Hi there!
So in doing my own research over the last while I found that my best bet is to land in Narita, take the Tokyo Express to Tokyo Station, then take the Nozomi Shinkansen down to Kyoto. My first question is if that is the correct route I should be taking and the second is if the Shinkansen ever fills up? I’m looking at buying tickets online but I’m concerned that if I have any delays at the airport and I miss my Shinkansen, it will have been a waste of money and I’d have to buy another ticket. Is it always ok to just buy tickets at the station itself?
I know I’m probably overthinking things but it’s my first time moving to a country by myself and I’d really prefer not to screw up the first day lol. I’m also from an island off the coast of Seattle so I’m used to our ferries being extraordinarily late all the time and overloading and not letting passengers on.
Any words of advice are more than welcome. Thank you!
4 comments
Can you not fly to Kansai airport? That would be far simpler, and easier especially if you have a lot of luggage.
The Shinkansen can fill up, but as they leave every 10 minutes you are unlikely to have trouble finding an available seat to reserve.
>my best bet is to land in Narita
If you’re still shopping flights, try to land in Kansai if possible instead of Narita. KIX is much closer to Kyoto than either of the Tokyo airports.
If your flight is already locked in with a Narita arrival, and you want to get to Kyoto as quickly as possible then you’ll want to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo station to Kyoto station. Getting to Tokyo station you’d want either the Narita Express (which goes directly to Tokyo station) or the Skyliner, which comes to the airport more frequently and costs a bit less, but gets you to Ueno so you’d need to hop on the Yamanote or something to get down to Tokyo. In both cases if you ignore waiting for the train at Narita you’re looking at around 3 and a half hours to Kyoto.
>it will have been a waste of money and I’d have to buy another ticket.
If you reserve a seat and miss your train, you can still get into the non-reserved seat section of a later train. You’re not guaranteed a place to sit down, but you’re not going to spend any extra money. Or you can just buy your train ticket at the station when you get there. Outside of peak holiday travel (new years, golden week, obon) there are usually plenty of reserved seats available and worst case you can always stand in the non-reserved section.
Keep in mind that the trains don’t run all night, so depending on when you arrive in Narita you may want to book a hotel for a night and finish your journey to Kyoto the following morning.
IMO, the best route would be Narita Express to Tokyo Station, then shinkansen. You can buy the ticket, just dont get a seat reservation. Shinkansen leave every 10-20 minutes, so you’ll be fine if the first one is full (which is rare).
The Narita Express + Shinkansen is the least confusing way to get to Kyoto.
As for missing the Shinkansen, whethe it’s a waste of money depends. The shinkansen ticket has two parts, i.e. Fare and Express ticket. The validity of the fare ticket varies by the travel distance, but from Tokyo to Kyoto, it would be valid for several days. However, the express ticket is valid only for the day printed on it and if you miss the train, you can use the same ticket for the later train of the day, but not of the following day.