Travel by (local) train for cheap in Japan
There's a little known ticket in Japan called the Seishun Juhachi kippu (literally "Youth 18 ticket"). While it was originally conceived as a ticket for the young people, nowadays it's used by anyone and everyone who likes traveling on the cheap. The ticket costs ¥ 11,500 and is good for five (consecutive or non-consecutive) days of travel. That means you only pay ¥2,300 a day!
You just show the person at the ticket gates, get it stamped the first time you use it, and you're traveling for next Read more [...]
Going to Hokkaido (北海道へ行っています) part 1
I went to Hokkaido (北海道) over Golden Week, which takes place over the end of April and the beginning of May.
In this first installment I want to talk about getting there.
I took the long route. Also know as the ferry. I left from Fukushima City (福島市) to sendai (仙台) and from Sendai I took the ferry overnight.
The ferry is by far, the cheapest way to get to Hokkaido. Roundtrip tickets cost a lot less than half the price of a plane ticket. The price you pay is time, it took about Read more [...]
Best Place to Stay in Kyoto
Located in a large temple complex, the Shunko Temple has two styles of rooms. While a stay in the central area of Kyoto may put you in a convenient location you'll pay a lot more to be surrounded by noise and cement buildings. Read more [...]
Lonely Planet Getting it All Wrong
Today I decided I'd like to buy a Lonely Planet travel guide. I have an iPod Touch now so I though, maybe since they have all those snazy phrase books as apps for the iPhone / Touch they have PDF's of their books. Read more [...]
One of the Better Comics Around
I've been a fan of Dan Piraro's comic Bizarro for while now. If you haven't been lucky enough to see his comic in your local newspaper you should go to his website or buy one of his books. Read more [...]
The Flight
I like squeezing as much as possible into a short amount of time so I did as many things as possible before my flight and saved packing for last. All said I made it to Seattle (SEA) just before 10am, thanks to time zone time travel. Read more [...]
