TOHOKU EXPRESS – Highway Bus | Travelling from Tokyo to Sendai 🚌

TOHOKU EXPRESS – Highway Bus | Travelling from Tokyo to Sendai 🚌

We are once again hitting the road to 
experience another highway bus which can be found in Japan. Tohoku Express is 
a bus line which offers services to the northern portion of Honshu. Come along 
for this comfortable trip. Enjoy some sights while staying dry and let’s see what 
delicious eats we can find along the way. Good morning and welcome back to another video and 
welcome to a very hot and muggy Tokyo station. It is absolutely brutal here. You know, if there’s 
one thing Canadians know how to do when it’s hot and muggy, is to head north and get out of the 
city. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do today. We’ll be traveling with Tohoku Express, 
which is a bus line which services to Honshu, the north northeast part of Japan. 
And of course, as Global Peasants, we can’t take planes all the time. And there 
is actually no flight from Tokyo to Sendai, which takes cares of that. The bus is set 
to leave to leave at 10:30. So come along as you go from A to B, and let’s see how Tohoku 
Express services this popular line. Let’s start by getting inside and getting some air condition 
because it is absolutely unpleasant right now. Tokyo station is the terminus of the Tokaido 
and JR East Shinkansen and countless bus lines. Between the local lines, subway and Shinkansens 
there’s about a dozen train lines to keep the train enthusiasts busy. But arriving at the 
station earlier this morning is as far as these iron horses would take us today. Buses 
depart from the Yaesu side of the station on the eastern face, but even then things aren’t 
as cut and dry. EE: There’s some nice restaurants on the second floor outside the station! Between the JR bus station, the parking lot a block or two south, and 
the Tokyo Yaesu station across the street, not to mention the various stops around on the 
road finding the bus stop is the first order of the day. Luckily, the website provides a little 
map of where to catch the bus. And today that leads us to stop number six of JR Express bus 
station right outside the station building. Perfect. And not too long after our bus quickly 
pulls into our stop and boarding got underway. And as we get our tickets verified, I’ll take 
this moment to welcome you viewers to the channel. And I invite you to subscribe for continued 
travel and aviation related content where you can check out a corner of the highway bus world 
in Taiwan, which we enjoyed a few months back. EE: This is the 15th video for 2025! Originally, I was assigned seat 1A at the 
front, but since the bus wasn’t terribly busy, I asked if I could sit a little further back, and 
seat 3A will do just fine. Once everyone was on, we got on our way. How can you do it? 
Our trip today is with Tohoku Express bus number three. It’s a simple route with 
Tokyo Station being the only boarding point at 10:30 in the morning and arriving at 
Sendai Station at 15:57 and 3 minutes later at the Sendai office, completing 
the route end to end in 5 1/2 hours. EE: Sitting on the right side, you’d be able to see Tokyo Skytree and that Asahi beer building. Now that we’re well on our way, it’s time 
for a little nibble. Back in the station by the Yaesu South Gate, I stopped off at the 
gold onigiri. Now, I know in English people translate onigiri into rice balls, and this 
goes into the category of things that really grind my gears. They’re clearly not balls, and if 
anything, they are triangular prisms. And if we as society cannot correctly identify geometric 
solids, I mean, what’s the point? All right, rant over. Maybe I’m a little hangry. So, 
let’s dig in, the care package I got had a pork and a fish row onigiri, a couple meatballs, a 
hard-boiled egg, and some pickled daikon. Overall, very good. And the egg has a nice rich orange yolk 
cooked perfectly. Nice little bite to start the trip. And definitely have to stop off here again 
the next time I’m kicking around Tokyo Station. Looking towards the interior of the bus, 
we see that blue is the colour of choice and there’s three seats per row with two aisles. 
The aisle on the right side of the bus is a bit wider than the left side providing a bit more 
space. The seats have a blue antimacassar but lacks an adjustable headrest. The seat does 
make up for it though with a generous recline and it has a leg rest which extends from below 
the seat and a foot rest which folds down from the seat back providing a comfortable ride. The 
seat has a USB charging port but unfortunately lacks a standard power outlet. The left armrest 
has a little table and a lever for the leg rest. And the right armrest allows it to be lowered. 
And under that you’ll see the uh seat recline. Seat back has a little jacket hook and a 
pocket and a drink holder off to the side. At the base is the footrest which has enough 
clearance to store shoes underneath. And above are the lights and air control. I would be 
cautious of having a middle seat on this bus as it lacks the lights and air vents above. And 
each seat has its own curtain for added privacy. With all the seat features, it’s best to store 
any articles above in the luggage rack. Or if it’s not too busy, the seat beside works 
perfectly well. Overall, a comfortable way to travel in Japan. And given the recline and 
curtain, the seat would be perfectly acceptable for a night bus trip as well. Definitely a 
step up from a four-seat row configured bus. At 1:45, we pull into one of the service 
stations. But one benefit of the day trips over the night bus is that the shops here are 
open and it’s easy to grab something quick. Each stop on this trip was for about 15 minutes, 
so not long enough for a sit-down meal inside, but enough time to grab something fast. The 
beef tongue croquet caught my eye. Crispy golden brown on the outside with a soft, 
warm filling. Wonderful. 15 minutes came and went and not a moment too soon 
with those dark clouds not too far. The bus has one washroom located on the 
right side of the bus in row 5. And it’s definitely a step up from the washroom on 
the Taiwan bus I spoke about earlier. Oh boy. If you didn’t see it, check it out. The 
washroom here is, you know, nice and bright, has a seat cleaner, a sink with running 
water, and all the washroom necessities. Purchasing tickets for this trip was also very 
easy. You can purchase them on Willer Express, which is in my opinion the best website 
to purchase tickets for highway buses in Japan. the English website is good and 
it’s easy to use. A key point here is that you do have to enter the prefecture, not the 
city in the initial screen. So in our case, Miyagi will bring up buses for Sai when purchasing 
on the website. However, the only drawback was that I was unable to choose a seat and it’s 
automatically allocated in the confirmation email. But as long as the bus isn’t full, uh, changing a 
seat by asking the driver appear to be no issue. The website also now allows you to purchase 
as a guest rather than making an account, which is an improvement. I believe in my Willer 
Express bus videos from a few years back. I think they were before the pandemic. Uh, this was 
not the case. An account would have to be made. And 5 and 1/2 hours later, we reach Sai. And I 
would say this was an enjoyable trip and rather efficient. If taking a bus from Tokyo, I would 
strongly recommend getting a bus that leaves from Tokyo station rather than Shinjuku. Besides 
being an easier station to navigate, there’s less traffic around the Tokyo station area and the bus 
can make it to the highway a lot quicker and it’s a good start to the trip. With the prices of 
various JR rail passes increasing and not too long ago, I think it was last year, the buses 
becoming an increasingly attractive way to get around the country. At 4,000 yen, this was just 
under one third the cost of a Shinkansen ticket, and I think it was well worth it. There are night 
buses which connects Tokyo to Sai which I’ve taken a couple times in the past but at 350 km it’s 
a bit short for a night bus unless you want to arrive at 5 6:00 in the morning to check out some 
morning markets which is also not a bad idea. And we arrived in Rainy Sendai just 
outside the station which concludes this trip. Thanks for watching. Let me know 
your thoughts on the Tohoku Express Highway bus and I’ll catch you in the next video 
where we will take to the skies once more.

Tokyo Express is another highway bus in Japan which focuses on the Tohoku region. In this review we travel up to Sendai in a spacious 3-seat per row coach. There are many buses to choose from when travelling in Japan, and we’ll see how Tohoku Express services this popular route.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:00 Around Tokyo Station
2:00 Boarding and departure
3:08 A little nibble
4:00 Bus interior
5:45 Time for a snack
6:30 Sights along the way
7:25 A look in the washroom
7:55 Bus purchasing information
8:45 Pricing and arrival

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