Japan Travel Guide: Transportation to Visit Japan

By Air

Air France has daily flights out of Paris (Roissy CDG) and to Tokyo-Narita (NRT) and the Kansai International Airport (KIX). The duration of the flight is approximately 12 hours. The airlines All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL) also offer direct daily flights.

It is possible to take companies operating flights with a stopover (and sometimes without) to less than € 700 roundtrip. A company among them are: Aeroflot, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Alitalia, Korean Airline .

Korean Airline and East China Airline have the advantage in addition to their fares to serve many Japanese cities, and can offer the possibility of returning to a different city at no extra cost.

Once KIX has arrived, several buses and trains are available to the large cities of Kansai.

By Boat

South Korea: speed vessels connecting Fukuoka (Hakata) in Pusan, Korea. The trip takes about 2 hours.

By Train

Japan has an excellent rail system (TGV with frequencies subway), and it is possible to visit the majority of tourist sites in the process. The company’s main railway is the JR (Japan Railways) and covers almost all of the archipelago.

Note that JR proposes to foreign tourists formulas Japan Rail Pass, which can often be more advantageous than buying tickets to the unit. For example, the Japan Rail Pass 7 days is almost profitable if it makes a roundtrip Tokyo-Kyoto. The Japan Rail Pass is reserved for tourists and must be purchased prior to departure to Japan, and then validating presentation in Japan on the passport bearing the stamp tourist. There are Rail Pass 7, 14 and 21 days. See the website of the Japan Rail Pass

Note also that this concerns only pass routes JR. It does not, for example, the subways of Tokyo or Kyoto. In the case of Tokyo, however, there are JR lines which cover a large part of the city.

The distinction between subway and train in Japan is much less clear than in France, and it is possible, in the two major urban areas in Japan (the region of Tokyo and the Kansai) to move freely by using the subway.

By Bus

The bus can be a solution for the transport between cities, which, despite being slower than train is much cheaper than the latter. In Japan the transport is not very expensive, for example (taken from real events) A map of the cost of $ 6.67 Canadian provides access to all coaches from Japan. Whatever the distance this card is still valid.

For travelers on a tight budget, it may be interesting to travel between major cities in night buses (Yakô basu): they are generally of a very acceptable comfort and saving one night of the hotel. 

By Car

Unless you have planned a very special route that can not be followed by public transportation, driving in Japan is not something that you need to do because public transport is generally excellent, and you can go with almost everywhere. So do not even think. This is particularly advisable if you are not accustomed to driving on the left, and if you do not find yourself in the middle of traffic jams or monsters get lost for hours.

In addition, road signs are usually in Japanese characters and rarely transcribed in the Latin alphabet.