[JohnBraden]

Louise45, I hope you're not under the impression you can reserve the tickets online based on what I told you and the website I provided. The website is just an online timetable and a bit more. You can use it to plan your trip almost to the minute because you can type in the origin station and the destination station and the time you either want to leave or arrive there and it will give you the options available. You cannot reserve the tickets as far as I know, because it's not operated by JR. When you go to the ticket office with as much information on your itinerary possible, they actually print the ticket for you then and there and then it's your responsibility to present the ticket to the conductor on the train at the time he asks for it. All you have to do to access the Shinkansen platform is to show your JR Pass at the manned turnstile and they'll let you by. Do not try to put your ticket in the automatic turnstiles because it will alert the staff something is wrong.

There is no charge for the reserved seat. The reason they do price it by ticket and then by reserve seat is that if you happen to not have a reserved seat, you can still purchase an non-reserved seat for the train. Each train is divided into three portions. One is the green cars, which you won't be using. The others are reserve and non-reserve seats. If you have a JR Pass, you won't need a ticket if you're using the non-reserve seats. Just have your JR Pass in hand and that's it. The JR Pass is your free ticket in and out of the Shinkansen platforms and you can use it as many times as you want. You want to go to the station to take a photo of a train as it approaches? Then just go to the platform and snap away. When you're done, go back to the exit and show them the pass as you leave and you're good!

I planned for a round trip to Kyoto from Shinagawa and had my tickets in hand. When I got to Kyoto, I did my sightseeing and when it was time for me to leave, I realized it was rush hour and missed the train by one minute! I went to the ticket counter and was a lightly reprimanded for missing my train. The attendant told me the correct thing to do was to take the very next train in the non-reserved status and go on with my trip. She was nice enough to reserve me a seat on the next train, though. It left 24 minutes later if I recall correctly.

The non-reserve seats are basically on a first come, first serve basis. Each station platform has markers denoting where the doors on each railcar will open. They are accurate to about 6-12 inches, so that's pretty good. You'll see in your travels there that people will line up on those markers and that will be your queue to go in. Once you're in that car, it's a mad dash to the seats. That's why it's better to reserve it in advance and you won't have the mad scramble on the reserved seat cars.

I took a trip to Nikko and the weather wasn't very favorable, so I decided to cut it short by about 2 hours. I had the ticket for a Tsubasa service train set to leave Utsunomiya at a certain time. I arrived there from Nikko hours earlier, so what I did was to wait for the first Shinkansen to arrive on the non-reserved section of the platform and boarded a Yamabiko service train into Tokyo Station. I arrived there at rush hour and it was so busy, I bypassed the Yamanote line to Shinagawa and took a Shinkansen, using it as a commuter train to Shinagawa!


As far as the hotel, you'll notice the beds aren't the most comfortable there are. The mattress is rather stiff. Some of the towers offer free wired internet in the room while others (like the main tower when I was there) have paid internet.... 1050yen a day (pricey).... The staff is nice and somewhat fluent in English. I had no problems there.

If you do go to Nikko, which has many UNESCO World Heritage sites and is a beautiful place to go, make sure you go on a nice day. There is alot of climbing up and down stairs, so be prepared for it. But it's something you should see. You can use the JR pass from Tokyo station on a Yamabiko or Tsubasa train to Utsunomiya and then transfer to the JR Nikko Line for another 45 minute trip.... Won't cost you a thing since all is included with the pass. It's worth an early morning train, say 6am or so, so you can get there by 8am to avoid many tours. If you get tired, go back mid afternoon and get off at Ueno and take the train to Asakusa, which is nearby and you kill that portion of your sightseeing....

Let me know if you have anything else.... I can't talk much about Kyoto because this time around, I only spent a day there. Next year I'll base half my trip out of Osaka, so I will see it with more detail. All I saw in a day was Ryoan-ji, Kinkaku-ji, Ginkaku-ji and did the Philosopher's walk.... I'm sure other threads cover more of Kyoto....