I live in Japan and will be traveling to Hiroshima & Kyushu from Nagoya for Golden Week. I plan on taking the following JR trains over the course of the trip:
| Route | Train type |
|——————————|————————-|
| Nagoya → Hiroshima | Shinkansen |
| Hiroshima → Kitakyushu | Shinkansen |
| Kitakyushu → Fukuoka | Shinkansen or ltd. exp. |
| Fukuoka → Saga | Ltd. exp. or local |
| Saga → Nagasaki | Ltd. exp. + shinkansen |
| Nagasaki → Fukuoka | Ltd. exp. + shinkansen |
| Fukuoka → Kumamoto | Shinkansen |
| Kumamoto → Kagoshima | Shinkansen |
| Kagoshima → Fukuoka → Nagoya | Shinkansen |
I’m aware that Nozomi is all-reserved seating for this week, but not the other shinkansen. It would be incredibly helpful for my plans to be as flexible as possible and for me to just jump on whatever train I want at the time I’m ready. For the shorter rides, i.e. from city to city within Kyushu, I honestly don’t mind having to stand if I can’t get a seat in the unreserved cars… in my experience, it’s decently easy to get a seat if you just show up early and be the first one in line (since at least a few people will inevitably be getting off). That said, it’s my first time to Kyushu and I’d like a window seat to be able to see outside too where possible, if there’s any especially pretty portions of the rides! 🙂
I have two main questions:
1. Is travel busy enough the _whole week_, including in the middle of the week & at all times of day, that I should try to get as many of these shinkansen trips reserved (i.e. with seat assignments) as possible? Or is it enough to just do this for the trips on the weekends at the beginning and end (i.e. April 27-28 and May 4-5), and it’s fine during the middle of the week to do unreserved as long as I show up a bit early?
2. This is obviously going to add up to a lot of money. Is there _any_ way I can save on any of this travel? I’m not on a visitor visa so I sadly cannot get the JR Kyushu Rail Pass (which would be worth it, I believe) – but any cost-saving ideas (besides, well, taking buses that take multiple hours longer) would be super appreciated. My only idea so far, because Kumamoto will just be a day trip on my way to Kagoshima that night, is that I should do this as a [stopover](https://global.jr-central.co.jp/en/tickets/type/stopovers.html) (途ä¸ä¸‹è»Š) which will help me save on the basic fare portion of the ticket.
This is my first GW in Japan, and on top of that I have no prior experience riding the Kyushu Shinkansen or Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, so I don’t know how busy these routes will be compared to, say, the main Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen between Osaka/Kyoto/Tokyo – so I’m looking for insight into this as well to help me gauge and decide if I need seat reservations for _everything_, or if I might be able to get away without those for some of these rides. Thanks!
by frozenpandaman