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02-10-2011, 11:00 AM
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.... 
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02-22-2011, 09:14 AM
Thank you guys for all your help, I think i have everything organised. Have opted out for a day trip on our last day in tokyo, instead we are going to check out Akihabara and maybe go to a maid cafe?? I think the boys might be amused by it, any suggestions or are they all much the same??
After the morning in Akihabara I will then book our bullet train tickets for around lunch time, check into our hotel early afternoon in kyoto and maybe fit in a temple visit before dinner (thinking Fushimi Inari). Does that sound doable?? My only concern on this leg is our luggage and where the best station would be to leave from?? I should probably print out a JR subway map so I can visually see the locations of each station, i mean we could leave the luggage at the hotel in Shingawa and go from there but I dont want to back track if I can manage it  Sorry I hope that all made sense. lol. While we are in Kyoto we are going to buy the 2 day sightseeing pass which covers all the buses ect, printed out there bus and train line map and think on the first day we will do the JNTO "along the old canal" walk which goes from the silver pavillion along the path of philosphy and in the afternoon do the Higashiyama walk. The second day thought we might go check out the castle in the morning and spend lunch and afternoon in Arashiyama area (bamboo grove and monkey park ect). On the third day, early in morning go to Golden pavillion and have brunch and then catch train to Horishima around 12pm , upon arrival leave bags at hotel and walk to peace memorial park and museum (only short walk from hotel) find dinner. We then plan a day trip to Miyajima the following day and then bullet train back to tokyo (disneyland) late afternoon. Phew!! lol, i know it was a mouth full and feel free to brush over it, lol, I am just so excited, I am now in the process of looking up all the trains, time and numbers for my planned travels and putting them into a spread sheet so when we first arrive at the airport I can go to the JR Rail desk and have them book the bullet train legs (hopefully it works out simply like i invision it, lol) Does that sound like a good plan??? I hope we are not too late for the Cherry Blossom viewing, do you all think we will get to see some at the time we are going??? Again thank you all for the help. Also for first timers to Japan I highly recommend the japan guide website, it was a total godsend, there information and forums were very helpfull. 
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02-22-2011, 10:18 AM
Tokyo station is the terminus for all trains. Those headed north start at Tokyo and head for Ueno.... Those headed south will start at Tokyo and head for Shinagawa.... Those are the three stations in Tokyo where you can catch bullet trains-two stations in each direction. So backtracking to Shinagawa is not a bad thing.... It's about the only thing!
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02-22-2011, 10:25 AM
Shinagawa it is
thanks again, im glad our hotel is close to the station. We will then leave our luggage there, go exploring in the morning and head back there, pick the bags up and catch the bullet train. You have been such a great help
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03-09-2011, 02:09 AM
Me again, lol. . . Counting down the days to our trip, 4 more weeks and we will finally be there WOO HOO!!!!
Just another quick question, am thinking of forwarding our luggage from Tokyo to our Hotel in Kyoto (Urban Hotel Kyoto) to eliminate the need to leave them at the hotel in Tokyo and also dragging them onto the train to Kyoto. Has anyone used the service, how much is it and how do you organise it?? is it something that you do through your hotel when you arrive??? We are going to do some exploring in the morning (tokyo) , then catching train to kyoto arriving at about 3pm, head to our hotel and then visit Fushimi Inari in the afternoon / sunset, will this work??? Apparently our hotel is only 5min walk from Fushimi Inari, is this correct, am I trying to squeeze too much in one day??. Thank you all once again.
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03-09-2011, 02:57 AM
Quote:
And no, you are not squeezing too much in a day at all. Your Shinkansen ride will be so smooth that you will arrrive in Kyoto in top shape.
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