A complete guide to budget travel in Japan

	The ferry between Kagoshima and Yakushima

Travel Overview

In general, travelling around Japan is not always cheap. But, thankfully there are excellent money-saving passes for both the railways and the airlines.

Japanese Travel Passes

Choose carefully which pass is best for you. This will depend on how long you intend to stay in Japan, how much you intend to move around and how much you can afford to spend.

Investigate all the possibilities for your itinerary in order to get the cheapest and best value pass.

Trains, planes and buses

The Japan Rail Pass is great if you are staying for just a few weeks and moving around a lot.

However, if you have more time to spend in Japan, there are cheaper options than this. For example, the Seishin 18 Kippu. Another important factor to consider is the availability periods for the both the cheap Seishin 18 Kippu and the blackout periods for the air passes.

The Highway buses are a good option for single journeys. A journey on a bus or train overnight will of course save you money on accommodation. Another great option for the budget traveller.

The cheapest way to get around Japan is of course to hitchhike or cycle. We hitchhiked on shorter journeys, for example, to campsites or the start of hikes. However, hitchhiking can definitely be an option in Japan for longer distances too. Read Will Ferguson's Hokkaido Highway Blues for a humorous and informative guide for all prospective hitchhikers in Japan.

A combination of Travel Passes

Since we were staying in Japan for three months we had time to cover a lot of ground. We found that the best combination for us was to use the JAL Airpass, the Seishin 18 Kippu and the JR East train passes (as well as some hitchhiking for shorter journeys).