The collection comes in a set of six binders so you can display all 4,368 of your tickets easily.
October 14th in Japan is known as Tetsudo no Hi (or ‘Railway Day) in commemoration of the opening of Japan’s first railroad. The very first train journey was between Shimbashi Station and Yokohama Station and happened back in 1872.
As 2022 will be the 150th anniversary of the maiden run, Japan Railways (JR) are offering a set of limited edition binders full of admission tickets for every single JR station throughout the country — 4,368 stations in total.
The cost for all six binders with the 4,368 tickets will cost an eye-watering 700,000 yen (US$5,467) and are limited to just 250 sets, so only serious train enthusiasts need apply when they go on sale from May 16th.
The tickets aren’t just for display, either — all 4,368 tickets will be able to be used as regular tickets, although the tickets are valid only until March 31, 2023. Considering the binders will start to ship out from October 14th, anyone planning on using all the tickets will have a very limited window of time to be able to visit every station available.
While 700,000 yen seems like a hefty price for binders filled with train tickets, considering the price of a regular JR admission ticket ranges from 130 yen to 200 yen, it works out to more or less the same price as buying every single one of the 4,368 tickets individually, plus you get some fancy binders to store them in. Still, that didn’t stop Japanese netizens from doing a double take when they saw the price.
“That is a shocking amount of money to drop on some tickets!”
“If these didn’t have an expiration date, I’d consider it.”
“As a train fan, I’d absolutely love this but 700,000 yen is too much for a junior high school student like me…”
“These are gonna be snapped up and resold for much, much more.”
“As someone with absolutely no interest in trains this seems crazy to me, but I’m sure they’ll sell out immediately.”
Anyone lucky enough to get one of the 250 sets of binders and wishing to attempt the full tour of all JR stations with their new purchase should bear in mind that the tickets are admission tickets to the station only. You’ll need to set some money aside for actual fares if you plan to hop on a train and tour Japan with your brand new binder, but ven if you don’t, there’s still plenty of cool stuff that you can see inside of JR train stations throughout the country.
Source: JR East via Netlab
Top image: JR East
Insert image: Pakutaso
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!