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How to travel in Japan without a car or license?

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Kokujou

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Hey guys, i'm thinking about traveling to japan, there are tons of places i want to see (and no, tokio is not part of them ).
Most of them are quite rural areas. i'm using google maps to plan a bit and see if a destination is reasonable and i found out...
japans public transport is apparently quite horrible?
it happened more than once that a place that is reachable by car in 1 hour, takes literally 5 hours with public transport. e.g. i want to visit the Sawajiri Rice Teraces starting at shiroishi. not possible. but there are countless roads leading there. i mean ok, you can't put rails everywhere, but what about buses? now that's only one example.
so that leads me to the following questions:

1. am i even using the right route planning tool (Google Maps)?
2. are there besides public transport like buses or trains other possibilities without having a license
3. are there "hidden" public transport routes that the internet simply doesn't know?

i really hope the answer is not "if you don't intend to walk 5 hours by foot, forget it"
 
There is a method using a taxi from Shiroishi Station.
However, the taxi fare is large.
About 5,350 yen.

白石駅前（宮城県）から沢尻（宮城県）までのタクシー料金 - NAVITIME

白石駅前（宮城県）から沢尻（宮城県）までのタクシー料金です。タクシーの予想経路を地図/テキストでご案内。料金は総額・高速料金・割り勘した際のひとりあたりの金額が確認できます。深夜料金(2割増)にも対応。出発地周辺のタクシー会社の連絡先検索も可能。
www.navitime.co.jp

Others,There is a method using a rental bicycle.
A rate of the rental bicycle of the day is 800 yen

レンタサイクルのご案内 | しろいし旅カタログ

白石市内の観光にはレンタサイクルが便利！令和５年８月には電動アシスト付き自転車も導入しました。ぜひ、ご利用くだ
shiroishi.ne.jp
 
Google Maps shows all the public transport available. Many "Instagram destinations" are simply off the beaten track. In that case, you must rent a car or a bicycle or walk. Or, as suggested by Nagashima-san, hire a cab.
 
According to Google you can get from Shiroishi to Sawajiri Terraces in one hour and 11 minutes using two trains and a taxi. If you're seeing 5 hours perhaps you're querying Google in the middle of the night (Japan time) when the trains aren't running. If so you may need to set the departure time in Google to daytime hours.
 
in this specific example i'M seeing no public transport at all because the sawajiri Terraces are not connected to any rails and apparently there's not even a bus-stop close.



a bycicle maybe. i also thought about cabs, but this only works for small distances so for shiroishi to thouse rice terraces this would be fine but have a look at this (and yes, i checked multiple times)


so by car it's one hour from zao fox village to zao onsen, with a train it's more than 4 hours, no bus, no anything that goes between those two points, even though those locations are in the same city! i was completely desillusioned, i think i underestimated travelling in japan quite a lot. my impression was always their public transport is on world-class but that's probably only inside and between bigger cities.

now renting a cab for one hour would amount to more than 150€ which is quite massive for such a relatively short road, so i'm really wondering if that's the most common-sense way. and if i accumulate such costs it would make the prices for traveling explode. and 1 hours with a car is a road that's not really coverable by bike. so i needed to erase that location for now, which is such a shame because an onsen town sounds so incredibly nice.
 
The route includes taxi but like I said, you can take two trains plus taxi to get there according to this. But I tried this same route in a browser and it's not working for me so I don't know. Something odd with Google here.



To get back to your questions:
1. am i even using the right route planning tool (Google Maps)?

2. are there besides public transport like buses or trains other possibilities without having a license
> other options are taxis, private hire cars/guides and tour buses.
Click to expand...

3. are there "hidden" public transport routes that the internet simply doesn't know?
> It's certainly possible that some local routes aren't covered by Google.
Click to expand...

I think you need to use common sense when planning your routes. You're from Germany, right? I'm sure it's true there as well that you're not going to find very good transportation options across a mountain range on a low-demand route.

There are many onsen towns. Zao Onsen is most famous for it's winter landscapes. Not worth a special trip in summer.
 
Last edited:
Also, I can't get google to map it, but there's an interesting route between Zao Onsen and Zao Fox Village.

From Zao Onsen, follow route 53 to where it hits route 12 and turn left (and get ready for lots of hairpin turns!). Follow route 12 up and over the pass, then down the other side to route 457 and turn right, and you'll be on the way to the fox village.

Route 12 there seems to be called the Zao Echo Line, which is closed in the winter (probably why google won't go that way). At the top there (the pass) would be some hiking towards Okama (more interesting?), or the other way to Mt. Zao. Click on pictures in either of those links to get a look.

(This would not be cycle-able without some decent legs and a proper bike with low gears.)
 
mdchachi said:
The route includes taxi but like I said, you can take two trains plus taxi to get there according to this. But I tried this same route in a browser and it's not working for me so I don't know. Something odd with Google here.
Click to expand...
aha so i'm not completely nuts at least. i really need a better browser tool for this... damn. i mean if the route only "includes" taxi, that makes it already better, it's a different if you just drive 10 minutes by cab or 1 hours, that's at least a bit affordable.

private hire cars/guides and tour buses.
Click to expand...
i might sound completely stupid but... what are private hire cars? do you mean like renting a car? or do you mean something like uber? and are tour buses something different than normal buses? can you find them on google maps? if not where could you look them up online?

mdchachi said:
There are many onsen towns. Zao Onsen is most famous for it's winter landscapes. Not worth a special trip in summer.
Click to expand...
i'm planning to go in winter so that's just the reason i wanna go there. actually my goal is to make a round-trip through japan all the way from hokkaido down to Takehara and Okunoshima. i would do more but i probably only have 1 month and it's already harsh to cope with that less stops.

maybe i'll start sticking to rome2rio, don't be fooled by the name, it's world-wide and also considers taxis in its web application. if it gets to it i might also ask the locals if they have some tips but that would only work if you have a decent backup plan. yeah that's going to get interesting,

thanks for that input until now btw! you're awesome, very friendly and knowledgable
 
btw i will probably travel from late february to late march, are there a lot of closed roads and/or public transports not working in that time especially in the north like hokkaido etc...? i want to go there especially because of the beautiful winter sceneries and because i hate summer but if you say it's a major pain to travel thereduring that time i should maybe consider traveling form south to north?
 
I found the route which went to "Tanada of Sawajiri" in public transport.

[Course 1]
It is Tsukinoki Station and gets off JR Shiroishi Station on a train to Sendai.
You transfer to the Abukuma express at Tsukinoki Station and get off at Marumori Station.
There is a bus going to "Sawajiri" in Taiko Line of the Marumori citizen bus.
However, the bus is only the early-morning 1st first flight from Monday to Friday.
It is 23-minute walk at 1.2km from the Sawajiri bus stop to Tanada of Sawajiri.

丸森町民バス | 丸森町

こちらのページは「丸森町」のホームページです。
www.town.marumori.miyagi.jp

Marumori citizen bus route map

Taiko Line Timetable
As the rate of the bus is not clear, it is necessary to confirm it at a taxi company or a government office operating a bus.

I refer to this blog

『白石市キャッスルくん、丸森町民バス』

宮城県南部で市町村が運行しているバスとして白石市、七ヶ宿町、丸森町、亘理町、山元町があります。今回は白石市と丸森町のバスを乗り継ぎます。１、白石市民バスきゃつ…
ameblo.jp


A bus route going near Tanada of Sawajiri by Shiraishi citizen bus from Shiroishi-Zao Station is it in 2 systems.
The fare of the bus is 200 yen with both lines.

[Course 2]
白角線(Shirokaku-sen)
The bus is Yanagisawa public hall getting off of the terminal from Shiroishi-Zao Station.
It is about 38-minute walk from Yanagisawa public hall to Tanada of Sawajiri in 2.6kmw.

[Course 3]
大張線(Obari Line)
The bus takes it at Shiroishi-Zao Station and gets off in Marumori-machi Obari town planning center.
It is about 45-minute walk from the Marumori-machi Obari town planning center to Tanada of Sawajiri in 2.9kmw.

It is an early morning, but, in the course 1, distance to walk is short.
Returning goes to Shiroishi-Zao Station in course 2 or course 3.
Course 2 has shorter moving distance on foot than course 3, but a course is complicated, and it may lose its way.

Even a Japanese has difficult this mission.
 
i will definitely bookmark this! so at least it's physically possible, if we decide to wake up at 6am. i mean it makes kinda sense because people probably go to work around 7, and logically i would assume there would be a bus also in the evening to bring those people back from work.

but btw, even setting this exact time in google didn't help, so it's definitely not known to the internet. and while rome2rio is a cool app where you can plan going by public transports with multiple stop (where google only supports 2 stations for public transport) you can't set a time, so yeah. that's that.

looks like there's coming way more work to me then i anticipated but hey it's japan. worth it
btw currently the big stops on my travel will be: Noboribetsu, Tashirojima, Shiroishi (+Zao), Nikko, Fujikawaguchiko, Shinshiro, Nara and Takehara.

I also wanted to visit west-japan like Shirakawa-go or Narai-Juku or Tsumago-juku but even though they are apparently world heritage class stops, i have similar probelms coming to them, so i'm coping with traveling along the east cost. basically the goal of my travel is, to see traditional japanese buildings and towns, experience a bit of beautiful japanese nature and cuddling with various japanese animals. like the deers in nara, the foxes in zao, the bunnys in okunoshima and the cats in tashirojima.
 
Let us know when you'll be coming. You shouldn't have difficulties reaching Shirakawa-go because literally everyone is heading there. It's great you're sticking to the lesser travelled paths of Japan.

Viel Spaß bei der Reiseplanung!
 
Late February till late march is planned (but next year probably) is currently planned, but we have no bookings yet so it's still in the very early planning phase.
at least from shinshiro to shirakawa it's more than 5 hours and while we can't prevent spending some hours in public transport 5 hours is quite much. rome2rio is even showing 8 hours >.< having a car would make it so much more easy but at least i'm not confident in driving at all let alone driving in japan (where they drive on the left)
and those times are already quite optimistic just because every time you switch the train or to a bus you need to find the right bus stop and be sure you're at the right point, so you will probably miss at least one especially when you have like 6-7 stops in between.

somehow i wish i could take some japan-guru with me that can directly point me to all the right train and bus stops and always knows the shortest route because my brain is smoking with all those information^^
 
We'll gladly help you plan your trip to the best of our knowledge. And those gurus probably have cars, lol.
 
btw, is there something like Uber in Japan, that would also work in slightly isolated places?
 
I doubt it. Uber is available in urban areas, while in the country, you'd have to rely on local taxi companies.
 
i mean not exactly uber but do they have something like car sharing in general? it doesn't need to be uber i mean in germany i think we have bla bla car, something like that could be an alternative to taxi.
 
Private hire cars means hiring a car and driver/guides. It may not be available so much in rural areas but there are many in Tokyo at least. Some are legal and some are not. By not legal I mean not properly licensed for this type of business.

Probably there will be many road closures or minimal public transportation in some of these rural areas. You were proposing driving to the terraces so I assumed you weren't planning a winter trip. I'm not sure if they are accessible in winter and even if they were what would be the point?

Kokujou said:
i mean not exactly uber but do they have something like car sharing in general? it doesn't need to be uber i mean in germany i think we have bla bla car, something like that could be an alternative to taxi.
Click to expand...
Only taxis. Uber is available in some cities but it only calls taxis. The Uber business model of using private/unlicensed drivers is illegal.
 
mdchachi said:
Only taxis. Uber is available in some cities but it only calls taxis. The Uber business model of using private/unlicensed drivers is illegal.
Click to expand...
illegal? it's not even a business model, it's car sharing. i mean if i'm driving along the road and see a person that seems to be lost, i have the right to take him or her with me. there's no juristic base for making it illegal, but yeah. the important point is, they don't have it. shame.

mdchachi said:
I'm not sure if they are accessible in winter and even if they were what would be the point?
Click to expand...
what's the point in summer? a picture says more than thousand words:

but that means i should definitely be prepared to take a cab. i mean it makes sense. the one bus that goes there is probably for rice farmers, and they probably won't work there in winter.

when you talk about guides... is it possible to hire a person to lead you around town by your own preferences? like i earlier said, some japan-guru that ideally even has a car, that shows me around the town, the places i want to see etc? and if yes, how much would that cost? is it something mortal persons can afford?
i was pretty much against having a travel planned by some agency, because then you need to follow their schedule and not vise versa, but if the model i proposed is actually possible, then that'd be awesome.
 
The national qualification called the guide-interpreter is in Japan.
It is a list of the guide-interpreter of Miyagi.

全国通訳案内士登録簿

www.pref.miyagi.jp


As the portal site of each capital way prefecture has the muster roll of the guide-interpreter, please refer to it.

Site of Hokkaido

全国通訳案内士について - 経済部観光局観光振興課

全国通訳案内士について１ 全国通訳案内士とは 通訳案内士法（昭和２４年法律第２１０号）に規定され、「報酬を得て、通...
www.pref.hokkaido.lg.jp
 
Well, how you are qualified as a guide is less interesting than how much it actually costs. and where to find one, like if there's a platform where you can apply for a guide or so. of course i don't need exact values but e.g. if it costs 10€ per hour and for that he drives you around to your destinations (that are inside the city i guess) then it'd already save a lot of money and a lot of headache to know where which station is, and you would get some cool local advice like good restaurants or good hotels or so, that'd be very convenient. but i don't know if this is realistic.

btw i can only hear and speak japanese. like. middle-schooler level i can't read it. i'm so glad i was born in the age of AI and image translation
 
If it's not a business model why does Uber have a market capitalization of $145B? If I'm not mistaken it's also illegal in Germany for somebody to be a driver for Uber without professional licensing or driver qualifications. Your example of picking up a hitchhiker is completely unrelated.

Kokujou said:
what's the point in summer? a picture says more than thousand words:
Click to expand...
What are the chances of you getting to that spot to get that photo? And is it really worth taking a 1/2 day or day to get there compared to other possible destinations? That looks like a drone photo btw. Your view will look more like this probably except with snow).but in winter.

Sawajiri Rice Terraces · Oharikawahari, Marumori, Igu District, Miyagi 981-2302, Japan

âââââ · Tourist attraction
maps.app.goo.gl

Kokujou said:
but that means i should definitely be prepared to take a cab. i mean it makes sense. the one bus that goes there is probably for rice farmers, and they probably won't work there in winter.
Click to expand...
Definitely should get some local knowledge and find out if this is feasible before you go. But there seems to be some houses around there so I'm guessing they try to keep those roads accessible even in winter.

Here's one guide that I've seen people recommend. It might be tough to find somebody in the remote regions you want to go. But you could reach out to him and see what he thinks.

about - TOKYO travel TIPS

TOKYO travel TIPS is the site which helps foreign travel beginner and repeater to Tokyo and Japan.You can enjoy Tokyo and Japan as locals do!
nobu-tokyo.com
Also I saw somebody find a guide here ToursByLocals - Private Tours By Local Guides.
It's quite impressive that you have some Japanese ability. That will help you a lot. Most Japanese persons English skills are very limited.
 
then maybe we're talking about a different thing... what i mean is there are free car sharing apps, where you basically say "hey, i'm driving from x to y, if someone wants to come along, be my guest and we'll just share the gasoline price". the apps are free, so if there is any monetization of the app itself, then only via ads. but maybe this Uber thing is actually something like a taxi company.

that's the point of my question, if it'd really take half of a day, then no it wouldn't be worth the effort, but if it just takes 30 minutes to go there, sit down and enjoy a beautiful picknick in a nice winter scenerie, then yes that'd be worth it for me
mdchachi said:
It's quite impressive that you have some Japanese ability. That will help you a lot. Most Japanese persons English skills are very limited.
Click to expand...
yeah i already heard what japanese english sounds like i have the oppinion that if you intend to travel to a foreign country you should at least learn to understand and speak the language. i still wonder how my parents survived their abroad vacation not only without speaking the local language but even without speaking english XD
 
mdchachi said:
Also I saw somebody find a guide here ToursByLocals - Private Tours By Local Guides.
Click to expand...
thanks for the reference. i guess then this is really not my thing. shame though. it'd be so nice if i had a friend coming with me who could actually drive. it'd save so much time and money. but for those prices i guess they are based on the tour being some kind of lecture, where you learn something about the history or so and the driving around is just a small benefit. i'd want it vise versa as i'm not that interested in history
 
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