Alan Payling ventures away from his usual haunts and enjoys a virtual trip to Japan, with the aid of modern technology, to explore the world of inter-city coach services in the land of the rising sun
OK, let’s start with a confession. In order to research this article, I didn’t actually visit Japan in person. Unfortunately, the magazine’s budget for travel, accommodation, sundry expenses, sushi and sake is somewhat limited, particularly when it would have involved a pricey trip to the far east. So confident was I that any such application would be turned down, I looked for another way to see what was happening in the express coach trade on the highways of Japan. And of course, the wonders of modern technology that are YouTube, Wikipedia, Google Street View, Flickr, et al meant
that I could easily save the magazine a lot of money, plus I could avoid getting seriously jet lagged.
If you want to have a look yourself at the Japanese express coaching scene, then a few intrepid souls have already made some excellent videos on board Japan’s inter-city coaches. Having filmed their journeys and then uploaded them onto YouTube, you can see for yourself how the Japanese operate coaches on inter-city work. There are some noteworthy differences between the services offered there and inter-city coach journeys here and, they’re pretty impressive. This is not only the land of the rising sun, but the land where public transport leads the way.
And I know this may not be the best way to write about Japan. But with the videos available, and in line with the old saying that the best way to see London is from the front seats on the upper deck of a double-decker bus, well, that’s exactly what I have done here, albeit, through the lens of someone else’s camera. (But if you do want your UK based foreign correspondent to actually visit the places he writes about, please, do let the Editor know!)
Slower than a speeding bullet
I suppose the big news for me, as I was initially relying on a limited knowledge of life in Japan, was that anyone would travel between the country’s major cities by coach. I thought everybody would be whizzing about on bullet trains given that the coach that can safely travel at 200mph, unlike the Shinkansen’s E5 and H5 Series, hasn’t gone into service yet. Not on the M4 anyway.
But yes, Japanese Railways (JR on their PSVs), amongst other companies, do run express coach services on long distance work. One of the services that I looked at operates between Tokyo and Osaka. The distance is equivalent to a trip between London and Newcastle of 498km. It takes some nine hours at a maximum speed of 80kph, whether that be a journey during the day or on a sleeper service overnight. The time spent travelling is reduced to allow for three 20 minute breaks at service stations on or adjacent to the main highways linking the relevant cities. The one way fare is between £19.62 and £36.86. In comparison, the bullet train costs in the region of £125.00, but at 2.5 hours, it’s a bit quicker than the bus.
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