I wondered where the Yuyuko-sama person had vanished while we talked about taking the Utsunomiya line green car. Turns out she was buying a bullet train ticket. Since there were only five minutes before departure, we had her give up on getting a refund and just stay with going by bullet train. What the heck is with the Yuyu-sama person? :-)
By the way, there were several other people on this trip as well, but I consolidated them to the usual characters for the gag.
Reader-added tags include "Bourgeois tragedy", "Yuyuko-sama: An Unexpected Food Journey (working title)", and "Yamame: 'I'm tellin' y'all, it ain't my fault!!'"
The survey looks for other means of travel:
How should we get to Utsunomiya? • Via Yukarin's gap • Dangling under Ayaya • While rolling with Chen • While trying food samples with Yuyu-sama • While playing God Eater Burst with Tani-san
Kryptik said: I'm curious the price difference in tickets here now.
From Ueno to Kuroiso is about 160 km. Advance-purchase tickets (as opposed to buying after you board) for Green Car travel over 51 km are ¥950 on weekdays, ¥750 on Saturdays/holidays. I'm guessing they're leaving on a weekday, and they've obviously purchased in advance, so we'll say ¥950.
Tohoku Bullet Train tickets for Ueno to Nasushiobara (the actual town nearest Kuroiso Station) are ¥5550, almost six times more than the Green Car rates.
Poor Yuyuko-sama! She'll have to meet up with everyone later. I'm sure she'll get some meals in on the bullet train, that's a given. Enough food, and she'll forget all about this little mishap.
For the poll, let's travel while trying food samples with Yuyuko-sama. Always fun to have someone to eat with.
Currently, taking an Utsunomiya Line Green Car directly from Ueno to Kuroiso costs ¥3800 (weekends) or ¥4000 (weekdays) and takes roughly 2 hours, 45 minutes. (¥3020 base fare + ¥780 or ¥980 Green Car surcharge)
Taking the Tōhoku Shinkansen from Ueno to Kuroiso (transferring to the Utsunomiya Line at Nasushiobara) costs ¥5370 for unreserved seats (¥7430 for shinkansen Green Car, weekend/weekday) and takes only 1 hour, 10 minutes of actual riding time. Total travel time depends greatly on the transfer, though, since the Nasushiobara Utsunomiya Line timetable is rather sparse. Options throughout the day that Navitime deems worth mentioning range from about 1:25 to 2 hours total travel time.
(The latter prices above assume exiting and re-entering the fare system at Nasushiobara. Not doing so costs more because Ueno - Nasushiobara is just inside the 141-160km fare zone, while Ueno - Kuroiso is just over the border in the 161-180km fare zone, which costs ¥430 more. A separately calculated ~5km trip from Nasushiobara - Kuroiso costs ¥190.
This is also why the price difference is less than one might expect - if Nasushiobara Station were in the higher fare zone, assuming all else equal, the shinkansen option would be somewhere north of ¥6000, since now the shinkansen base fare and surcharge would be based on the higher zone.)
Updated
'Morning, everyone!Ran has some business to take care of, so she'll meet up with us via bullet train....then renting a car from there.Eh!?Gooood morninnng!We'll be taking the Tohoku main line as far as Kuroiso...ShudderOkay, then we'll meet with you in Kuroiso!!Waaaah! You can't do thiiis!!We're not all riding the bullet train...?I already bought a ticket...There's no time to get you a refund.Don't leave me behinnnd!Ktnk
KtnkUeno Station...