First of all, for those who don't know, Silver Week is an extended weekend that strings together 3 holidays (Respect for the Aged Day, National Holiday and Autumnal Equinox Day). This combined with the weekend allowed me 5 days off of work. I was lucky this year since usually these holidays are not consecutive, but happen only every 10 years which it is then called "Silver Week" as compared to "Golden Week" which usually happens in early May every year and is a little longer. Silver week seemed like a good time to do some domestic travel to Kumamoto to see my friends there. Golden Week will probably be when I go to Thailand, a journey I have been waiting 2 years to do.
Anyway I decided to take an overnight bus from Kyoto to Fukuoka (9.5 hours) the night after working on Friday. Kyoto is about 1.5 hours from my house by train, and Fukuoka is about 2 hours from Kumamoto by bus. All together the journey took me about 13 hours, longer than my flight from Seattle to Tokyo.
By 10PM I was waiting at the bus station in Kyoto and ready to board the bus. Luckily, my Japanese is best when it comes to traveling and food, two of my most favorite things. So getting on the bus was pretty painless. I am not too sure of everything that was announced though, but it wasn't a big deal.
The bus arrives!
In the States I had quite a few experiences riding Greyhound buses for extended periods of time, and I can confidently say this was WAY better than that. My ride from Kyoto to Fukuoka went pretty well. I actually slept about 6 or 7 of the 9.5 hours, so it was great! Sure when I woke up I felt like I was run over by the bus though. I was actually surprised on how far the seat reclined back, and that I actually had legroom, which is impressive because I am 6'4" in JAPAN! So it wasn't as uncomfortable as I was expecting. Considering for about $100 you can get from point A to B and also have your hotel/hostel expenses included for one night isn't a bad deal. Granted for this trip, I wasn't really planning on paying for a place to stay since I know quite a few people in Kumamoto.
For now I will skip what I did in Fukuoka and Kumamoto, and describe my return journey.
From Kumamoto I took what was normally a 2 hour bus ride to Fukuoka. This time it took a little over 3 hours though, since we were traveling about 15MPH since there was an incredible amount of traffic on the roads because of Silver Week. I wish I had a picture, because honestly this would put LA and NYC traffic to shame. Just imagine, a country of about 130 million people in about the square mileage of Montana all trying to travel by car within the next 4-5 days. INSANE! Anyway, thankfully I anticipated this and left a bit early imagining my bus might be a little slow.
So about an hour waiting and picking up drinks and snacks at the bus station in Fukuoka and I boarded my return overnight bus. Definitely not as nice as the first one, but much better than a Greyhound bus. The seats didn't recline near as far and there definitely wasn't much leg room. Thank the gods though, that I probably got one of the best seats on the bus. There was no one in front of me, just a short wall, so I didn't have to endure the reclining wrath of the person in front of me. This time I heard the driver say they will be making a couple stops at some rest areas along the way. How long they were, I wasn't sure. At first I thought them say 110 minutes or something like that, which was definitely wrong.
Anyway, I didn't sleep well. I maybe slept about 3 hours on my 10 hour bus ride. Thankfully it wasn't any longer, most traffic must of died down around 1AM. I also did get off the bus when we stopped for about 10 minutes two times to stretch my cramped legs. I think it was basically the return trip that made me decide not to ever take a night bus again. I honestly think I got lucky this time, if I had to ride two of these "older" buses, I say older because they weren't as comfortable, both times and was stuck in a normal seat behind someone else, I would have probably died. Considering taking a night bus didn't save me money on lodging I think the 3 hour bullet train ride for $100 more would have been well worth it, but I am happy I had this experience!.
So after 10 hours of practicing my contortionist arts and 3 hours of sleep, I arrived in Kyoto and wandered the city for 9 hours...these events still have to be written.
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