Be careful when taking a bus in Japan: You may be stuck at highway stops if you are late

Japanese coaches can be a convenient and economical way to get around Japan. But that's only if you're punctual.

The New Year holidays are the busiest time for domestic travel in Japan as it is a tradition to return home and spend time with family during the season. Although Shinkansen bullet trains are the fastest and most famous form of domestic transportation in Japan, many people will also take buses for long-distance travel. This was reported by soranews24.com.

Not only are buses often cheaper than trains, but they also serve many rural areas of the country where there are no high-speed rail stops. Since buses in Japan are usually clean and drivers and passengers are polite, you can book a seat in advance and often these seats recline and have footrests, making the trip quite comfortable. And for longer trips, there's a stop or two at famous Japanese highway rest stops.

However, there is one potential problem associated with using long-distance buses, and the bus operator JR Bus Tohoku has published a special reminder on its website.

It states that buses will depart on schedule. If you are not on the bus when it departs on schedule, they will not try to contact you or wait for you.

In other words, if you spend too long browsing the souvenir shops, stretching your legs, or doing something else at the bus stop that prevents you from getting back on the bus at the scheduled departure time, the bus may simply leave you behind and you will be stuck halfway to your destination.

"A lot of people use our buses during the New Year season. If someone is late and disrupts the schedule, it will cause problems for other passengers, so we made this warning statement," JR Bus Tohoku explains.

The company added that the rule is not so strict and you do not have to be Flash. An important takeaway from the warning is that there is no guaranteed grace period for being late getting back on the bus.

Fortunately, intercity buses usually have a large clock at the front of the cabin, and drivers verbally announce or put up signs telling you when the bus will depart. This makes it easy to coordinate the hours and know how much time you have left before you get back.