If you need any questions about trains in Japan answered...

[SuzyM]

I have some train related questions, if you don't mind:

Firstly do you think it is worth paying for the first class JR pass (Green Car)? We are travelling in August, so could be busy, but not sure if it is worth the upgraded cost.

Secondly - do we need seat reservations for the train from Osaka to Kyoto and return? If not - is it clear where we queue to board the unreserved carriages?

Thirdly for the oyster type cards - which one do you recommend if we are travelling in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima? Will the same one be accepted in all these places do you know? I'm finding this all very confusing and don't want to have to buy several different cards for different places if possible. We are also going to Hong Kong but I guess we definitely will need a different one there!

Many thanks

Suzy

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Originally Posted by SuzyM

I have some train related questions, if you don't mind:

Firstly do you think it is worth paying for the first class JR pass (Green Car)? We are travelling in August, so could be busy, but not sure if it is worth the upgraded cost.

Secondly - do we need seat reservations for the train from Osaka to Kyoto and return? If not - is it clear where we queue to board the unreserved carriages?

Thirdly for the oyster type cards - which one do you recommend if we are travelling in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima? Will the same one be accepted in all these places do you know? I'm finding this all very confusing and don't want to have to buy several different cards for different places if possible. We are also going to Hong Kong but I guess we definitely will need a different one there!

Many thanks

Suzy

See more...

Hi Suzy.

Question 1

Probably not, the level of comfort is a little better, but the level of comfort overall on the Shinkansen is excellent anyway. Instead of the seats being 5 in a row, 3 and a 2, they are a row of 4, 2 on each side.

The whole train is served by a trolley service, and unlike on UK First Class, there will be no meal event etc. So I would not go for it.

Now question 2, which links a little to question 1. You are going to Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, all from Tokyo I guess. Now I assume you will be getting the rail pass anyway, so when you go to get the rail pass, you can reserve yourself tickets on the train anyway, all free as part of the service of getting the rail pass.

So lets say you exchange your voucher for the rail pass, and you will have an idea of which days you are going to these places, then when you get rail pass the person in the office can give you the ticket for the train, tell the person day you wish to travel and the time of the train you want to catch and they will reserve you a seat on that train. Now if that train is full and all reserved seats are taken, they will inform you and also point out to you which carriages you need to queue for etc. now this generally only be an issue at the weekend, where most of the seats are taken up. Out of all our 16 journeys only one we had no reserve seats, which was a Saturday morning.

If on the other hand, you decide that you get up in the morning and you decide you want to go Kyoto today, then you don't have to reserve a seat, all you do is go the Shinkansen gates at Tokyo station (Blue signs for Kyoto), and then queue up the cars 1,2,3 for unreserved seats, the train pulls up and you get on and find a seat. If it is full, then you just stand.

When you queue, you will see the art form that is politeness and you will need to queue in the right place by looking at your feet and the different coloured tiles that indicate where you queue. If you queue, somewhere else not related but it looks like you are waiting for the train, eventually people will queue behind you as they are unsure why you are not queuing in the correct place and so as to not appear rude, they will assume you don't know the correct procedure and will queue behind you. How do I know this, well it happened at our first journey!

Now the other thing to mention is that going from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, you go along the Tokaido Shinkansen, a bit like when we call ours the East Coast Main Line.

All the train services that go down this route have a name, unlike ours when we just call it the East Coast Main Line. Now each service will have a name and a number and if you have reserved seats then the train you need to get will match the name and number on your ticket.

When you are waiting for the train, you will see many signs that say words like Nozomi or Kodama, these are the names of the train services down that route. The difference is that they represent how fast the time is between Tokyo to say Osaka. So Nozomi is the fastest, with hardly any stops, Hikaria is the second fastest with more stops and Kodama is the slowest with the most stops. When I say slow, we are only talking minutes, it still travels at 160 mph.

Now why is this important? Well you cannot reserve seats or go on the trains called Nozomi with the rail pass. If you do and the ticket person arrives, he/she will ask you to get off at the next stop. You can buy a separate ticket for the Nozomi, but you cannot get on or reserve ticket for a seat on a Nozomi.

Third question, IC Cards. Now in Tokyo the 2 main cards are the Suica and Pasmo. Now we bought a Suica because that was the one offered at our station in Shinjuku. Both cards do exactly the same and you will not be caught out by having the wrong card. The only thing you need to be aware of is this...

In Tokyo, the train system is operated by three companies. There is the JR network, the Subway system and the Metro system. All three require separate tickets to go on them, but if you have Suica/Pasmo card then it doesn't matter you can ride any train where ever you like, you just tap in and out of the gates etc and it just deducts the fare.

The important thing here is that once you have activated your JR pass you can then use it on all the JR trains, so the Yamanote line, Chuo line etc etc. But once you leave a JR train and switch to the Subway, for example if you go to Askausa then you would either buy a ticket or use the Suica/Pasmo card.

Now the other thing is that if you buy the JR pass valid in all of Japan, not just for each region, which is what most do anyway, youcan then use the JR pass on the JR railways at other cities, such as Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima.

Now as far as I can tell, the Suica cards will work in Osaka and Kyoto, but there is a different problem here. If you get on a train such as the Yamanote line to Tokyo and then get the Shinkansen to Kyoto, then your Suica card will not think you have left Tokyo because you have not exited a station at Tokyo. When you go to use the card at Kyoto, it will not let you through etc. To avoid this issue for us, as I would not be able to explain this to the train person as I cant speak Japanese and they may not understand English, I would exit the ticket gate at Tokyo and then re enter using the rail pass.

Finally...

If you read my trip report, pages 4, 5 and 9 especially I go into more detail on these activities.

Also if you go to Hiroshima, the JR Pass lets you on the JR tour bus as well for free, but we got the tram, which is not covered by Suica or rail pass, but read page 9 for even more information on how to o that.

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...d.php?t=990747

Phew there is a lot there to be going on, luckily I find all of this fascinating! Any questions then just let me know!

If you read page 4 it shows you how I reserved the trains by printing off what I wanted from Hyerdia.com, something that needs a whole post on its on own how to use! But we can cover that if you need any help

[SuzyM]

Originally Posted by kevin_cambs_uk

Hi Suzy.

Question 1

Probably not, the level of comfort is a little better, but the level of comfort overall on the Shinkansen is excellent anyway. Instead of the seats being 5 in a row, 3 and a 2, they are a row of 4, 2 on each side.

The whole train is served by a trolley service, and unlike on UK First Class, there will be no meal event etc. So I would not go for it.

Now question 2, which links a little to question 1. You are going to Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, all from Tokyo I guess. Now I assume you will be getting the rail pass anyway, so when you go to get the rail pass, you can reserve yourself tickets on the train anyway, all free as part of the service of getting the rail pass.

So lets say you exchange your voucher for the rail pass, and you will have an idea of which days you are going to these places, then when you get rail pass the person in the office can give you the ticket for the train, tell the person day you wish to travel and the time of the train you want to catch and they will reserve you a seat on that train. Now if that train is full and all reserved seats are taken, they will inform you and also point out to you which carriages you need to queue for etc. now this generally only be an issue at the weekend, where most of the seats are taken up. Out of all our 16 journeys only one we had no reserve seats, which was a Saturday morning.

If on the other hand, you decide that you get up in the morning and you decide you want to go Kyoto today, then you don't have to reserve a seat, all you do is go the Shinkansen gates at Tokyo station (Blue signs for Kyoto), and then queue up the cars 1,2,3 for unreserved seats, the train pulls up and you get on and find a seat. If it is full, then you just stand.

When you queue, you will see the art form that is politeness and you will need to queue in the right place by looking at your feet and the different coloured tiles that indicate where you queue. If you queue, somewhere else not related but it looks like you are waiting for the train, eventually people will queue behind you as they are unsure why you are not queuing in the correct place and so as to not appear rude, they will assume you don't know the correct procedure and will queue behind you. How do I know this, well it happened at our first journey!

Now the other thing to mention is that going from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, you go along the Tokaido Shinkansen, a bit like when we call ours the East Coast Main Line.

All the train services that go down this route have a name, unlike ours when we just call it the East Coast Main Line. Now each service will have a name and a number and if you have reserved seats then the train you need to get will match the name and number on your ticket.

When you are waiting for the train, you will see many signs that say words like Nozomi or Kodama, these are the names of the train services down that route. The difference is that they represent how fast the time is between Tokyo to say Osaka. So Nozomi is the fastest, with hardly any stops, Hikaria is the second fastest with more stops and Kodama is the slowest with the most stops. When I say slow, we are only talking minutes, it still travels at 160 mph.

Now why is this important? Well you cannot reserve seats or go on the trains called Nozomi with the rail pass. If you do and the ticket person arrives, he/she will ask you to get off at the next stop. You can buy a separate ticket for the Nozomi, but you cannot get on or reserve ticket for a seat on a Nozomi.

Third question, IC Cards. Now in Tokyo the 2 main cards are the Suica and Pasmo. Now we bought a Suica because that was the one offered at our station in Shinjuku. Both cards do exactly the same and you will not be caught out by having the wrong card. The only thing you need to be aware of is this...

In Tokyo, the train system is operated by three companies. There is the JR network, the Subway system and the Metro system. All three require separate tickets to go on them, but if you have Suica/Pasmo card then it doesn't matter you can ride any train where ever you like, you just tap in and out of the gates etc and it just deducts the fare.

The important thing here is that once you have activated your JR pass you can then use it on all the JR trains, so the Yamanote line, Chuo line etc etc. But once you leave a JR train and switch to the Subway, for example if you go to Askausa then you would either buy a ticket or use the Suica/Pasmo card.

Now the other thing is that if you buy the JR pass valid in all of Japan, not just for each region, which is what most do anyway, youcan then use the JR pass on the JR railways at other cities, such as Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima.

Now as far as I can tell, the Suica cards will work in Osaka and Kyoto, but there is a different problem here. If you get on a train such as the Yamanote line to Tokyo and then get the Shinkansen to Kyoto, then your Suica card will not think you have left Tokyo because you have not exited a station at Tokyo. When you go to use the card at Kyoto, it will not let you through etc. To avoid this issue for us, as I would not be able to explain this to the train person as I cant speak Japanese and they may not understand English, I would exit the ticket gate at Tokyo and then re enter using the rail pass.

Finally...

If you read my trip report, pages 4, 5 and 9 especially I go into more detail on these activities.

Also if you go to Hiroshima, the JR Pass lets you on the JR tour bus as well for free, but we got the tram, which is not covered by Suica or rail pass, but read page 9 for even more information on how to o that.

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho...d.php?t=990747

Phew there is a lot there to be going on, luckily I find all of this fascinating! Any questions then just let me know!

If you read page 4 it shows you how I reserved the trains by printing off what I wanted from Hyerdia.com, something that needs a whole post on its on own how to use! But we can cover that if you need any help

See more...

Wow what a comprehensive reply - thank you that is incredibly helpful. I did know bits of this from the research I have done, but this explanation does really help. I have read all your trip report before but it was a while ago, when you first wrote it, so I do think I need to revisit this now I am planning in more detail.

I won't upgrade to a first class ticket then - it doesn't seem worth it and there are 3 of us going - so it sounds like the regular class seat formation will suit us better anyway.

I have seen the hyperdia website and will take a full list of trains I want to book times for and do intend getting a 7 day full Japan rail pass. My question re Osaka to Kyoto was really about if we end up getting an earlier or later train that we have booked - can we just go to the station and queue up for the unreserved seats with no problem? Is there any issue with not travelling on the one you reserved a seat for? Obviously we will cancel any we know we are definitely not going to use but if we are just running late and miss a train, is that a problem?

Again thanks so much for all the detail you provided - I am going to print out your reply and take it with us :-)

Much appreciated - it does seem very complicated but I am sure all will be fine..

Suzy

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Originally Posted by SuzyM

Wow what a comprehensive reply - thank you that is incredibly helpful. I did know bits of this from the research I have done, but this explanation does really help. I have read all your trip report before but it was a while ago, when you first wrote it, so I do think I need to revisit this now I am planning in more detail.

I won't upgrade to a first class ticket then - it doesn't seem worth it and there are 3 of us going - so it sounds like the regular class seat formation will suit us better anyway.

I have seen the hyperdia website and will take a full list of trains I want to book times for and do intend getting a 7 day full Japan rail pass. My question re Osaka to Kyoto was really about if we end up getting an earlier or later train that we have booked - can we just go to the station and queue up for the unreserved seats with no problem? Is there any issue with not travelling on the one you reserved a seat for? Obviously we will cancel any we know we are definitely not going to use but if we are just running late and miss a train, is that a problem?

Again thanks so much for all the detail you provided - I am going to print out your reply and take it with us :-)

Much appreciated - it does seem very complicated but I am sure all will be fine..

Suzy

See more...

You are most welcome, I am looking forward to my next trip myself even more, especially as I learning about the other Shinkansen routes as were going all the way to Hokkaido this time to ride the E5 to Hakadate.

So you go to Osaka and want to get an earlier train. After reading many replies on Trip Advisor, I believe the etiquette is to hand in the reserved ticket before the train departs so that someone else could then use your reserved seat, especially on the weekend when it is a lot busier. As for missing a train and getting a later one, again this is not a problem, you may have to stand if the cars are full, but the impression I got was that its frowned upon to reserve a seat an not take it because you went for a later train, however as the Japanese people buy the tickets anyway then I am pretty sure this is a rare event. However if you did get a later train, and did not hand in your reservation before hand then as far as I am concerned there is nothing anyone can do or would do, I just got the impression that in Japan, its not the done thing, it was a case of you booked that seat, and your expected to take it, however there is nothing anyone can do , I just got the impression that's the way the culture of it is. So if you know you will definitely be getting alter train, then hand in the reservation, but if you get a later train and were not able to do so then I would not worry about it.

We got all the trains we were supposed too, but then we like being at the train station, Kyoto was excellent a there was so much activity, but that is not everyone's cup of tea.!

Remember, when you use Hyperdia, remember to un tick the Nozomi box in the options, then you will only get the Shinkansen that the rail pass will work on.

Kev

[Guest]

The hotel has a shuttle to Maihama so we might use that each day, we will only need to use the metro on our journey after Disney to get back to Ginza

[FairyMagic]

Originally Posted by kevin_cambs_uk

To get from the cruise terminal in Yokohoma to Tokyo, you can walk to the nearby Nihon Odori station of the Minato Mirai Line. From there, you can ride all the way to Shibuya station (40 minutes) or you can transfer at Yokohama station (4th stop from Nihon Odori) onto a JR Tokaido Line train that takes you to Tokyo station (25 minutes). The Tokaido line is the bullet trains as well.

The only downside is that its about 7 minutes walk from the cruise terminal to Nihon Odori station, but I have not yet been so I am not sure what the terrain is like, but I would have a look on Google maps and 'walk' the journey to make sure, otherwise, you could print off the station name in Japanese, and get a Taxi, and show him your destination, which is what I did when visiting Shizuoka and it was too far to walk to the destination!

See more...

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much for all the info, greatly appreciated , I have now decided that next year we are doing Singapore and Hong Kong and I am leaving Japan for another year as it is all too much to do in one holiday and I would like to have more time to visit more places in Japan when we get there.

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Originally Posted by FairyMagic

Hi Kevin,

Thank you very much for all the info, greatly appreciated , I have now decided that next year we are doing Singapore and Hong Kong and I am leaving Japan for another year as it is all too much to do in one holiday and I would like to have more time to visit more places in Japan when we get there.

See more...

No worries!

[SuzyM]

Originally Posted by kevin_cambs_uk

You are most welcome, I am looking forward to my next trip myself even more, especially as I learning about the other Shinkansen routes as were going all the way to Hokkaido this time to ride the E5 to Hakadate.

So you go to Osaka and want to get an earlier train. After reading many replies on Trip Advisor, I believe the etiquette is to hand in the reserved ticket before the train departs so that someone else could then use your reserved seat, especially on the weekend when it is a lot busier. As for missing a train and getting a later one, again this is not a problem, you may have to stand if the cars are full, but the impression I got was that its frowned upon to reserve a seat an not take it because you went for a later train, however as the Japanese people buy the tickets anyway then I am pretty sure this is a rare event. However if you did get a later train, and did not hand in your reservation before hand then as far as I am concerned there is nothing anyone can do or would do, I just got the impression that in Japan, its not the done thing, it was a case of you booked that seat, and your expected to take it, however there is nothing anyone can do , I just got the impression that's the way the culture of it is. So if you know you will definitely be getting alter train, then hand in the reservation, but if you get a later train and were not able to do so then I would not worry about it.

We got all the trains we were supposed too, but then we like being at the train station, Kyoto was excellent a there was so much activity, but that is not everyone's cup of tea.!

Remember, when you use Hyperdia, remember to un tick the Nozomi box in the options, then you will only get the Shinkansen that the rail pass will work on.

Kev

See more...

Apologies I forgot to say thanks to your reply to this - and yes I will definitely cancel any reservations that we know we won't use, I was just worried about getting lost and missing our planned train.

Again thanks so much for all the information - it is all really useful, and much appreciated.

Suzy

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Originally Posted by SuzyM

Apologies I forgot to say thanks to your reply to this - and yes I will definitely cancel any reservations that we know we won't use, I was just worried about getting lost and missing our planned train.

Again thanks so much for all the information - it is all really useful, and much appreciated.

Suzy

See more...

No worries!
Enjoy!

[Guest]

Kevin you will enjoy the Hayabusa train are you going to stay in Hakodate? We stayed at a beautiful hotel on the beach in Hakodate one night .We visited the fish market in the morning was wonderful sampled fresh Sushi and the famous Hakodate Melon .Love the Hakodate train station some beautiful shops nearby spent a lot of money love Hakodate. When are you going cant wait to hear about it .