Buying shinkansen tickets

[untmdsprt]

Now it's easier than ever to buy shinkansen tickets. There are automated ticket machines, in English!, that will guide you to buying your tickets for the shinkansen.

How do you do this? Just go to any station that has a みどりの窓口, midori no mado guchi (green window) and look for the ticket machine. Press the English button, and follow the prompts. You can buy non-reserved, reserved, green car, non-smoking, smoking, window or aisle just by pressing the buttons of your choice. You can even buy tickets in advance, and select the day and time you want to leave. You're also given the choice of number of people, in any combination/number of adults/children. One-way and round-trip tickets are also a choice.

Although I used cash to pay for my tickets, you do have the option of a credit card. I don't know if it will take foreign cards though.

I'd check http://www.hyperdia.com first to see when the time schedule is, and which station(s) actually has a shinkansen stop. I'll be taking the train from Shin-Yokohama to Kyoto. I bought my ticket for June 4th, round-trip, and the ticket is good for 8 days to come back on. I chose the Hikari instead of the Nozomi so I could possibly see some of the countryside.

[Belton]

Although I used cash to pay for my tickets, you do have the option of a credit card. I don't know if it will take foreign cards though.

In my experience foreign cards don't work.
Also Shinkansen can be an expensive option. Shorter trips are cheaper by limited express.
Both I found out last New Year.
If you are going to Japan as a tourist the JR pass is usually better value.

[sragon]

I can confirm than foreign credit cards don't work (having tried to use one to purchase N'EX tickets today).

[untmdsprt]

True the limited express probably would be cheaper, but there might be some people who value time over money, or want to ride the shinkansen at least once in their life. At least Hyperdia.com, Yahoo! etc. gives a choice of what would be the quickest vs the cheapest.

I think the government is making a step toward making Japan easier to access by providing more things in English. Now if they could only do something about the credit cards in the machines.

[Belton]

I *love* the Shinkansen. Spacious, clean, efficient, on time. You can turn up minutes before and still buy a seat/ get a reservation. None of the faff of airports.

For a display on a par with performance art watch the turn around of a Shinkansen at Tokyo station. Before the train arrives there are cleaning crews waiting at where each train door will be. When everyone is off the inbound service In about 5 mins they clean the carriage (not just litter patrol but a wipedown), replace the white head cloths and turn the seats around to face the direction of travel. Then it's everyone on and off we go!

Green Car JR Pass is the way to travel (combined with luggage forwarding by Kuroneko)! Although I've yet to make the journey to Hokkaido, I have gone south to where the shinkansen ends in Kagoshima.

To be honest I wouldn't want to contemplate long distance rail travel by other means.
But for medium distances Limited Express is fine. Even more so if you're a tourist.
Almost any train in Japan beats the experiences I've had with trains in the UK.

Have a good trip, don't forget your ekiben!

[untmdsprt]

Got back last night from my vacation, and had one problem with the shinkansen. I thought the round trip reservation would automatically assign seats going to and coming from Kyoto. Not so!!! I must have missed a step with the machine. My only thought was the limited express option that I declined. It wanted me to go from Tachikawa station to Shin-Yokohama. That's ok, but kind of stupid since I live in Hino which is the stop between Tachikawa and Hachioji.

I'll have to look at the Hachioji station and see if they have the same machines, and if I could have done anything different.

[Belton]

I thought the round trip reservation would automatically assign seats going to and coming from Kyoto. Not so!!!.

Seat reservations usually cost extra. There is one carriage for unreserved seating I think.
I wonder if JR have a walk through of the ticket machine's screens on it's web site...

(One plus of the JR Pass for tourists is that seat reservations are free. )

[untmdsprt]

http://english.jr-central.co.jp/tickets/type/index.html

I wish I had found this website before I left. It would have made it much easier!!!