Articles of category "Bus transportation in Japan"

Traveling by bus in Japan is an excellent alternative to a train travel for any distance. Japan's islands are covered by a dense highway network of over 7, 000 kilometers that can bring you to any close or distant destination you may choose. Long distant buses are provided with all the necessary equipment for a comfortable and enjoyable travel. Certainly, highway buses (kosoku buses) and long distant buses (chokyori basu) are slower than express trains, but they are somewhat twenty or fifty percent cheaper.

Obviously, a developed highway communication in Japan appeared in the early years of the 17th century, when Japan was united under the feudal government of the Tokugawa family that had its residence in Edo, five hundred kilometers east and north of the capital region around Kyoto. The Japanese had to establish a communication system that would allow moving quickly and efficiently messages and messengers, diplomatic missions, spies and important goods to and from Edo. They built five highways at that time among which the Tokaido remains the most famous, while the Nakasendo still keeps its original form of the road right from the seventeenth century.