Information about highway bus

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Highway buses (高速バス) are cheap means of transportation for a long distance travel in Japan. Generally, you can reduce 50-60% of transportation costs by using highway buses instead of Shinkansen or airplanes. Beside, there are many overnight bus services (夜行バス), and you can move from Tokyo to Osaka in one night by it. Unlike local buses, you need to make a reservation or buy a ticket befor bording in order to use highway buses.

If you wnat to use highway buse or overnight buses, we recommend WILLWE TRAVEL. WILLER TRAVEL is one of the biggest bus servise company in Japan and has a large bus network. The fare of WILLER TRAVEL tends to be cheaper than that of other Japanese bus companies. Also, only WILLER TRAVEL set up an English web site, so you can make a reservation and buy a ticket very easily. The official site is here, and you can change language by clicking upper right "language"

Sample Budgets and Travel Time of Highway Buses

Sendai	5.5 h	9.5 h (N)	13.0 h (N)	-	-
2,320-3,760 yen	Tokyo	5.5 h	8.0 h	11.0 h (N)	16.0 h
7,000-9,500 yen	2,400-3,920 yen	Nagoya	3.0 h	7.0 h (N)	11.5 h (N)
5,930-10,950 yen	3,300-4,880 yen	1,500-2,500 yen	Osaka/Kyoto	6.0 h	8.5 h (N)
8,500-11,800 yen	6,000-8,010 yen	4,800-6,090 yen	3,300-4,080 yen	Hiroshima	4.5 h
-	-	7,500-8,780 yen	4,070-5,400 yen	3,600-4,420 yen	Hakata

⁎(N) means that only overnight bus services are operated in the section.

Sample Budgets and Travel Time of Airplanes

Sendai	1.0 h	1.0 h	1.5 h	2.0 h	2.0 h
13,400-22,700 yen	Tokyo	1.0 h	1.5 h	1.5 h	1.5 h
34,710-1,3610 yen	23,300-7,700 yen	Nagoya	-	-	1.5 h
37,000-4,690 yen	27,890-3,390 yen	-	Osaka/Kyoto	-	1.5 h
44,900-17,200 yen	36,000-5,690 yen	-	-	Hiroshima	-
51,200-13,500 yen	43,890-5,990 yen	33,310-6,290 yen	27,100-3,790 yen	-	Hakata

Some airlines offers special discount to foreign tourists. Detailed information is written in this page.

Sample Budgets and Travel Time of Shinkansen

Sendai	1.0h	3.5 h	4.0 h	6.0 h	7.0 h
5,940 yen	Tokyo	1.5 h	2.5 h	4.0 h	5.0 h
20,640 yen	11,290 yen	Nagoya	1.0 h	2.0 h	3.5 h
23,020 yen	14,650 yen	6,760 yen	Osaka/Kyoto	1.5 h	2.5 h
27,240 yen	19,280 yen	14,430 yen	10,640 yen	Hiroshima	1.0 h
31,000 yen	23,150 yen	18,740 yen	15,150 yen	9,350 yen	Hakata

Japan Rail Pass holders can use Shinkansen without fare. Detailed information is written in this page.