Our reporters set out to escape Tokyo with a modest budget, a direction to go in, and no other plan.

Tokyo is a pretty awesome place to be, but every now and then even we here at SoraNews24 find ourselves craving an escape from the capital. On a recent Tuesday morning, with our wanderlust spiking, we found ourselves wondering about something.

Just how far away from Tokyo can you get for 5,000 yen (US$33.80)?

And so it was that two of our Japanese-language reporters, Mr. Sato and Go Hatori, met up at 9 in the morning outside of Tokyo Station for an unusual competition. Given a transportation budget of 5,000 yen each, they were going to see who could travel farther by 5 p.m., using Google Maps to calculate the straight-line distance from Tokyo Station to wherever they ended up. If their budget ran out, they were free to continue on foot until the clock struck 5.

Because Tokyo is more or less in the southeast corner of Japan, Mr. Sato and Go decided that one of them should head north, the other west. As for who would travel in which direction, they left that up to chance, settling it with a coin flip that sent Mr. Sato venturing to the west and Go to the north.

Thanks to Tokyo Station being one of the world’s biggest transportation hubs, they had plenty of options to choose from. Mr. Sato opted to start hopping on a Tokaido Line train and riding it to Atami, a seaside hot spring town in Shizuoka Prefecture. Checking the timetable, he saw that there was a train departing at 9:32 which would get him to Atami one hour and 53 minutes later for 1,980 yen.

Meanwhile, Go’s first instinct was to catch a highway bus up to Sendai, in Miyagi Prefecture. Unfortunately, though, unlike the standard train that Mr. Sato was taking, the highway bus only has a limited number of tickets each day, and they we are already reserved. Switching gears, Go bought a ticket for the 10 a.m. bus to the town of Iwaki, in Fukushima Prefecture, for 3,800 yen.

● 10 a.m.

With a head-start of nearly half an hour, by 10 o’clock Mr. Sato had already made it out of Tokyo and into neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture, reaching Totsuka, one of the last major residential areas before you get into the smaller coastal communities in Kanagawa’s western half.

▼ Tokyo to Totsuka

Go, meanwhile, had just gotten onboard the bus, and was settling in for the three-hour ride to Iwaki.

● 11 a.m.

Since Mr. Sato hadn’t opted for a special, extra-cost limited express, the train made frequent stops as it continued. However, once you reach Oiso Station in western Kanagawa, the Tokkaido Line tracks start hugging the Shonan coastline, offering some pretty views of Sagami Bay.

Go’s bus, on the other hand, stopped less frequently, and with fewer people shuffling on and off than on a train, the mood was relaxed. He didn’t have an ocean view like Mr. Sato did, instead looking at stretches of highway and occasional mountains as he sipped his drink and listened to his tunes.

● 11:30 a.m.

Mr. Sato’s train arrived in Atami right on time, and a little after 11:30, he was out on the street to look for lunch.

▼ Tokyo to Atami

This was Mr. Sato’s first time to be in Atami since before the pandemic, and he was surprised to see that they’ve added an open-air hot spring foot bath right outside the station for anyone to use free of charge. Also a surprise: the size of the crowds.

Atami’s heyday was in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. As Japan’s economy boomed, it became a trendy vacation destination for couples, families, and employee retreats for large companies. In time, though, budgets got tighter and Atami lost a lot of its luster and got saddled with a reputation as an old-fashioned place that primarily appealed to older travelers. However, Atami has recently been revitalized as the perception has shifted to it having an atmosphere of retro coolness, and it’s proving popular with foreign tourists too, who don’t necessarily associate the town with their own parents or grandparents.

The influx of visitors, though, means that there’ll be lines for the most popular restaurants, and this proved true even on a Tuesday (though this one was coming a day after a three-day weekend). As such, Mr. Sato had to fan out a little wider than he’d expected before he could find a place that could seat him right away, but when he eventually did he got to enjoy this tasty set-meal lunch with simmered flounder, rice, miso soup, vegetables, and pickles.

▼ It cost him 1,400 yen, by the way, but that didn’t count against his 5,000-yen transportation budget.

Dessert spots can also get crowded in Atami too, and Mr. Sato had a heavy heart as he passed by cream puff and pudding specialty shops with lines he’d ordinarily have been happy to wait in, if only he weren’t in a timed-distance race with one of his coworkers. Thankfully, though, he stumbled across a place called Ichigo Plaza on his way back to Atami Station that sells a “Drinkable Ichigo Daifuku,” a dessert-drink reimagining of strawberry daifuku dumpling with delicious fruit and anko (sweet red bean paste) flavors.

▼ For 600 yen, it’s a tasty treat, and so thick that the straw sometimes gets packed as you sip.

▼ Ichigo Plaza

● Noon

Before going their separate ways at Tokyo Staton, Mr. Sato and Go had agreed to periodically check in with each other during the day. Go didn’t have much to counter Mr. Sato’s tales of lunch and dessert with, though, because at this time he was still on the bus, now north of Tokyo somewhere in Ibaraki Prefecture.

● 1 p.m.

With his hunger and sweet tooth satiated, it was time for Mr. Sato to decide on the next leg of his journey, and he chose to continue west on the Tokaido Line with a 2,640-yen ticket that would take him to Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture.

At about the time Mr. Sato was getting back on the train, Go was finally getting off the bus, which had reached Iwaki Station.

▼ The smile of a man getting to stretch his legs after a three-hour bus ride

● 2 p.m.

Mr. Sato was still moving west. Having now reached Nishi Yaizu Station, he’d crossed over into Shizuoka Prefecture, but was still about one hour out from Hamamatsu.

Go, however, had stopped making northern progress. He had about two hours to kill before the train he planned to take out of the city would depart, so now it was his turn to look for local food to eat, and he made a great find at Senba Yachaba Iwaki no Daidokoro, with seafood brought in from the nearby Onahama Port.

▼ Senba Yachaba Iwaki no Daidokoro

Senba Yachaba Iwaki no Daidokoro has an eat-in space too, and so Go was able to treat himself to a fantastic kaisendon (mixed sashimi bowl).

▼ Go’s first meal since leaving Tokyo, but definitely worth the wait

● 3:30 p.m.

Time for another check-in. Mr. Sato had now gotten off the train at Hamamatasu Station, and was down to the last 380 yen of his transportation budget.

▼ Atami to Hamamatsu

That would be just enough to get him onto one last Tokaido Line train and go as far as Washizu Station in the Shizuoka town of Kosai (marked on the map below with the red arrow), which his train pulled into at 3:50.

With his transportation funds tapped out, Mr. Sato was going to have to eke out the last kilometers on foot, so he started walking west.

Go, having finished his sashimi bowl, had boarded a Joban Line train at Iwaki Station and taken it north to Odaka Station in Minamisoma, Fukushima.

▼ Iwaki Staton to Odaka Station

The line runs close to the coast, giving Go a chance to enjoy his own view of the Pacific this time. However, with the ticket from Iwaki to Odaka costing 1,170 yen, he was going to be arriving with only 30 yen left in his budget, so he’d be walking in order to max out his distance from Tokyo too.

Back in Shizuoka, Mr. Sato’s steps had slowed. It’s been an unusually hot September in Japan this year, and as he walked through this primarily rural community, he found himself wishing he’d stocked up on drinks back in the more developed surroundings of Hamamatsu Station.

Finally, though, he came across a convenience store, and ducked in for a refreshing canned ice coffee.

While Mr. Sato was recharging, Go’s train was pulling into Odaka.

It’s an unmanned station, so when you get off the train, there’s an honor-system box to put your ticket into.

▼ A quaint countryside reminder of just how far he’d traveled from Tokyo

With the sun starting to set, our two reporters/competitors continued putting one foot in front of the other.

At five o’clock, speakers from the community broadcast system for the farmland Mr. Sato was walking by played their daily melody to mark the time, and now all that was left to do was for him and Go to check their current positions and calculate how far away they’d gotten from Tokyo Station.

▼ Go had reached a point along Prefectural Route 260 in Fukushima’s Minamisoma, while Mr. Sato had ended up in the Shizuoka town of Kosai.

So what were their distances from Tokyo Station?

● Mr. Sato: 233 kilometers (144.8 miles)
● Go: 237 kilometers (147.3 miles)

▼ Go celebrating his victory

Of course, with so many train and bus lines stretching out from Tokyo, these are just two of a potentially limitless number of possible routes, and now that we’ve gotten reacquainted with how easy it is to travel in Japan without any plan more detailed than a direction of the compass, Mr. Sato and Go are already looking forward to challenging each other again someday.

Photos ©SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]