On July 19, the Yamagata Shinkansen debuted a luxury ashiya (foot bath) service. A ticket from Tokyo to Yamagata City, in Tohoku Prefecture, costs around ¥11,000, but 15 minutes in the foot bath car is extra. If Matsuo Basho, Japan's most well-known poet, were to retrace his 156-day-long trek through Tohoku in 1689 — described in his masterwork "Oku no Hosomichi" ("The Narrow Road to the Deep North") — he probably wouldn't spring for the shinkansen, much less the foot bath. He'd likely opt for the comparatively spartan Seishun 18 (seishun jūhachi kippu, literally, the youthful 18 ticket), which gets you five nonconsecutive days of travel on all local and rapid Japan Railway trains for ¥11,850. This five-day ticket lets you bend "your steps in whatever direction" you wish — to quote Basho in "Utatsu Kiko" ("The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel").