This forum has been priceless for an upcoming trip with my wife, 5 yo daughter, 2 in-laws (70s) and brother in law (6 of us in total!).
My date for traveling via Shinkansen/Bullet Train from our Air BnB in Tokyo to our Air BnB in Osaka just became available for reserved seating. We are in Japan for 14 days so all 5 adults will be carrying luggage large enough to have to check at the airport.
Since we are in Air BnBs, shipping our luggage from one city to another looks like it would entail finding sparsely located stations in the two cities (Tokyo & Osaka) that could take and receive our luggage, which seems like a chore to have to travel to locations away from our Air BnBs to drop off and pick up our luggage. Not out of the question but a time consuming, labor intensive process akin to having to travel with them on public transportation.
I seem to be reading 2 conflicting messages regarding luggage on Shinkansen trains:
A. You can put a "checked at the airport" sized luggage in the train's overhead compartment
B. It will definitely hang off the edge and putting a 50lb luggage up there is borderline dangerous and you should book for an oversized luggage seat.
Even if I managed to get these “bigger than carry on” sized luggage’s overhead, would putting 5 of them up there be an inconsiderate gesture to the other travelers? We’d be taking up 6 seats either across from or behind each other but our luggage’s would take up the width of 5 rows worth of seating.
I'm willing to book an oversized luggage seat. Would I have to book 5 tickets for this "Oversized Area" for all 5 of our luggage carrying passengers? They say you must book a party of 6 on separate bookings aka no more than 3 at a time. If I were to book on one of those cars, does booking ANY seat entitle me to the Oversized Area?
The answer to that last question might explain this: there are almost no seats available for reservation on most "Ordinary Car with Oversized Luggage Area" cars for the day that I'm traveling (a Friday around noon). Is this because the only 3-5 seats I'm seeing available are the only seats entitled to the Oversized Luggage area?
Making reservations vs booking on the day of travel is another mixed message I've read. I had read that booking seats on the Shinkansen was not necessary and that with trains coming every 10 minutes or so, you have no problem buying tickets the day of traveling. I'm now thinking that wisdom may have come from people traveling with backpacks for the day and not 5 checked luggage/major-location-move travelers like my family of 6.
That being said, when I went to reserve, I was surprised to see that many reserved seats, on any car, are already taken and it is the first day that my train's reserved seats became available. I was going to reserve out of caution (even before the luggage questions) but now I worry that ANY seating is on a ticking clock.
I accept that this all may be the reality of traveling in Japan but any clarifications or advice would be much appreciated.
by riberio89