I will be coming back to Japan after 4 long years in the fall and I am a huge train geek!
With the JR Pass, I want to ride the elusive N700s on the Tokkaido Shinkansen and I know they do list a couple a day on the timetable and from what I gathered, the other trains not specifically indicated are luck of the draw.
Someone commented on a YouTube video I watched that they typically run them on the slower services with more stops. Since I am limited to the hikari, what are my best chances to find one?
Hoping to ride it out of Tokyo Station in the early morning for when we start the cross country portion of the trip.
3 comments
Referring to the schedule is, ultimately, your best bet.
Alternatively, maybe you can ride a shorter section of your trip on a N700S Nozomi, and then switch to a N700 Hikari.
You are not limited to Hikari, you can also ride the Kodama.
Anyway… this seems to be what you want, does not seems to be especially elusive.
[https://railway.jr-central.co.jp/pwd/_pdf/N700S.pdf](https://railway.jr-central.co.jp/pwd/_pdf/N700S.pdf)
Early, you have Hikari 533 from Shin-Yokohama at 6:00, Kodama 705 at Tokyo station 7:27, Kodama 711 at 8:57, Kodama 715 at 9:57.
N-700 S and R (N700s, N700r) sets are run only on:
* *Mizuho*, *Sakura* services between Shin-Osaka and Kagoshima-Chuo
* 8-car *Kodama* services between Shin-Osaka and Hakata
They do not run on Tokaido shinkansen (between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka).
Edit: I must get more coffee – the question is confusing because N700S := N700s