u/frozenpandaman

https://www.nagoyajo.city.nagoya.jp/topics/2026/03/20260319\_4849.html

I had over a full week off for Golden Week, so I spent it taking mostly local trains on a very circuitous route down to Oita & Miyazaki Prefectures. When a ticket includes so many transfers onto different lines that their computers can't print the distance/fare automatically, JR employees calculate it by hand, call you a few days later when it's ready for pick-up, and then give you a hand-written 出札補充券 ticket, shown here!

I carried this with me all week, making various stopovers (indicated by the scattered oval-shaped stamps of various colors), exploring small towns while waiting on connections and sparse timetables, and staying the night in various cities on my way down – Himeji, Tsuyama, Hiroshima, Sanyo-Onoda, Fukuoka, Oita, Nobeoka, and Miyazaki.

It was a blast to ride new local lines & see the scenery of Chugoku/Kyushu, learn about regional foods and obscure mascot characters, and talk with residents & other travelers on the way. I drew out the route that this ticket covers on a map, and figured that people here might be interested in seeing it, and to know that long, multi-day journeys can be covered with just a single base fare ticket thanks to our wonderfully weird and remarkable rail system!

I had over a full week off for Golden Week, so I spent it taking mostly local trains on a very circuitous route down to Oita & Miyazaki Prefectures. When a ticket includes so many transfers onto different lines that their computers (MARS) can't print the distance/fare automatically, JR employees calculate it by hand, call you a few days later when it's ready for pick-up, and then give you a hand-written 出札補充券 ticket, shown here!

I carried this with me all week, making various stopovers (indicated by the scattered oval-shaped stamps of various colors), exploring small towns while waiting on connections and sparse timetables, and staying the night in various cities on my way down – Himeji, Tsuyama, Hiroshima, Sanyo-Onoda, Fukuoka, Oita, Nobeoka, and Miyazaki.

It was a blast to ride new local lines & see the scenery of Chugoku/Kyushu, learn about regional foods and obscure mascot characters, and talk with residents & other travelers on the way. I drew out the route that this ticket covers on a map, and figured that people here might be interested in seeing it, and to know that long, multi-day journeys can be covered with just a single base fare ticket thanks to our wonderfully weird and remarkable rail system!

Trying to think of all the railway operators that operate between (or run in multiple) different regions of Japan. I'm talking about tracks & stations that they own, like what is legally considered part of "their railway network", not through-service to other companies' lines or whatnot.

Here are the ones I have so far:

• All JR Group companies
• JR Hokkaido (Hokkaido–Tohoku)
• JR East (Tohoku–Kanto–Chubu)
• JR Central (Kanto–Chubu–Kansai)
• JR West (Chubu–Kansai–Chugoku–Kyushu)
• JR Shikoku (Shikoku–Chugoku)
• JR Kyushu (Kyushu–Chugoku)
• Kintetsu (Kansai–Chubu)
• Chizu Express (Kansai–Chugoku)
• Yoro Railway (Chubu–Kansai)
• Izuhakone Railway (Chubu & Kanto, two separate lines)
• Yagan Railway (Kanto–Tohoku)

Any others I'm missing?

This takes the cake for the most inconspicuously marked station (in Japan) that I've ever boarded a train from. Love it.

A quarter century ago, someone took a big trip from rural Miyazaki/Kagoshima (assuming this trainset was still running around this area then) to go ride some roller coasters in Fukuoka.

via https://twitter.com/kiritatitei\_an/status/2051219242138456407

Another video: https://twitter.com/wni\_jp/status/2051266281970843789

And a news report about how this is the first snow over 1cm in Ashikawa in the month of May in over two decades: https://weathernews.jp/news/202605/040171/

Took a 6 hour round-trip from Miyazaki on the Nichinan Line, not only but indeed primarily, to go see this... and it was very much worth it :D

Final stop on the Nichinan Line.

Site of the Hiroshima Carp baseball team's spring training camp.

Went to see the tower in Miyazaki that echoes when you clap in front of it. It was much more high-pitched than I expected! Then it started raining hard and I didn't have an umbrella so I hid in a nook on the back side of the tower for like half an hour until it cleared up. There was a crow that kept perching ominously atop one of the basket things surrounding the tower.

The parking lot was devoid of buses (they only stop there three times a day!) so I couldn't harass any bus driver or ask them how to get to China, sadly. There were indeed a LOT of steps (pictured) up to that parking lot that didn't show up in the video.

Also, literally 60 seconds away from where Ludwig & Michael were was this forest filled with little guys making :o faces, called haniwa.