Originally Posted by
gnaget
I am not sure if they took away the weekend discounts after Jan 1, 2012. They certainly took away all night discounts on the Shuto when they put in distance pricing.
Slightly OT, but speaking of toll fees and taking away discounts. Since the April 1 tax hike my commute from Tokyo-Atusgi on the Tomei is often costing me nearly double and not the 3% hike I had expected. Had no luck using Google translate to explain the "new and improved" system
http://www.c-nexco.co.jp/topics/180.html <rant> why make it easy to understand and make it more difficult instead using lots of arrows and circles? <end rant>
Basically I used to pay 1250JPY one way and this was discounted to 900JPY after 8pm and weekends and 650 JPY after 10pm (working late nights...), but now it just seems to charge 1280JPY all the time
And, yes it would be slightly cheaper using Japan's amazing public transportation (not after the previous discounts), but would take me at least 45 minutes longer each way...
Wouldn't recommend it to the OP, but traveling by car can be an alternative if you have the time (no way to outrun a bullet train going 300+ km/h.) My colleague took his family with two kids on a last minute road trip from Tokyo to Hamamatsu, Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara during golden week and surprisingly had no issues with traffic or parking. Shinkansen gets very pricey if you are a family or group of friends.