Talk:Russia to Japan via Sakhalin

= Rail pass activation?

Related to this edit [1], is it actually possible to activate a Japan Rail Pass in Wakkanai? It's not on the list of stations with exchange counters, [2] - Asahikawa's the nearest, which would unfortunately negate the advice given. - (WT-en) D. Guillaime 20:49, 9 January 2010 (EST)

They activated mine, but he might just have been friendly. --(WT-en) Stefan (sertmann) ^talk 04:20, 10 January 2010 (EST)

Comments

I'm so happy to see someone has actually used this guide - and thank you so much for the additions, one pointer though, avoid me, we or us - and personal accounts - when writing here - it's a collaborative effort.

Really useful guide, way more interesting than just city info. JadeDragon (talk) 00:42, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Delete?

This route is no longer possible. Should this article be deleted? Ikan Kekek (talk) 21:17, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

No, because it's a guide article and I don't want to ruin the work of several contributors. I think we should store it in a projectspace page until the ferry service restarts, though there is a chance it may never happen. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 21:58, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

"Because it's good work" is not a viable argument. Could we archive it somehow? A travel guide needs to be about travel. A beautifully-written entry for a defunct restaurant isn't kept up because it was so well-written. Ikan Kekek (talk) 23:36, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

Sorry, I should've been more clearer. I was thinking of moving the page without a redirect in the Wikivoyage namespace. Something like Wikivoyage:Archived itineraries/Russia to Japan via Sakhalin though my proposal to do that with old itineraries that were older than one year (instead of deleting) faded away. Maybe we should restart that discussion. SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta.wikimedia) 23:48, 19 April 2022 (UTC)

Yeah, I wouldn't support that as a way to deal with itineraries that lack sufficient information, if that's what you mean. Ikan Kekek (talk) 00:51, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

The ferry was suspended not permanently ceased to operate. It is not the first time the route face suspension.

In usual years, service details are announced each years year by year ahead of summer. The 2019 suspension was initially announced as mechanical reason related to the ship, although the low load factor of the route making it financially difficult doesn't help. Then nothing were being announced in 2020 and 2021 with the pandemic ongoing. In 2022 Japan still doesn't appears to be opening up the national border to tourists yet so I doubt the route will resume this year, and I am not seeing any such signs yet, and this is in addition to the ongoing Russian war with Ukraine with relevant sanctions as well as Russian counter to these sanctions by labeling sanction-imposing countries including Japan as unfriendly countries, which probably also prevent the service which require financial subsidy from relevant governments from resuming.

The service probably won't be resumed in any short to mid term future considering that those Russian sanctions are unlikely to reverse even after the war end one way or the other in future, however I personally do not believe things are going to last this way eternally either.

Also, note that while it is a matter of fact that the ferry did not operate in year 2019, 2020, and 2021, and it is also a fact that so far there haven't been any service detail announcement for 2022 summer either despite we are already well into spring, any forecast into future are nothing more than personal perspective or opinion, and can be wrong in rather unlikely scenario. The service can be resumed anytime, as the service is only announced every year before the service actually start, before the suspension. Given such circumstances I do not agree with either deletion or hiding information by commenting out information in this guide. Given the lack of attendance of this page it is also unlikely that the page can be recovered anytime soon when the route do get resumed.

As an alternative to ferry, at least as of year 2019, people would have another option of traveling from Sakhalin to Hokkaido by flying from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to New Chitose airport. However the route is currently suspended due to coronavirus related entry restriction in Japan alongside many other Japanese international air route hence I didn't include the air route as alternative in the guide page. It is not clear whether the route is going to resume after pandemic related entry restriction into Japan lift which Japanese government is now acting gradually, as while on one hand I doubt anyone in right mind is going to travel to Russia for tourism or trade amid the currently imposed domestic and international restrictions, on the other hand Japan have not banned Russian flights yet, so if the route's Russian operators want, they can restart that air route anytime they desire, and at that time it will be possible to fill the air route into this guide and let travelers divert via air, despite the route currently being not available either. C933103 (talk) 02:08, 20 April 2022 (UTC)

Thanks. Is there any way to hide this article temporarily, like I just hid a reference to this defunct route in the Japan article? Alternatively, is there theoretically a way to hire someone to take you across on their own boat or buy or rent a boat and sail yourself, if you were to get permission from the two governments? That seems impossible right now, though. Ikan Kekek (talk) 16:04, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

We have established the principle of keeping but hiding obsolete articles, e.g., articles for wikivoyage:past events. As there is a possibility that this route could be revived, we should not delete the article. Ground Zero (talk) 17:10, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

I'm no longer arguing for deletion, but how do we hide the article? Ikan Kekek (talk) 17:46, 5 August 2023 (UTC)

Something like what I proposed above last year, I guess (with a different project name with __NOINDEX__ added)? --SHB2000 (talk | contribs | meta) 09:18, 8 August 2023 (UTC)

Around the world there are companies that can help arrange and allow third party passengers to travel on freight ships but that's a big different topic and I am not sure whether such service still operate with respect to Russia.

I think if one really want to cross to Japan on Trans Siberian Railway right now, without using a plane, more reasonable way is probably to take the train down Beijing from either Ulan Ude or Vladivostok, then proceed to Shanghai, then continue on ship to Japan (Or Dalian-Ferry-Incheon-Rail-Busan-Ferry-Fukuoka), but visa requirement of China nowadays isn't exactly easy either. C933103 (talk) 06:55, 8 August 2023 (UTC)