It’s only available three times a year during school holiday seasons (March 1 – April 10, July 20 – September 10, and December 10 – January 10), but the Seishun 18 Kippu is an incredibly affordable way to travel long distances by train in Japan. For only 12,050 yen, you have unlimited rides on all local and rapid JR train lines anywhere in the country for five consecutive days. That’s just 2,410 yen a day!
The ticket cannot be used on shinkansen (bullet trains) or limited express trains, so your onboard journeys will be longer, but that means you have more time to appreciate the immaculate beauty of the Japanese countryside. It also is not applicable to non-JR lines.
Seishun is a word that describes the feelings of vitality, passion, and invincibility that youths often harness. But no worries, there’s no age limit for using the Seishun 18 Kippu. To me, this feels like a delightful reminder that seishun is not something that permanently disappears with age. As long as we choose, we can be forever young!
