Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto are just three of Japan’s must-visit places. While Osaka and Kyoto are nearer to each other, Tokyo is another story. From Osaka alone, Tokyo is roughly 400 kilometers away and to travel from one to the other could eat up a day’s worth of your precious vacation time. 

The best thing about Japan though is the many choices you have to go around. Traveling from Tokyo to Osaka or the other way around, for example, has at least three options of transfer. 

The shinkansen or the bullet train is the top choice because it is after all the fastest train in the world. From Tokyo, you’d find yourself in Osaka in just three hours. It can be pricey though with a one way ticket costing around 13,500 to 14,500 yen. (Divide by 2 to get Php amount)

If its budget transport you’re looking for, you can opt for the two other options: local airlines and the overnight bus.

Local airlines travel from Tokyo to Osaka and vice versa for as low as 5,000 yen. But since flights are usually in the morning, you’d have to spend an additional night in your hotel, plus book a cab from where you are to the airport.

For our trip, we decided to try the overnight bus. We saw a lot of reviews online. Some were good, some not that pleasant. So we decided to try it ourselves. Also, not all overnight buses are cheap. There are those that were as expensive as the shinkansen but were like hotels on wheels complete with bed, toilet, and a lot more. 

There are also overnight buses that offer transfers for as low as 3,000 yen. The cheap price though may not give you that much of a comfortable ride since these are basic buses with non-reclinable seats. Since you’ll be traveling for hours, I don’t recommend this based also on the reviews I watched online.

The price for the bus ride we got was mid-range. Not too cheap but not too expensive. It was around 7,000 yen each for the VIP liner bus. I saw reviews and pictures online and it felt a lot more cozy than the other buses. 

THE EXPERIENCE

We waited for the bus at the Shinjuku Expressway Bus terminal. To save you the confusion when looking for the station, (like how confused we were), it’s located on the 4th floor of the Shinjuku Station. Yes, on the 4th floor.

A lot of people, including us, went round and round looking for the station, thinking it was like any bus terminal found on the ground floor. Who would have thought a bus station would be on the 4th floor of a building? Apparently Japan thought of it and boy is it impressive. It’s Japan’s biggest bus terminal catering to the most number of arriving and departing buses in the whole country.

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The terminal was complete: an impressive ticketing and PA system like in airports, a helpful concierge, clean toilets, and coin-operated luggage lockers. 

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Like everything else in Japan, our bus arrived and left on time. We had our tickets from Klook printed out but some passengers showed their vouchers through their phones. 

They took our luggages, carefully placed it in the bus compartment and gave us claim stubs. Make sure to get in advance anything you would need onboard so you don’t have to ask them to get your luggages again.

I apologize if I don’t have that many pictures of the bus. When it arrived, the line moved so fast, it was impossible to take photos with everyone else wanting to get in already due to the cold weather.

For the VIP liner, the option was book the 4-seater or 3-seater bus. Although a bit more expensive, we decided to go with the 3-seater bus since the reviews showed that it was more spacious and only the 3-seater buses had toilets onboard.

True enough, we were surprised with how spacious the bus was and had enough privacy for each person. The seats were divided by ample space on all sides and had curtains for privacy. The middle seat, which we were on, also had head covers to make sure that it would be dark for a good night’s sleep. At a certain point in travel though, the bus driver turns off all the light so it’s actually pitch black and you don’t need any covers. I was surprised, too, how the bus traveled without the usual rumbling of a moving vehicle. It didn’t feel like traveling at all and we slept like babies.

This is why I can’t tell you what else happened in our whole eight our trip apart from us having a good sleep. LOL. Based on reviews though, they said the bus makes two to three stops, including changing drivers mid-way. 

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When you book your bus tickets, you’re given the option where to board and get off. We chose to get off Kyoto Station, which fortunately had a VIP Bus Liner lounge where there are toilets to take a bath, changing areas, charging stations and places to rest while waiting for the time. We left Tokyo at 10pm and arrived around 6am so there was enough time to get ready for the rest of the day. 

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So my final thoughts on the overnight bus? Totally a good mode of transportation from Tokyo to Osaka or Kyoto or to different prefectures in Japan. If you’re not comfortable sitting down for a long time, you can opt for the Shinkansen. But since this is after all an overnight bus, you’d just sleep the whole bus ride so you wouldn’t really notice the long travel. You just have to choose a good bus that offers reclinable seats or even the ones with beds for a comfy night. Also, by choosing overnight buses, you save from booking a night at the hotel plus it’s a cool experience! So for me, its definitely a yey!

Have you tried Japan’s overnight bus? What do you think? Share your experience. 🙂