Hey! I’m travelling to Japan for this first time in September, and now that it’s less than a month away, I’ve purchased my rail pass online through [Japanrailpass.net](https://Japanrailpass.net) (I believe this is the official site). I’ve started reserving seats. I’ve successfully reserved seats between hiroshima and tokyo, but for shorter trips (e.g. kyoto to nara) it says ‘this route is not available’ despite google telling me there are some JR options between the two cities. I’ve also had trouble on other smaller routes… does anyone have any suggestions, or are reservations totally unnecessary? I’m travelling alone so I’m keen to make my life as easy as possible. Any tips or suggestions would be massively appreciated!
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Also another note: When I do from e.g. Osaka to kyoto, it always makes me take a train to shin-osaka then to kyoto, but it won’t allow me to just type in shin-osaka and start from there.
5 comments
Kyoto to Nara is a commuter train, so reservations are not available.
Reservations are possible on shinkansen, limited express (and joyful trains), as well as on some liners.
There is a error on the website where the English name for Shin-Osaka station doesn’t seem to work in the text search box. Try copy pasting the Japanese text. 新大阪駅
I ran into the same problem (my original booking from Narita to Tokyo was all sorts of wonky because of the site). When I went to pick up my pass from the office, the clerk was super helpful and a bit confused as to why I had pre booked so many trains and why a few of them looked weird.
TBH, the automated machines make it pretty easy to book things and take 5 ish minutes to do so. Also depending on the weather or even just a whim, plans may change, so I wouldn’t get hung up on booking things in advance unless you’ve got oversized luggage.
To another’s point, some of the trains are local commuters and won’t allow reservations. Hard to tell that from the online site and Google isn’t much use in that case either.
I’d focus on the first couple of legs, then add an extra 10 minutes to one of your trips to the train station and book then. Also, not all machines work with JR Pass. You’ll want to look for a Japan Rail Pass button in the bottom left. We stood in line at a JR office in Kamakura for over an hour to find out that the clerk had no idea about the pass and that we should have just looked for that button instead.
Have a great trip!!
Can I ask how exactly you are able to make reservations? I purchased my pass through [Japan-experience](https://www.japan-experience.com/) and was under the impression that I could only start making reservations once the pass had been activated upon arrival in Japan.
No experience booking reserved seats this way, but it is super easy to reserve seats on the Shinkansen ticket machines at stations using the JRPass. I generally selected my reserved tickets a day or two in advance this way. Never had any issues not being able to find a seat.