JR East Pass - Travelling Kanto area and Nagano, Japan

JR East Pass provide a great discount on regular rail travel and it covers the fastest Shinkansen train on JR East network. Basically, you can travel until Nagano on central Japan and up to Shin-Aomori on northern Japan. The pass enable you to utilize five different type of Shinkansen train namely: Akita, Hokuriku, Yamagata, Joetsu and Tohoku Shinkansen. Another great feature of this pass is the validity of 14 days and can be used on any 5 days. This pass is considered as flexible as other passes need to be used on the consecutive days when activated. Another great value of this pass as it covers unlimited travel on Narita Express, Tokyo monorail and Yamanote line which provide convenient access to Tokyo via both Narita and Haneda airport. The JR East Pass priced at 22,000 Yen which is cheaper than you purchasing individual Shinkansen tickets to Nagano.

You don’t have to buy JR East Pass before arriving in Japan. It can be purchased at the airport on arrival at Narita and Haneda airport, or from any major JR East Stations. In Tokyo, you can purchase the pass at Tokyo, Shinjuku, Shinagawa, Shibuya, Ikebukuro and Ueno station. If you would like to purchase from your travel agent in your home country, you can do that as well. If you buy the JR East pass in Tokyo you will need to show your passport as well as your return air tickets as evidence that you are in Japan for short stay. I do recommend that you take the JR East Pass if you travel more than 3 hours combined on Shinkansen. Travelling at least 3 hours on Shinkansen can easily cost 16,000 Yen. And if you add on your stay in Tokyo and travel using Narita Express, the cost can easily be covered.


JR East Pass.


Travelling from Narita airport to Tokyo is covered by JR East Pass.

Status board on Narita Express (NEX).

Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano. 1 hour 45 minutes on the fastest Kagayaki train.

Very long bullet train.

Train schedule.

Selfie with Japan bullet train.

Japanese style notepad. JR East provide gift for those who travel long distance on Shinkansen train. You can collect souvenir or gift from each major stations that you reached using JR trains. More details here.

Cheap vintage clothing from Bingo @ Shibuya, Tokyo

Bingo used clothing store located in Shibuya is one of the best store to shop for quality vintage branded clothing at reasonable price. The best thing about Japan vintage clothing is that you are able to find good condition clothing and some even new. Probably the clothes out of fashion or have some minor manufacturing defects. But who cares about that as long as the cloth is still clean and looking good when wearing it. Here you are able to shop for working shirts, jeans, pants, leather jackets, boots, shoes, watches, wallets, bags and winter jackets. Bingo cater more for men market as almost 75% of the floor are selling men's products. The rest 25% are ladies products more on clothing. Shopping for vintage item is like a treasure hunt as you need to get a right size and at a right price. Even if the price is right and if the size of the clothing don't fit you, it defeat the purpose as well. Most of the items priced between 800 to 4,000 Yen. The price depends on the brand and condition of the item.


Welcome to Bingo used clothing store.

Branded leather jacket. Most of the leather jacket are selling half pricing from the full market price. But its still depends on the condition. If the jacket is very new, you will be shocked to see the price is quite near to the full market price. Here you can see Aero leather and Schott leather jacket on display at the top.


Schott front button leather jeans jacket. From the price at 32,400 Yen, you will notice that the price is not cheap. Even if the price is right, you need to have a right size as well. The fun of shopping vintage is to get the right size and right price.

Many good looking sling bags are available as well.


Good looking shoes, sneakers and boots. Some really like new.

Here you are able to find branded boots such as Danner and Redwings.

GPS/Coordinate: 35.661047, 139.697692
Address: 150-0042 Tokyo, Shibuya, Udagawacho, 32-13 (basement).
Public transport: JR Shibuya station or Tokyo Metro Shibuya station.
Website: http://www.bookoff.co.jp/shop/shop87003.html

Keisei Skyliner package @ Narita Airport, Japan

During my recent trip to Japan, I found out a good deal by taking Keisei Skyliner instead of taking Keisei Limited Express train to Tokyo. Taking Keisei Skyliner is more convenient and faster. I took the combination of return trip of Skyliner with 1 day Metro unlimited travel pass. Normally a return ticket of Skyliner with 1 day of unlimited metro pass will cost 5650 Yen. But if I take this promotion, I am only paying 4500 Yen. Although Keisei Limited Express train only cost between 1000 - 1200 Yen but it will require 1 hour 30 minutes to travel from Narita airport to Tokyo. By taking Skyliner, you can save time as it only takes 45 minutes to reach Tokyo.

Where to buy: When you are in arrival hall, please look for Keisei train signboard or train to Tokyo signboard. The counter is located one floor lower after you past Japanese custom check.


Keisei ticket counter.

I am ready for travel now.

Keisei Skyliner.

Nice and clean chairs.

Luggage area of the train.

This is what I get for 4500 Yen. A return ticket ofa Keisei Skyliner and 1 day metro. I don't plan to take many days of metro Tokyo this time as travelling on JR line is more convenient.