OK, I’m a convert. Sitting on trains for up to eight hours a day, mostly as a way to escape the up-to-40°C / 104°F temperatures outside and sit inside an air-conditioned vehicle? Getting to pay a flat rate for unlimited rides on JR local lines across the country? Finally getting to travel back up to Tohoku (north-eastern Japan) for the first time in seven years? Absolutely yes, sign me up. I was a little worried it might be too much for me going in, too much sitting, or too much traveling and transit-ing, but in reality, I can’t wait to do it again.
Every summer (actually three times throughout the year, for a fixed amount of time only) all the Japan Railways Group companies release the Seishun 18 Kippu, or the “Youth 18 Ticket”, a discount railway pass (intended for poor students, hence the name, although with no age limit or rider restrictions) which allows users to ride an unlimited number of JR trains and lines across the country for five non-consecutive days1Well… more on this at the end. for a pretty affordable price. The catch is that it only gets you access to conventional lines, which are of course slow, stopping at nearly every single station – no high-speed limited expresses or shinkansen, not even if you pay the express fare on top. But this ticket is famous in Japan, well-known and well-loved since the summer of 1982 when it first went on sale. As a public transit aficionado, it felt like a rite of passage for me to at least use it once during my time living in this country, right?
