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The Bus - what is it...where is it....is it any good?


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I moved to Tokyo in Feb. and I hit Yuzawa pretty much every weekend via Shinkansen (Gala, Ichiuchi, iwappara, etc). I heard there are some busses that take you to other areas. I know the info is out there and i'm not too lazy to search for it, but rather - I wanted to hear from other's experiences....The good, the bad, and the ugly. What are the options out there, which ones are good. Where can I get more info, advice, insults, whatever....

 

-SJA

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The Bus trips are a killer, avoid them as much as possible!

I have taken a bus to many places in the past, Nozawa-onsen,Yuzawa,Naeba etc.

If you take the night bus you will probably leave Tokyo at around 23.00, stop every [censored]ing 1.5 hour and of course being woken up, and make it to the resort at 06~07:00. Needles to say that after that you will probably need a bed to rest, and of course not be able to do much that day if you try to hit the slopes.

The morning bus leaves Tokyo at 07:00 in the morning, which is the rush hour for every highway. Although they advertise that you will be at the resort by 10:30, there was not a single occasion that I made it before 13:00.

In other words, stick to the Shinkansen, its a bit more expensive but it worth its money.

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I've taken a busride from Tokyo to Fuji and from Fuji to Matsumoto once... you're better of traveling by shinkansen. :p

And you get to travel at 300+ km/h over land, which is also pretty cool \:\)

 

Trains are the way to go in Japan, not busses :p

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I thought so - The bus ride sounds pretty brutal. But Hakuba isn't exactly a day trip by shinkansen is it? I went to Happone years back for a weekend - I seem to remember the train ride was quite long even thought it was the 'Super Azusa'

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i think the super azusa is the express train that goes via kofu, matsumoto and up the valley to hakuba, that's not the shinkansen... and that journey takes like 3.5hrs on that train i think.

 

the shinkansen leaves from tokyo station/ueno and goes to nagano city in about 1hr 40mins or sometimes less.... then you can take a direct but from nagano station to hakuba, taking 1 hr.

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yeahh ask dizzy, he's always on the friday night train... the super azuza that is. must be some kind of good deal. but usually that longer train via matsumoto is about the same price as the shinkansen... but i guess if you take the shinkansen you've still got to pay for the bus from nagano to hakuba. yeh that night train direct to hakuba sounds like the go.

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Sleeping on the train's not exactly comfortable either. I've been on couple of those overnight trains where they just use old cars with uncomfortable seats (only thing better than a bus is that they're not typically full).

 

But yeah, price vs comfort, it's the usual trade off.

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Thanks for all the posts....The night train sounds interesting. Is it like the "Jinga" night train from Osaka with full flat bunks or more like a normal shinkansen seats?

 

Looks like the morning shinkansen to Nagano+Bus is a 3 hour journey. Does anyone do this on a regular basis?

 

thanks...

 

-SJA

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This is the train

ムーンライト信州

 

Its not that much different than Super Azusa.

An other option would be to go to Nozawa onsen. Take the shinkansen to Nagano and then at Nagano station change to Iiyama line and get off at “Togari Nozawa Onsen” station. After that there is only a 15 min bus ride to Nozawa Onsen slopes. It takes about 3 hours to Togari Nozawa Onsen station.

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as far as i know the MoonLight Shinshuu Train is a spring/summer/fall train meant to attract alpinists/hikers; don't think it runs on friday nights in winter, but i could be wrong

 

for anyone who wants the goods in hakuba, taking the first bullet train out of tokyo station leaves at 6:24 and by the time you get on a bus at nagano st., you get into hakuba at 9:30. by then fresh tracks onpiste are hard to come by.

 

if you're persistent, you can purchase a booklet of four bus tickets for 5,000 next to the bus stops at nagano st. east exit. you end up saving 250 or something per ticket. that's two or three beers.

 

oops, typo above; first bus arrives at Happo @ 9:30!

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tsondaboy,

thanks for the link...doesn't look too comfortable for sleeping. I was hoping for a Ginga type train or better yet - the Casiopia, but doesn't sound like there is any option.

 

I suppose niigata is still the king of convienence, but I seriously want to hit some new mountains this year. Is there some good overnight options in Hakuba, or is it all resort hotels and hostels?

 

-SJA

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