stop resource for all things Japan.
Japan WikiTravel WikiTravel is a good peer aggregated resource that has “street-level” tips, but it isn’t updated frequently so take some of the information with a grain of salt.
Booking There are a tonne of websites that aggregate hotels, and you probably already have one that you like using the best. I like using Booking because they often have penalty-free cancellation policies (read the fine print for each hotel) which is useful for planning in advance and being flexible.
HyperDiaHyperDia is the best resource to use when planning long distance train travel. To plan train travel using Seishun 18 Kippu, make sure to select these specific options from the drop down menu in the “Vehicle Type” section:
My First Solo Seishun 18 Kippu Adventure
I have very fond memories of my first solo Seishun 18 journey.
I traveled, solo, halfway across Japan from Fukuoka in Japan’s southern most island, Kyushu, to Hamamatsu, my former home base, in central Japan, in a span of around two weeks.
I exclusively used Seishun 18 Kippu as I slowly chugged along local trains lines.
I dropped into small cities that are rarely on any typical tourist radar, saw some of the most famous sites in Japan, and met lots of lovely travelers of whom I’m still in contact with today.
The way I planned the trip was haphazard and was mainly me trying to stay true to the tenants of local train masochism. I want to say that it was mainly curiosity that drove me to choose the places I visited and the towns I stayed in, but frugality was a main factor. Frugality, like a younger sibling following along the heels of an older sib, dictated much of the course of my journey.
During the planning stages, I’d open up Google Maps and plot out which cities struck the best balance between time and money. The longest train ride I could endure while saving the most amount of money.
After placing an arbitrary pin on Google Map and consulting train fare HyperDia, that’s when I would start researching what to actually “do” in the town.
This method of planning is a form of controlled spontaneity. It resonates with my sense of calculated risk taking, an approach that I take daily. I want adventure, but on my own terms. I want the flexibility to see and do whatever I want, but, at the end of the day, I need a guaranteed roof over my head.
In the sample itinerary, you’ll see that I stopped off in five towns before making my way back to my home in Hamamatsu. I stayed in each town for about 3 – 4 days while doing local sightseeing and going a bit farther off for day trips. This is the way that I like to travel, but you could use the Seishun 18 Kippu to go across Japan in any fashion that suits you.
Sample Itinerary (Fukuoka – Hamamatsu)
Route 1: Fukuoka – Hagi (福岡市 – 萩市)
Duration: 274 minutes (about 4.5 hours)
Local JR Train Ticket Fare: 3500 yen
Amount Saved Using Seishun 18 Kippu: 1130 yen
Recommended Activities:
- explore the preserved castle areas
- walk along the coast line
- make a day trip to Akiyoshidai plateau and Akiyoshido caves, Japan’s largest limestone cave
Route 2: Hagi – Hiroshima (萩市 – 広島市)
Duration: 396 minutes (about 6.5 hours)
Local JR Train Ticket Fare: 4430 yen
Amount Saved Using Seishun 18 Kippu: 2060 yen
Recommended Activities:
- visit the Peace Park which is the site of the Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Museum
- eat okonomiyaki at Okonomiyaki Mura
- take a day trip to Miyajima to see one of Japan’s three most scenic views
Route 3: Hiroshima – Takamatsu (広島市 – 高松市)
Duration: 326 minutes (about 5.5 hours)
Local JR Train Ticket Fare: 4190 yen
Amount Saved Using Seishun 18 Kippu: 1820 yen
Recommended Activities:
- eat sanuki udon, a regional variety of udon that features thicker noodles
- take a day trip to Naoshima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea that is filled with art galleries ranging from Bennesse-sponsored fine art galleries to local Japanese contemporary art
- take a day trip to Teshima, another island in the Seto Inland Sea that is filled with contemporary art exhibits in an undeveloped natural environment
Route 4: Takamatsu – Osaka (高松市 – 大阪市)
Duration: 279 minutes (about 4.5 hours)
Local JR Train Ticket Fare: 4620 yen
Amount Saved Using Seishun 18 Kippu: 2250 yen
Recommended Activites:
- hang out around Dotonbori and soak up the busy atmosphere
- eat delicious Kansai food like kushikatsu and takoyaki
- take day trips out to nearby spots like Himeji Castle or Nara
Route 5: Osaka – Hamamatsu (大阪市 – 浜松市)
Duration: 254 minutes (about 4 hours)
Local JR Train Ticket Fare: 5080 yen
Amount Saved Using Seishun 18 Kippu: 2710 yen
Recommended Activities:
- en route to Hamamatsu from Osaka, drop into Nagoya for a quick day trip
- Hamamatsu has a large population of Brazilians, so try some Brazilian food while you’re in Hamamatsu
- check out the InHamamatsu for lot’s more on sightseeing in Hamamatsu
Final Itinerary Stats
Total Time Spent on Trains: 1529 min (about 25 hours)
Total Amount of Local JR Train Ticket Fare: 19,450 yen
Cost of Seishun 18 Kippu: 11,850 yen
Total Amount Saved Using Seishun 18 Kippu: 7600 yen (19,540 – 11,850)
After looking at the final statistics for traveling across Japan using the Seishun 18 Kippu, you might think think I’m crazy.
A total time of around 25 hours spent on trains only to save 7600 yen?!
However, to me, using the Seishun 18 Kippu is still one of my favorite ways to travel Japan.
The allure of the Seishun 18 Kippu lies in it’s potential to alter perspectives on how we travel.
You might begin to see your money in a different way.
To me, it is worth it to ride trains for a sum of 25 hours to save 7600 yen. I view the savings of 7600 yen as saving accommodation fees for two days.
You might start to notice the delicate balance between slowness and speed in the way we live our daily lives.
As travelers, we are often trying to solely get to our destination, but the Seishun 18 Kippu allows you to momentarily sink into the ebb and flow of daily life. By taking the same local commuter trains, walking from platform to platform to chance trains, you are shown the same sights at the same speeds of people simply living.
After I come home from a trip using Seishun 18 Kippu, truthfully, I’m usually tired as hell, but I also begin to think – maybe it’s better to take things slowly.
You don’t need to use Seishun 18 Kippu to get to these places. If you’re lucky enough to have a JR Rail Pass, you could easily adapt the itinerary to using the Shinkansen. Feel free to use and adapt this itinerary to your own travels.
However, if you’re a local train masochist, like me, consider using the Seishun 18 Kippu!
Drop me a line if you do end up using it or if you have any questions, I’m always happy to chat!
