Not having a license for driving in Japan, I went with the next most convenient travel option—the train system.
I have to admit that at first, taking a train to Tsukumi seemed a daunting task. My previous experience with trains had been limited to the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kariuzawa for the TEAM Men’s Retreat last year, and the occasional trip by local train to nearby Kurashiki, which is a paltry 320 yen for a twenty-minute trip.
The shinkansen does not go anywhere the local train does not go, so if you have the time and patience, you can feasibly go anywhere in Japan by local train. The advantages of this approach are two-fold: you can see more scenery, and you can save money. I decided to try it. All of the timetables for every station are published on the internet, so late Tuesday night I carefully plotted out a list of stops and train changes that would have me arriving in Tsukumi eleven hours after my departure from Okayama.
The reality of Wednesday was not so accommodating to my meticulous planning. I left Okayama on the 5:51 (yes, that’s a.m.) train bound for Hiroshima. Things proceeded smoothly until I reached Tokuyama about four hours later. There the conductor announced that an electrical line incident had occurred and that the train would not proceed past Tokuyama for an indefinite period of time.
At this point my plan went out the window. I knew that I didn’t have a lot of leeway at the upcoming stations unless I was willing to wait through a long layover and arrive in Tsukumi late in the evening. Not finding that scenario attractive, I opted to take the shinkansen from Tokuyama to Kokura, which is on the northern tip of Kyushu island. From Kokura I saved a little more time (and sacrificed a little more money) by taking an express train to Beppu, and then the local train for the remaining distance.
I arrived in Tsukumi about ten hours after leaving Okayama, and my wallet was 12,910 yen thinner (about 100 USD). Considering the trip back can be made in about three hours (with good train selection) for only 3,000 yen more, I took the faster option when I returned to Okayama.
As it turned out, not having a travel plan to rely on wasn’t all that bad. A plan would be useful at large stations when you know you don’t have much time to change trains. But in all other cases you only need to know which direction you want to travel in. After that it’s just a matter of checking the timetable for the next train in that direction. I’m looking forward to the next time I travel by rail (although the next time I go to Tsukumi I imagine I’ll take the shinkansen/express train combo both ways).