Day 3 ~Osaka-Himeji-Kurashiki-Hiroshima~
Although Osaka is nearer to Hiroshima, it still takes about 6 hours. Therefore, even if we leave Osaka at 10am, when we will arrive Hiroshima, it would be too late to visit monuments. Therefore, we decided to visit Himeji and Kurashiki, to get to Hiroshima at night.
Tokyo-Ogaki by "Moonlight Nagara"
The first thing I had to do was to reserve two seats of a night-train "Moonlight Nagara." Moonligh Nagara was one of the few night trains one can take with Seishun 18 Kippu. It leaves Tokyo Station at past 23h, and arrive to the destination in the morning. Taking a night train itself is definately a very peculiar experience. The reservation starts from 30 days in advance, and it costs only 510 yen for a seat.
I visit the nearst JR station office and ask for 2 seats next to each other. Although it was well 3 weeks in adcance, the officer says there are only a few seats left and are not next to each other. No wonder. In the middle of August is the busiest season in the year. Thanks to research in advance, I knew that even if 2-seats compartments are full it is possible to find seats in 4-seats ‘box’ compartments. I ask for the "box-seats" and there was seats available, not on the 18th as I originally wanted but on the 19th. Now that the Moonligh Nagara was secure, I could buy the Seishun Juhachi Kippu.
Want to travel cheap in Japan? Have enough time but not enough money? Here is a secret way to travel cheap with sacred "Seishun-Juhachi-Kippu." Do not know what it is? Have heard of it but not sure how to use it? Don’t worry, I was one of you untill 1 month before.
Step 1 ~What’s Seishun Juhachi Kippu?~
The Seishun Juhachi Kippu, meaning something like "Youthful 18 Ticket", is a seasonally available railway ticket, which gives you five days of unlimited, nationwide travel on local and rapid JR (Japan Railways) trains for only 11,500 Yen , or 2,300 Yen per day. (Compared it with Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka, costs more than 30,000 Yen.)
Although it is "Youthful" ticket, anyone can buy it and use it regardless of age or nationality. (Not like Japan Rail Pass that allows only foreigners, or Japanese who have permanent residence overseas.)
I always wished eating as much as I want without taking the inevitable consequence…like this small girl! She is called "Gal Sone," or Natsuko Sone, 23-year-old competitive eater, who is known for being cute and choosy on food. As competitive eating (or Oogui) is hot in Japan, the competitive eaters do not follow the classical image of macho-big-eaters gorging on hotdogs. Instead, most of the eaters are thing and sometimes appear even anorexic.
