A series · 5 written

The Answers

One practical question a page, answered place by place across the Hundred Scenes, for the 58 of them we have published so far, not in general.

General answers are the problem. Whether a rail pass is worth buying depends on which places you are going to, and so does what you will be charged at the gate, whether you can get home the same day, and whether the bus will take a card. These pages take one such question and work through every scene on the list, one row each, with the date we checked it.

  1. 01
    Which rail pass, for which of the hundred?

    The nationwide pass goes to ¥53,000 on 1 October 2026, and for most of these places it was already the wrong one to buy. What to buy instead, scene by scene, and what no pass ever covers.

    Answered for 49 of the 58 published scenes
  2. 02
    What will the day look like on my date?

    Pick a place and the day you will be there. Sunrise, sunset and the hour you are going for are recalculated for that date, timetables stay as written with the date they were written for, and closed days, festival dates and a season that is wrong for what you came to see are flagged at the top.

    Answered for 39 of the 58 published scenes
  3. 03
    What do they charge, and when did it change?

    Entry prices moved in 2025 and 2026 and the English pages that quote them often did not. Both numbers side by side, with the day each one changed, and the two places on the list where what you pay depends on where you live.

    Answered for 15 of the 58 published scenes
  4. 04
    What does Japan outside Tokyo cost?

    Every trip receipt on the site in one table: the train, the bus, the bed and the bowl of soba, per person, from a named city.

    Answered for 52 of the 58 published scenes
  5. 05
    Where can you not pay by card?

    The buses, gates and bathhouses across the hundred that still take cash only, and the ones that refuse IC cards even though the machine looks like it should.

    Answered for 39 of the 58 published scenes

What we are working on

In the order we think it matters, and with no dates attached: can you get in, in winter; can you get home; what do you do with your luggage; what has to be booked, and how far ahead; can you go with tattoos; can you get there without steps; where do you stand; how do you say it; what is shut over new year; which of these turn away a solo traveler.

Each one only becomes a page when we can answer it for enough of the list to be worth your time. Until then it is not here.

How these are written

The rules we hold ourselves to

  • Every figure carries a date and a source. Fares, entry prices and timetables change, and a number without a date is worth nothing to you.
  • Where we have not checked, we say so: in the table, next to the figure, not in a footnote at the bottom.
  • The answer is per place, never in general. If a question only has a general answer, it does not belong in this series and somebody else has already written it better.
  • We correct in public. When we find one of our own numbers wrong, we change it and say what it was.
  • We sell nothing. No commission on passes, tickets or rooms.

The Hundred Scenes themselves come first: 58 of 100 are published, and these pages grow with them.

HYAKKEI by email

Get the next of the hundred.

We are writing up a hundred places in Japan, one at a time, and 73 of them are done. Every fare, last bus and best month on a page is checked before it goes up. Leave your email address and we will send you the next one when it is published.

We send nothing else, and nothing at all in a week when we publish nothing. Your address is never passed on. One line to hello@spectrip.com takes you off the list. What we store.