Kamikochi travel plan by bus

#SoloTravelPlan Today, I would like to share how to travel to Kamikochi by bus. Kamikochi is located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. 📍We mainly traveled by bus. We took the bus at Shinjuku Bus Station and took the Shinjuku Express Bus at 11.55. We got off at Matsumoto Station at 15.13. We booked the bus ticket 1 month in advance. We booked online for 4,300 yen/person. We could choose our seats. We would receive a QR code via email. On the day of travel, we could show the QR code to the staff. We could also print it. 📍We stayed in Matsumoto for 1 night at Ace Inn Mastumoto Hotel, which is right across from the bus station. Just cross the street. It was very convenient. 📍We woke up at 4 am, took a shower, got dressed, and checked out. We left our bags at the hotel and walked to catch the bus. We booked the bus at 5.30 am. 📍We booked a bus ticket directly to Kamikochi online. You can book 1 month in advance. It is recommended to book at 22:00 Thai time because Thailand and Japan are 2 hours apart. We think that the reason why people do not book in time may be because they are confused about the time. There are only 2 rounds of direct buses from Matsumoto: the first round is at 05:30, arriving at Kamikochi at 07:05, and the second round is at 10:15, arriving at Kamikochi at 11:55. The price is 4,000 yen/person. You cannot choose your seat. Whoever arrives first gets on the bus first and can choose their seat first. We printed out the reservation form and showed it to the driver. 📍For the return trip to Kamikochi, we also booked online in advance. It was convenient. However, the return trip is different from the trip because there is no direct bus from Kamikochi to Matsumoto. We had to take the bus from Kamikochi to Shin-Shimashima Station first to change to the train to Matsumoto Station. We booked the return trip at 13:20 and arrived in Matsumoto at 15:15. The ticket price is 3,260 yen/person. You should arrive at least 30 minutes before the departure time because sometimes there are a lot of people. 📍If you didn't book a ticket online in advance, you can buy a ticket at the ticket machine at Matsumoto Station for the outbound trip. For the return trip, you can buy it at the Kamikochi ticket counter. The ticket price includes both the bus and the train. You can show the officer a single ticket. #Kamikochi #Matsumoto #TravelPlan #SoloTravelPlan #TravelJapan