I Watched an Early Episode of Japan's Local Bus Journey—and They Just Took a Taxi

I recently caught a rerun of a very early episode of Local Bus Journey, a popular TV Tokyo travel show.

The premise is simple: the travelers have three nights and four days to reach their destination using only local buses.

If the buses do not connect, they walk.

They walk and walk.

Even when they are exhausted and start complaining, they keep walking.

Sometimes they walk for miles.

And if they do not reach the destination within four days, they fail.

At times, I find myself thinking:

Is this really a bus journey, or is it a walking tour?

That is why something in this early episode took me completely by surprise.

The bus route ended.

So what did they do?

They simply got into a taxi.

It was handled very casually: “There are no buses here, so we’ll take a taxi.” No one acted as if they had committed a serious violation of the rules.

Sitting in front of the television, I could only think:

Wait—they’re allowed to do that?

The Show Used to Be Much Kinder

By today’s standards, no bus means walking.

The next bus stop is six miles away?

Walk.

There is a mountain pass in the way?

Walk.

It starts raining?

Keep walking.

That was the show I thought I knew.

In the early days, however, the travelers sometimes used taxis when local bus routes did not connect.

From what I can tell, the rules were not yet firmly established at the beginning of the series. Around the fifth installment, the familiar format seems to have taken shape: no taxis, and if there is no bus, you walk.

Come to think of it, even a long-running television show does not begin in its finished form.

The original idea may have been no more complicated than this:

“Wouldn’t it be fun to travel by connecting local bus routes?”

If there is no bus, take a taxi.

Perfectly reasonable.

And perhaps a little too reasonable to make compelling television.

Taking a Taxi Ends the Drama

What would happen if taxis were still allowed today?

The bus route ends.

“Well, there are no more buses.”

“Let’s call a taxi.”

End of story.

Viewers would also know that, in the worst case, the travelers could simply take a taxi.

There would be no real suspense over whether they would reach the destination.

But the moment the rule becomes, “No taxis. If there is no bus, you walk,” everything changes.

The next bus stop is five miles away.

The last bus leaves in two hours.

Will they make it?

The travelers grow tired.

Their conversation gradually fades.

Before long, the complaints begin.

Now that is entertaining.

Ironically, many of the show’s most memorable scenes happen not while the travelers are riding a bus, but while they are stranded without one.

Maybe Making Them Walk Was Better Television

I do not know exactly why the show stopped allowing taxis.

What follows is entirely my own speculation.

Perhaps, during one of the early trips, the buses did not connect, no taxi was available, and the travelers had to walk a long distance.

They grew tired.

They complained.

They took a wrong turn.

Still, they kept walking.

At last, they reached the bus stop.

Then perhaps the production team saw the audience’s reaction after the episode aired and thought:

Wait—isn’t it more entertaining when we make them walk?

If so, that was a major discovery.

This was a show about local buses, yet the key to its success was not the buses.

It was the absence of buses.

Of course, the travelers themselves probably did not appreciate the change.

Anyone who appeared in the early days might well have said, “We used to be allowed to take taxis.”

The viewers, however, do not care.

We sit comfortably in front of the television and say irresponsible things like, “Seven kilometers? They can walk that.”

It is a distance for which I would absolutely call a taxi myself.

But for Local Bus Journey, banning taxis made all the difference.

Once the taxis disappeared, the show—and its ratings—finally found their legs.