I Rode Local Trains From Tokyo To The Edge of Hokkaido!

I Rode Local Trains From Tokyo To The Edge of Hokkaido!

All right, good morning everyone. Hope you’re all doing well. It is 5:30 here at the iconic Tokyo station and today I’ll be going to the eastern most train station in Japan using only local trains. The station I’m heading to is called Nimo. This recently became the eastern most station in Japan because Higashi Nimudo, which was the previous one, officially closed on March 14th, 2025. So there are three rules for this series. Number one, as for trains, I can only take local ones. That means I can’t take the limited express trains or the Shinkansen. Number two, I have to finish this in 3 days to make my flight back home. This is simply because I have work the day after my flight. So, number three, every time I get off a station, I have to show the time and day to prove that I’m really doing this without like skipping or cheating. So, there’s still a lot of things I want to explain, including the ticket I’m using and my plan for today. But, I do not have that much time right now because my first train is coming soon. I’ll explain more things once I get on the first out of the 13 trains I’ll be taking today. Uh a personal accident happened. So the first train I have to take today is not running from Tokyo but to Ueno. I did not expect a personal injury accident happening at 5:42 a.m. That is absolutely wild. [Music] The next station is J1. Okay, I am at Weno station. This train is just stopping here. You can’t make this stuff up, man. My god. I can’t wait. could get something to drink and eat before heading back here. My brain is not braining properly right now because I’m kind of like freaking out. It’s just that I didn’t think the worst case scenario would happen at the beginning of the video. And this is a video where I took so much time planning, right? This is I got my breakfast and my coffee at New Day. It’s still 6:14 a.m. Today I have to take 13 different trains up north. And right now I’m stuck on this one that’s supposed to head to Utsunomia. The thing is I don’t know when it’s going to start moving again. And that’s a big problem. Normally in Tokyo missing a train isn’t such a big deal because another one shows up. But once you get into the rural parts of the Tohoku region it’s a completely different story. Trains there can be hours apart. So, even a small delay here can throw the whole schedule off and mess up the rest of my trip. As for my plan today, I have to get to the spot in Almorti Prefecture by a certain time. I’ll explain more about why later, but for now, just know that I absolutely have to make it there. Believe it or not, there’s actually good news. I still have a chance to make it there. The train that was supposed to take at 553 from Tokyo was the second earliest one I could have taken from here. The latest I have to take the train from Tokyo is at 700 a.m. So if this train starts running before then I can still make my transfer at Utsunomia station, but if not, it sets this whole domino effect that makes my entire plan for today fall apart. I can actually change the lower deck for change of scenery. And I just got an announcement saying that this train will start running after the Takasaki line on the other side starts running. Oh god. This is very promising. It’s moving so slowly. Okay, now this train should start running too. Oh yeah, train seems to be running now. Okay, so it was a very chaotic start, but our train journey from Tokyo to the eastern most train station in Japan officially begins. So this train is heading to Utsunomia, which is in Toigi Prefecture. If everything runs smoothly, it should take about 2 hours to get there. This is just the start of a much longer journey though since I will be using only regular trains. If I used bullet trains and limited express trains, I could barely get to Japan’s Eastern Most Station in a day. But because this is a regular train trip, it’s going to add up to at least 42 hours of train rides over 3 days. Traveling long distances on regular trains is something Japanese train fans and especially Japanese train YouTubers like to do. So, I thought it would be cool for me to try it out while I’m on the younger side and have more energy and time. Since I’m going to be on this train for a while, I think this is a good time for me to explain what ticket I’m using. It’s called the JR Hokkaido and East pass. With this pass, I can ride as many local and rapid JR trains as I want for 7 days in a row in the JR East and JR Hokkaido areas. It does not let you ride limited express trains or bullet trains. If you notice Hachikipu, this pass is basically the Hokkaido and east version of that. If Jor gave residents unlimited bullet trains like the ones for tourists, I’m pretty sure they’re going to go absolutely broke. Well, anyway, this pass costs 11,530 yen for adults and 5,760 yen for children. These tickets also have some special rules for specific situations. You may have noticed that I’ve been sitting in green car seats instead of regular seats this whole time. This pass covers the base fair for the non-reserve green cars, but you still have to pay for the green car fair. You cannot use this pass for the reserve green car seats. Since these are non-reserved green cars and goes all the way to Utanomia, I thought this would be a good time for me to take advantage of that. [Music] [Music] [Music] No. for green. [Music] She look at it. [Music] [Music] The next station is Utunamia Terminal. We are here at Utsunomia station. The good news is that this train wasn’t late to the point where I will miss the next train I absolutely have to take. It is 8:54 right now. Train I have to take is this Utsunomia line at 9:12 heading towards Kudos, I believe. I’ve only been on two out of the 13 trains I have to take today, but uh I I’m already like exhausted physically and mentally. Yeah. And this is the train. Okay, I can actually take a breather and relax a bit now because I got through hopefully the most stressful part of the day. But now there’s another thing I’ve got to think about. Food. I was able to eat breakfast because I was sitting on green cars. But from here, I’ll be on regular cars only. And most of these trains only gave me about 10 to 20 minutes to transfer, which makes it difficult to make time to grab something to eat. Eating on the train is possible, but it depends on the type of seat. On the trains with long bench seats, it’s a big no no. But if it’s a cross seat or a box seat, it is okay depending on the situation. For now, I don’t have to worry too much about this because it’s still 9:30 a.m. But at some point, I’ve got to figure out when, where, and what to eat for lunch and dinner. We are here at Koiso Station at 10:05 a.m. Okay, we are here at platform 4 waiting for the train heading toward Shin Shiakawa to come. That is the tracks for the bullet train. Will you take a look at that? I didn’t know there’s this many freight trains running on to Oak line. H EH500 Kintar. All right, here it is. The five car toll line train heading towards Shinshiakawa station. Please stand behind the yellow line. [Music] These are the tracks for the Toho pushing gun. They were like right next to it which is pretty cool. Oh yeah, we’re definitely going away from it. There was only this area where it’s pretty close. Oh yeah, it’s all the way there now. So no. Goodbye. We are here at Shinshakawa station at 10:45 and the next train will be coming at 10:50 which is only 5 minutes. Here’s the train that we have to take. The one leaving at 10:50 heading towards Kyama station. [Music] Okay, it is 11:30 here at Kyama station which is in Fushima Prefecture and this is the next train we have to take. This train is leaving at 11:41 and it’s heading towards Fukushima station. [Music] [Music] [Music] We have about 10 15 minutes left till we get to Kushima station and I’m standing up right now. I feel like for long train journeys like this, it’s important to find this right balance between sitting down and standing up. So, for this ride, I sat down 75% of the time. And then the last 25% I’m just going to stand up. [Music] It is 12:28 and we are here at Kushima station. Wow, there’s a lot of people. So, the next train we have to take is this one. Leaving at 12:39, heading to Shirishi station. And this train is like definitely on the older side. No more box seats, just regular long seats. Oh, there’s a cupcake space area over here. And then a bathroom. Oh, this is a trash can. Nice to have him here. [Music] [Music] We are here at this station called Dick, but it looks like this station. That’s also the name of this city. [Music] Okay, we are leaving this train station called Kaida and we’re almost going to enter Miyagi Prefecture. So, this is the border between Sushima and Miyagi. So, once we cross this white line, we will be in Miyagi. [Music] All right, we are officially in Yakun. [Music] Unfortunately, we have 2 minutes to transfer to the next train. Oh, I think it’s that one. Yeah, it’s this one. This is the next train we’re going to be taking. And there’s a 1:16 p.m. heading towards Sai Station. [Music] I’ll just stay the same exact spot again. [Music] I thought the total area will be cooler. I did not expect this area to be 33°. Oh, look at that. Wow. It’s actually way hotter than I thought it would be. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay, we are at Sai station at 2:04 and my next train is coming at 2:34 p.m. which means I have 30 minutes. And this is the only time where I can eat lunch. And there is actually only one place you can eat lunch inside the train station. Yeah. Yes, it’s this. It is called Soba. So, standing soba restaurant. Okay, I can pay here. That’s nice. Uh, what should I get? Okay, so I got the fried chicken sobba large portion. It was uh 710 yen, but what’s crazy is that I ordered this at 2:06 p.m., but I got it at 209, so it’s like 3 minutes. So quick. [Music] Everybody has just done. Okay, I finished eating and I got like water and snacks from Kini. The next train I have to take is this one at 2:34 heading towards Kota. Kota Kota Kota. Okay. Oh, wow. It’s actually kind of crowded, huh? Oh, yeah. Here we go. [Music] And there’s crazy number of tunnels around this area. The train driver has been honking for at least like 10 times now. We’re passing by Matsushima right now, which is popular spons. We’re almost at Matsushima station. And you could get off here to go to Matushima, but there’s actually a better way to get there. You got to take the Senaki line and get off at I forgot the name of the train station, but the station on that line is closer to the actual island than this one. Yeah, there’s not many people. Just going to get on this train. [Music] [Music] [Music] Okay, we are here at station. The next train we’re going to be taking is this one at 3:36. Oh, I forgot to show you the time here. 3:20 and we’re taking the 3:20 3:36 heading to Ichinoi. Okay, so it’s officially been uh 11 hours since I woke up and 10 hours since I got to Tokyo Station and it’s very hard to believe it’s been that long. In fact, it’s hard to believe all of those things happened. It honestly feels like a dream right now. And I am actually enjoying this trip more than I thought. But I shouldn’t be too confident because the next three trains I’m going to be taking are probably going to be the longer side on the longer side. This one is heading towards Ichinoi. [Music] I’ve seen so many freight trains today and it’s to the point where I’m like, “Okay, okay, that’s too much. I don’t need to see you anymore.” This is where we are now, which is uh Miyagi Prefecture. Anything past this white border is Iata Prefecture. And that’s Ichinoi right there. Again, I don’t Oh my god, it’s another Momo or King. They’re so busy, huh? Anyway, so we’re going to be enter for a bit and then exiting it for like a second and then enter again. So another cool thing about the Tohoku mainland is that it’s kind of away from the Tohoku Shinkansen. So it’s a nice change of scenery. The next station the train will stop at is Tajidi. Let’s see how long it takes to go from Tajidi to I even to like the bullet train tracks. Oh damn. It’s like an hour and 31 minute walk. What’s the distance? Uh 4.2 miles. Damn. It’s like that far away from each other. Just for a fun fact, this station is called Tajidi. The left kanji means field and the right kanji means butt. So this is the field ass station. I guess this will be a good time to check out the bathroom too. Now it’s just this that toilet paper. It’s a flush button and emergency button in case you somehow mess up. And the only place where you can wash your hand is over here. Is it automatic? Oh, no. You got to like Okay, you got to push it. And there’s a trash can over there. Okay, that was it. I’ve always thought front train views will be like the best view, but I don’t know. The back view is also really nice. And if anything, I can just reverse this video to make it look like I’m going forward. We’re almost at station. That was fast. Well, it felt fast because I found the biggest train pack you can use to kill time. Sleep. [Music] here at station 4:22 p.m. Oh, we only have 5 minutes. Jeez. Okay. Uh, do they run the Pokemon train here? I don’t know if that’s content worthy. Let me know in the comments. The local train, four cars. They have 427. I like this purple theme. seats. Oh, and there’s a trash can here, too. Okay, the train heading to Boroka has officially started moving. Yeah, I know I keep saying this over and over, but so nice seeing mountains. It feels refreshing and different from corporate buildings. We are here at Chagami Station. I came here about 5 months ago to film the video about me going to a train station with a public bath inside. And over there is the train station for our tech station for Kami. [Music] No platform. Wonder why I was honking. That wasn’t a type four crossing. Oh, this is really nice. [Music] Okay, Morioa station. It’s 5:59 p.m. The last time I came here, I used the Shink Consen. It was a 2-hour train ride. This time, using local trains, it was a 11-hour train ride. Okay, so if the personal injury accident didn’t happen, I was supposed to arrive to the station at 5:15 p.m. and that would have given me an hour to kill time before taking the next train. But because the personal injury accident happened and I had to take the later train, I only have 15 minutes to transfer to my next one. So yeah, it was kind of a bummer. I wanted to show you morio which is one of their famous food and it’s very unique because it’s a chilled noodles with a watermelon on it. And this is the gingo which is a third sector railway and I’m going to be taking a one at 615 heading towards Hachino station. Oh, I thought it’s going to have like a unique train, but this is a JR train. Oh, this one is the third sector original design. That’s cool. Now I’m on the Iwata Tetsudo heading from Morioa to Hachino in Ali Prefecture. This line is run by Tetsudo. It’s what’s called a third sector railway, which pretty much means it’s run by a mix of local governments and private investors. This railway actually runs on the old JR Tohoku mainline. JR handed this part over to them when the Tohoku Shinkansen opened and started handling all the long distance travel on this route instead. What’s cool is that my pass covers this line. Other passes like the station does not include this line. I’m very thankful for that because if I had to pay for this train, the ride from Morioa to Hatino would have been 3,110 yen. And on top of that, that’s only about 700 yen cheaper than taking the Shinkansen for the same section, which costs 3,890 yen and takes only 30 minutes compared to about 2 hours on the Gingauto. So, if you plan to travel north using local trains, I’d highly recommend getting this pass instead of the station. Earlier in the video, I said there’s a specific spot in Almi I have to reach today. I need to get there because from that point I have to take another type of transportation to Hokkaido. I know I said I’m only going to be taking local trains, but this is an exception because there are no local trains that connect the mainland in Hokkaido. So, there are two ways to make this happen. One is to take the Hokkaido Shinkansen from Shin Modi to Kikonai, which is the first Shinkansen station in Hokkaido and then continue on by local train from there. The other option is to take the ferry across, and that’s what I’m going to do. There are several fairies you can take from different ports that go to different parts of Hokkaido. This time, I chose the most convenient one. We are here at uh there’s no train station, but Hachino station, and this is the second to the last train we’re going to be taking today. Yes, it is 8:04. So, I’m pretty sure voiceover Tana explained about how I can’t take any local trains from mainland Japan to Hokkaido. The only two ways I can get there is either by the Hoku Shinkansen or a ferry or swim if you want. You’ll probably die. So, out of those two options, I decided to go to Hokkaido using a ferry. So, this last local train I’m going to be taking you to would take me to a train station where they have a bus that will take me to the ferry terminal. Okay, this is the train we’re going to be taking the E131 oneman heading towards How do you read this? It’s not displaying the English version. So, I guess that’s Oh, Cooji Coogi. There you go. More box seats. So, I was watching a lot of Japanese train YouTubers and I looked it up online for Japanese people’s answer and apparently you can eat at these box seats. I know like long seats is like a absolute no no, but box seats is okay depending on the situation. People were saying like it’s okay as long as it’s not crowded. And right now, yeah, it’s there’s not that many people here. So, I think I’m just going to eat dinner. I still have the food I bought from New Days. So, I think I’m just going to eat that right now. It’s 8:15 and I’m kind of hungry. [Music] [Music] Seems like most people are getting off here. [Music] Okay, we are here at Hong Ki station. Wait, no station. So, that was the last train for today. It is 8:34 p.m. right now. And I took my first train at 7:00 a.m. So, it was an 11 and 12 hour train journey. Woo. The next thing I have to do is to find the ferry shuttle bus. It says over here. Yeah, I think everyone who got off here or like most people who got off here is going to take the fairy shuttle bus. I wonder if they take IC card. Paying for bus by cash is such a pain if you don’t have exact change because you’ll have to use like the exchange machine and it’s going to like hold up a line and it gives you more pressure. [Music] [Music] All right, we are here at the Hatino Ferry Terminal. They arrived pretty early. It said it was going to arrive around 9:10, but yeah, I came 6 minutes earlier, probably cuz there’s no traffic. And then from here, we’re going to be taking the Silver Ferry that’ll take us to Hokkaido. Welcome to Hachi Noi. Hachi no. I think I’m tired. All right, I got my reservation ticket and the room key QR code. And you can go to the ferry already even though it’s 15 minutes away from departure time. That’s cool. That’ll give me time to like relax and give you a fairy tour. Wow, this is Really cool. Wait, am I on the boat already? Oh, wait. I think I am. Oh, wow. Booth where you can buy snacks. And they have like this restaurant area, like a booth area. I heard that this part is open 24 hours. It says auto restaurant, but where do they Oh, we here. Okay. Oh, that is so cool. The vending machines, the ice cream vending machine, food vending machines. So, it’s like the microwavable frozen food. They have like bread, snacks, and what is this? A cup noodle. And there’s the microwave that you can use to, you know, microwave the frozen food. All right. I got the class one room. So, there’s a bunk bed on the left side and the right side. Oh, this is fun. I have to take off my shoes over here. I will not lie down because I am a mess right now. There’s like an AC over here. Oh, that is I’m very grateful for that. There’s a TV, too. Oh my god, this this is actually pretty good. And then you can enjoy the view. This is something definitely I’m looking forward to in the morning. Oh, there’s also a closet. Oh, it has like a Oh, nice. It has like the pot. What is this? Like cups and slippers and a pajama. This is big. And yeah, these are life vest in case I die. Oh yeah, there’s also the sink area plug. Water’s running properly. Soap. There’s four towels, even though there’s only me. And there’s also four toothbrushes, so I might as well take the rest for future purposes. No, I don’t know if the bed is comfortable. Okay, I’m pretty sure this book will do a better job explaining the types of room. So this is like the best room where it’s pretty much like an hotel. So we’ll call this S tier. So there’s like four different types of A tier rooms. There’s a room for two people, room for four people, two people and pets, and a room for four people and pets. So I got the room for four people. And I don’t think the price was different from the room with two people. This is like B tier with a private room. It kind of reminded me of like a internet cafe where it’s not that spacious. It’s just for you to have a private room. And then there is the call the C tier C tier where it’s like a public, you know, everyone can see your sleep and you only get like this thin mattress. And as for the price of this room, it was 10,800 yen. What makes this 1000 p.m. very specifically good is that you’re not only paying for like the room, but you’re also paying to go to Hokkaido. So, this makes it really worth it. It’s only open from 8:45 to 11:00 p.m. So, I think it’s better if I go now once it leaves. I only have an hour left. I’m trying to look for a towel, like a bath towel. That might be something I have to buy. Or are they nice enough to provide free ones? I don’t think Yeah, this is a hand towel. I don’t think this is it. Yeah, this isn’t it. One thing I have to be really careful about is me not forgetting to bring my room key QR code whenever I go out because Yeah, if I forget it, it’s it’s over. It’s auto lock. So, okay. I just came back from the bath area. Most people didn’t stay for that long. I think it’s because it’s still during the summer. I don’t know about you, but I feel like most people wouldn’t want to take a long onsen or of during the summer because it’s hot. It makes you want to leave ASAP. It is 9:57 right now and that means the ferry should leave in about 3 minutes. And since we have a window, we can actually look at it go. I’m saying since we have a window because the B and C tier I was talking about earlier doesn’t have windows. Oh, I forgot to say about the bath. Uh, if you don’t bring your own like towel, you have to pay for it. Like, you have to buy one. In some places, you can borrow one for like 300 to 400 yen. I had to buy my bath towel and it was 750 yen. That’s pretty expensive. Oh, we’re moving. I didn’t notice at all. So, with this ferry, I’m going to be heading over to Hokkaido, and I’m going to arrive there around 6:00 a.m. As for which part of Hokkaido this ferry is heading to, I will review that in the day two video. Okay, so that was day one of Tokyo to Japan’s Eastern Most Train Station using local trains only. I hope you enjoyed this chaotic mess. Once day two is up, it will be over here. So, go check it out. All right, thank you for watching. See you guys later. Bye-bye.

I’ll share locations (and more) at the final episode of this series.

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