AsmodeeTicket to Ride Japan + Italy Board Game EXPANSION - Train Route Strategy Game, Fun Family Game for Kids & Adults, Ages 8+, 2-5 Players, 30-60 Minute PlaytimeThe Forest Stewardship Council

My wife and I have a few of the Ticket to Ride games, and we play it online as well. Very enjoyable games, provided you don't play them in the full cut-throat manner in which they were intended. Feelings can get hurt. Tempers may flare. Drinking may result.I got this Japan version for my wife for Christmas and BONUS! It contained Italy too! (other side of the board).BE AWARE that this is an expansion game, which means you must have one of the base games like the Ticket to Ride US or Europe, because you use the trains and train cards from those games. This set does include the bullet trains required for the Japan game, along with separate destination cards for Japan and Italy, but it DOES NOT include regular trains or train cards (which you can't play without).We enjoy playing both Italy and Japan, but if we're feeling intellectually lazy, we choose Italy over Japan because the latter has you occasionally worm-holing from one place to another, and can make you spend more time up front figuring out how to get from here to there. (For you programmers out there, think of jumping to a subroutine, only without returning). And with Japan, you also have separate markers to keep track of how many bullet trains you each put down, and there's extra scoring in the end based on who went further on that scoring. Last, Japan may leave you struggling a bit more with pronunciations--but you learn something, so stop complaining!In general, I'd recommend this game and rate it as low difficulty getting started (maybe moderate if you haven't played the predecessor base games), and moderate difficulty in getting to understand winning strategies.Addendum: Read the rule book. There are a few gotcha's. For example, when playing Italy, you use all 45 of your color trains, but with Japan, you only use 20 of them.Enjoy!!

Ticket to Ride: Italy & Japan expansion set has been a fantastic addition to our game collection. The set features a dual-sided map board with updated rules and unique gameplay elements for both Italy and Japan. However, it's important to note that this expansion does not include trains, requiring you to have a base game that includes train pieces and color cards. This part is a little annoying to have to bring both games out just to play this, but we still enjoy. With new features like bullet trains in Japan and ferry routes in Italy, we've had a blast exploring the intricacies of each map and developing winning strategies. The colorful and engaging gameplay keeps our family entertained, and we highly recommend this expansion to any Ticket to Ride enthusiasts looking for a fresh and challenging experience.

This is one of my favorite Ticket to Ride expansions. Both the Italy and Japan maps have very simple variations, so the overhead of learning new rules is minimal, but the resulting games look very different from original T2R.Japan includes Shinkansen trains, which come from a single collective pile controlled by all players. There are fewer bullet trains than places to play them, which makes for a very interesting dynamic. Players are also scored relatively (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) based on how many Shinkansen trains they have contributed, which incentivizes rapid and competitive use of the bullet trains.Italy includes a special type of ferry and an interesting zone-based scoring component. The map is divided into 18 or so regions and you score points based on the number of regions your train network reaches. You can also score bonus points by visiting every city within certain regions. This makes for a slower-paced game than Japan, but one that is still just as entertaining.Both maps are very fun and highly replayable. A great T2R expansion!

We LOVE Ticket To Ride and all of the additional games in the family. I particularly loved the fact that by buying this. Version you get 2 games in 1. It was so fun to use the Italy side and learn the new rules and challenges in the Italy version. The point system for the regions was a little convoluted in print but once you play and then tally it up it’s super simple and a fun new bonus to the classic game the Japan side was even more fun the micro maps adding new places to the map was fun but the Bullet trains was the coolest added part of this version of the game. So much fun. We keep playing both versions and having a blast. The use of your original TTR set or TTR Europe set was a little annoying cause you have to take 2 games out. But it makes sense. It would be nice if TTR released a set of just train cards and the packs of trains so you could just take a smaller thing out for these additional boards. But either way always so much fun playing TTR!

For months of quarantining, my family has entertained ourselves by playing games. Our favorites continue to be in the Ticket to Ride category. We own the USA map and the 1910 expansion cards and the Rails and Sails World set. My kids wanted to expand the collection so they talked us into getting the Italy/Japan set.First, the Italy/Japan does not include the trains so you will need to already have a version that includes train pieces and train color cards. This set does come with a dual sided map board, route tickets for both regions, counter pieces and bullet trains that will be needed for the Japan play.Both Japan and Italy have updated rules and additions to make the playing challenging and different from the other versions of the games—including building a shared bullet train and using ferries. We are still learning the kinks, the routes and the maps to build our individual strategies.As usual, the maps are colorful and fun and we’ve had a great time playing together. As a family, we continue to love playing Ticket to Ride together.