I am heading into Northern Japan at the end of the month and have already bought the 5 day Tohoku JR East Pass. All has been smooth sailing so far with regards to booking trains EXCEPT for Resort Shirakami trains. This is a PSA/tip for those who may encounter this problem in the future.
Right now, the JR East reservation system online does not allow me to book the entire journey from Akita to Aomori despite there still being plenty of seats. However, the system does allow me to book portions of the journey within the route. Thus, I am forced to make 2 seperate bookings to go from Akita to Aomori using this train. Also, as the system does not allow adjacent bookings, there would be a small gap between 2 stations where I do not actually have the reserved seat.
Pretty stupid and the normal troubleshooting method of just heading down to the station to get the proper booking won’t work as I’m not in country. If you guys have any recommendations on what to do and if you experienced any similar situations, you are welcome to share it with everyone.