Why Japan’s Train Enthusiasts are Spending ¥100,000 For Trolleys |

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@TravelJennie 11 ай бұрын

My Japan Rail pass was $250 in 2019 and I traveled from Morioka to Tokyo -> Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nara -> Hiroshima -> Kobe -> Mt Fuji -> Tokyo and I calculated it was about $3000 worth of Shinkansen tickets for the bargain basement price of $250. I just looked up the price now and it's $500-$700 bucks! When I lived in Japan from 2000-2004, I had a free K-car (Diahatsu MOVE) via my town up in Iwate and relied on overnight buses because I was poor 🙂

@uss_04 11 ай бұрын

It’s interesting that a culture that values physical media and goods have so little floor space in the typical residential unit.

@_Ekaros 11 ай бұрын

On other hand it is lot of storage space...

@mama2kittyfubb 11 ай бұрын

Thank you Chris and Pete for entertaining my question! Wish me luck on my car buying adventures - I'll be in Japan next week and can't wait to explore Kyushu - hopefully in a new used car! Love the podcast so keep the stories coming. 😄👍

@rodclark8456 11 ай бұрын

Love Steph's story. I'm older enough to remember the same thing done to my broken arm in Australia. I doubt they would do it that way now days. Saved a lot of time and hassle.

@JeffKho 11 ай бұрын

To the JET from the US, the biggest problem you’ll face is getting a Japanese driver’s permit/license to drive in Japan. There are many stories online about this experience as there is no easy way of obtaining a Japanese driver’s license as a foreigner from the US without doing the driving test. Buying a car is easier through a used car dealer as they can help with the required registration, insurance and other related paperwork. You can buy a cheap used car through the private market but be prepared to do the paperwork on your own. Best to have a knowledgeable Japanese friend to help in that area.

@mama2kittyfubb 11 ай бұрын

Thank you for your advice. I'll be in Japan next week visiting my daughter so this will give me an opportunity to see what is available in her area. 😁

@flavorhostage 11 ай бұрын

Well, my reply got eaten. It's not that hard and you can avoid the written and driving tests if your license is from SPECIFIC STATES (yeah, it depends on the state). The Tokyo-to site says States of Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia and Washington only. Check the US embassy site too. I'm not attaching links because I think that's what ate my long reply last time.

@Sky_amanogawa 11 ай бұрын

Do Shinkansen have like a food/ "restaurant" carriage, where you could still buy food after the Trolleys are gone? On our long-distance trains we have one carriage with a counter + a few tiny tables in it. If I recall correctly, the Trolleys here usually are more for beverages but maybe they do carry snacks too? 🤔I never really purchased anything on the train, as it was much cheaper to stock up beforehand 😅

@awesomeadamfrom2099 11 ай бұрын

Awesome job Chris with podcast

@jimbobur 11 ай бұрын

2:32 honestly I've always found maccies to be kinda meh. The beefburgers are pretty crap and the milkshakes are disappointing too; they have this weird aftertaste.

@jdjphotographynl 11 ай бұрын

11:54 I guess I'm too practical for my own good, but if I know I'm going to be on a train for 2 to 3 hours, I make sure I have bought something to eat and drink beforehand so I wouldn't get into a position I would need any in train trolley/shop... 🤷‍♂

@mygetawayart 10 ай бұрын

2-3 hours isn't that long. On the other hand, if you're on a train for more than 6-7 now that i understand. Maybe I'm just used to long train rides with very little food though lol

@ThaSandwitch 11 ай бұрын

You're never too young for a Vietnam Flashback..

@Fluera 11 ай бұрын

Coming from another man, Chris is looking more and more handsome by the day I must say 😊

@austinwiththehat 11 ай бұрын

You could add a Shinkansen set to the studio

@kelvinc 10 ай бұрын

Echoing what Chris said about Kusatsu, but also if Takayama is on the itinerary, I wonder if Gero might be a good onsen choice

@Chris-ut6eq 11 ай бұрын

The Tokyo to Osaka train ride was only saved by a cart with bento boxes when I rode the train in the 80s. First time in Japan and first time eating strange foods for a midwestern USA boy. It was very eye opening intro to japan!

@hannah60000 2 ай бұрын

What is “strange” food? Food from another culture isn’t simply “strange”, but different. Unless, you ate some rare delicacy, but even then it wouldn’t make it automatically “strange”.

@flavorhostage 11 ай бұрын

Oh man, I had to take the 8-car Kodama (the slowest bullet train) from Osaka to Tokuyama in Yamaguchi Prefecture to visit my family and was running late. NO trolley service, NO vending machines, and very short stops at every single station. I had a discussion with the conductor about what to do. I ran out at Nishi-Akashi or somewhere that had a shop on the platform, grabbed the first thing I saw, and ran back onto the train. More excitement than an old guy needs. And unlike Chris (who seems to hate a lot of the things I like in Japan), I like the ekiben so I was fine.

@janusmcgee8909 11 ай бұрын

There’s a game franchise called 電車でGO, a train game of course. Please both of you play it. It is fun.

@street1111 11 ай бұрын

A friend of my family went to Japan on the jet program that was 7-8 yrs ago and is now married and expecting a baby...he was miserable here but Japan got him happy

@uss_04 11 ай бұрын

Went to Japan last February and my city has recently gotten a direct connection to HND. Considering the prices to theme parks and the USD being comparatively strong no wonder lots of people want to go.

@hannah60000 2 ай бұрын

It’s not only Americans going to Japan. Broaden your mind, please. It’s driven by the cheap yen.

@Jeffrey_Tyler 11 ай бұрын

A Big Mac meal and shake shack are the same price here where I live in CT.

@voidnaut 11 ай бұрын

I feel like people wouldn't mind too much if you threw in the occasional still image depicting certain things into the video podcast. Like a still image showing what the trolleys look like.

@laurencefraser 11 ай бұрын

The stockmarket and the economy are only incidentally connected, in that people with money will by shares, or government bonds, or land, or a couple of other similar investments, based on what is most likely to keep it's value (or increase) at the time, so depending on Why the economy's going up and down, different investments become more or less viable, and as a result, the share market can either go the same direction or completely the opposite one or not really move at all.

@dayla8634 11 ай бұрын

I knew an older welsh dude who got hit by a motorcycle and broke some bones. I went to visit him right after his surgery. He was like "Get the Effe out" because he was in so much pain. The only pain meds they gave him were some aspirin.

@whyisthisathingnow... 11 ай бұрын

Big Motor was involved in some real dodgy stuff in Kumamoto as well.

@CB-sx8xh 11 ай бұрын

I reckon a trolley like that would be brilliant in aged card facilities

@japanlover21 10 ай бұрын

Hi Chris, can you recommend any shop that has good Bento boxes at Tokyo Station to eat on Shinkansen to Osaka? I remember you saying nothing with Ekiben brand

@jojjannes 11 ай бұрын

Chris has some static from hie microphone that didn't used to be there.

@Toddis 10 ай бұрын

How much would it cost per week to survive off eating only Big Mac's

@NOC-H 11 ай бұрын

#faxmachine. Hello to the dynamic duo, Chris and Pete. I’m coming to Japan, for literally 2 days, in October. It’s really just a layover I scheduled so I could visit a couple quick places. I have a 2 week trip planned for next year. So, what I want to know; where in Tokyo can I find the following A damned fine bowl of ramen and some fantastic Okonomiyaki.

@Pascarii 11 ай бұрын

Moldova mentioned!

@nicholausbuthmann1421 11 ай бұрын

I'm definitely a "RAILFAN" myself ! That's what we're called here in the U.S..

@XSpImmaLion 11 ай бұрын

Japan, and not only Japan but lots of other countries, don't do much painkillers because of addiction. Mind you, I think it'd be more correct to say that too many western countries (and in this case apparently Australia) do painkillers and some other drugs too much. Put that together with gaman culture... I was reading a news article on Yomiuri about the end of food serving service in Shinkansen... guess what? Severe staff shortage and poor sales. Seems they are trying to compensate this by installing more vending machines in the main stops, but that's about it. Also good to note for smokers - they also plan to slowly phase out smoking areas on the Shinkansen to make more room for other stuff. About JR Pass... it kinda sounds to me like they are trying to phase it out without completely killing it, right? I mean, I heard some good explanations on why... the JR Pass was introduced decades ago and it's price remained frozen for lots of years, and back when they created the thing it was as a way to attract more foreign tourism into the country. So, the ridiculous 70% price increase was an accumulation of inflation and whatnot that didn't get in through all these years, but I guess more importantly, it's not like Japan needs to attract more foreign tourism anymore. :P So they killed it without killing it. :P If there is one thing I have to say about an advantage of the pass even paying more for it, is that for foreign tourists that for whatever reason cannot handle buying the tickets by themselves and have a hard time with all of that, with the JR pass you always just go through a side entrance by presenting the card to staff. Kind of a specific case, but I went with family to Japan twice, and two of the people in my group didn't speak neither Japanese nor English, so it was just easier for them to use the pass in the few cases they were by themselves. About onsens with the last question... I may write a bit too much, but here goes. For new tourists going to Japan, I think it's always good to explain things a bit because it seems lots of people still don't quite understand the entire concept - watch more of Chris' videos for that. xD Ginzan has a quite unique town scenario with those beautiful bridges and the traditional and old buildings there, so probably nothing quite like it particularly during winter with all the snow, but it's good to keep in mind a distinction between vising an onsen town, or being more focused on the onsen experience, because you have different things there. If you really want the onsen town experience you will have to get away from the big cities... Kusatsu is a great one, there's also Nikko, and several others. There are waaay more onsen towns than most foreign tourists realize, because international news tends to focus on only a few of them, so it's worth a deeper look up. But search for onsen town instead of only onsen. You know, if you want to walk around a small town with different things to see, perhaps some trails, local shops, all that jazz. That is because if all you are looking for is the onsen experience itself, you can get it in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka or whatever big city you are... they are pretty much everywhere. It's not a town filled with different onsens around, but you'll still get the full onsen experience, the meal, the bath, the spa-like stuff. From the outside they'll look like common big hotel chains, but they are all around. In fact, even some smaller hotels will have either onsen or sentoos in them. And then you also have fancy sentoos (public baths) that looks like onsens, distinction being that they don't use spring water, but tap water. These more luxury sentoos are going more and more towards a spa experience it seems these days. Now, that said, I think the one for James in the last question and the one Chris might have in mind, not sure, is definitely Shima Onsen in Gunma Prefecture... which is not too far from Tokyo, a 3.5 hour bus trip. But you're gonna have to reserve that one pretty early. That's the actual one that Spirited Away has parts based off, and it's also one of the oldest wooden onsens in Japan. Ginzan kinda looks like it at the right angle and all, but Shima is the one quoted by Miyazaki I think, mainly the bridge. Of course, it still mostly doesn't look like the one in Spirited Away because that's Ghibli magic. But look up for photos, you'll see what I mean.

@hsbdarkit 11 ай бұрын

Came out of hospital yesterday after a month still not functioning but I wonder in Japan hospital you get better care or not, I'm from the UK and I ended up with a feeding tube which came out yesterday to get nutrison value back I had to fight for a soya one being veggie the first one has fish oil in and I was horrified that some people didn't know there where different ones, I wonder If japan heath care system Is better or not Cannot fault the nurses but the doctors jump to conclusions

@SrSaraviaMusic 11 ай бұрын

Well,I've just heard that the Gion district in Kyoto will be closed for tourism "thanks"to overtourism and bad behaviour from many of them. Been there a few times and it's definitely bad news but at the same time,a bit of relief...

@whyisthisathingnow... 11 ай бұрын

Pity the aussie dollar is doing less than grand at the moment so not sure it makes much diff.

@kaleeyed 11 ай бұрын

I was always team Wimpy as a kid, which shifted to Burger King when Wimpy sold a load of their stores to them. Tried a McDonald's and the gherkin disgusted me. Little did I know, that was the only nutritious thing in it. Now, three decades later, I can still count the number of Maccy D burgers I've had in my life on one hand. I'm not proud of it. I've eaten far too many Burger King Spicy Beanburgers over the years tho.

@Chalky. 11 ай бұрын

With my luck the Yen will Hulk out in 2026 when i visit Japan again.

@catherinebond7474 11 ай бұрын

I'm worried a0bout that too! 😅

@usroadtripper 11 ай бұрын

In 2016, when the yen was much stronger, I spent two weeks in Japan and spent about $5500 including flight. That included a rail pass, three days at Tokyo Disneyland, two days in Mie prefecture, and a full $1000 for shopping and playing in arcades. Without the flight and insane shopping budget, it was around $3000. It could have been done cheaper, but it was worth the extra money to stay in a nicer place and buy admissions to higher end attractions.

@auroraflash 11 ай бұрын

NON-Stop South Siuuuuu

@auroraflash 11 ай бұрын

What are trolleys?

@COSMEREAUDIO 11 ай бұрын

Hi guys please bring more guests to the podcast and also make it longer

@Thekowaikaiju 11 ай бұрын

As much as my drive to see Japan is; I am going nowhere near China anytime soon.

@cozycat6382 11 ай бұрын

Mcdonalds has no flavor. I never understand when someone unironically craves it. Pete may be weird but we still love him.

@ShadowKnight3000 11 ай бұрын

You're supposed to eat the food and throw away the wrapper, not the other way around.

@ffwast 11 ай бұрын

They just don't know better. The carcinogens mcdonalds adds do make a well-crisped fry though.

@rodsmith494 11 ай бұрын

It’s a drug and not a good one!

@merrynpreston9446 7 ай бұрын

Hi I totally didn’t like the new planet of the apes movie. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

@user-nu3et2mo7 11 ай бұрын

How is it being botherd by your future self i just wonder ?

@jean-philippebouchard9506 11 ай бұрын

Big mac aint quite the good comparison though... with everything they go to import. Compare "comparable" local dishes cost and pretty sure Biet(sic) Nam will be much cheaper.