Good morning everyone,
Looking for information from anyone who already booked the Izumo Sunrise sleep train in the last few months and their experience with the reservation system.
I am looking to book the 2-bed sleep cabin through the JR Odekake website but I’ve heard the reservations have become near impossible to make. Every time I have tried to look for tickets, they are always sold out and after doing a bit of research, it seems like that is the case for everybody. ([https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question\_detail/q11273091361](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q11273091361), website is in Japanese)
It seems that the reservation system opens up the day 1 month prior to departure at 10:00AM so I have been “training” to try and reserve the 2-sleep cabin but no luck each time. I have prepared the initinerary on the website, logged-in and saved my credit card information to see how far I can get but even though I press the search button the second it turns to 10:00AM, I can select the bunk beds and then on the next screen it says all tickets have been sold and cannot proceed. It seems unreal for me that tickets would sell this fast so I imagine those are bots from travel agency to sell those tickets in overpriced bundles.
I saw there was also a pre-reservation system for any dates above 1-month, but thoses only include the ride ticket and not the sleep cabin (if my understanding is correct?). It also appears that JR clerk’s in station have access to only the same amount as offered on the reservation website so trying to reserve directly at a JR train station would not change anything.
Has anyone here been able to reserve a sleep cabin? Any “technique” on how to eventually snatch one before it sells out?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I would love to ride that train to visit Izumo.
Best regards!
by dee-lan