Do the math ... or ... sleep on the bus

Naturally, my friends who live near each other cannot best host me at around the same time. So here's a running plan that takes me from home base Nagoya to Osaka and back, then later, Kyoto and back, on two seperate trips. I've broken it down based on two primary travel options -- train or bus. Now, let's not get excited about the train -- I cannot afford the shinkansen, or, bullet train (pictured at right), that takes me comfortably from city to city at awesome speeds. No, I am limited to trains that stop at roughly every exit, thanks to the potential purchase of the Seishun 18 Kippu, a seasonal discount train pass. The pass works like this: It offers five days of travel, consecutive or non-consecutive, on limited trains across Japan. It costs about $95.One way to break it down is like this, each number being one 24-hour period of travel -

1. TOKYO to NAGOYA (6 + hours)

2. NAGOYA to OSAKA (not so long)

3. OSAKA back to NAGOYA

4. NAGOYA to KYOTO

5. KYOTO back to NAGOYA

Then there's our friend the bus -- (got an e-mail just now, seats are available):

Tokyo to Nagoya - $30 , night, Orion 6.5 hours

Nagoya to Osaka – round trip $37

Nagoya Kyoto – roun trip $33

At a total of $100.

So for five more dollars, I ride a bus. Admittedly not as cool-sounding as trains, but also, I would not have to deal with 3 train-changes on the commuter trains.

Of course ... I could just rearrange one friend's visit and merge the Kyoto and Osaka visits to one round trip, saving a little money and time. Hmmmm.

I could just forget the entire trip, too. Mom argues that despite having already spent $600 on the ticket, I'd save several hundred more by just not going.

Good try, Mom. I'll bring you back some expensive sake.