I will be in Japan later this month with a group of people (6 adults and 3 teens).
We plan to take trains from Tokyo to Kyoto, Kyoto to Osaka and Osaka to Tokyo.
This will be over a couple of weeks, so it looks like a JR Pass is not convenient.
I am not sure whether we should book tickets in advance for all trips (i.e. before even flying to Japan)
or is it better to just buy them at the station before boarding the train.
The reason I was leaning towards buying at the station is that we can then leave whenever we are at the station instead of having to rush and get the group at the right platform in time for the train (the larger the group, the harder is to keep a strict timetable when moving around).
On the other hand, buying in advance could have some advantages. So I have a few questions below that could help us decide:
Should we expect long line at the ticket counters ?
Do ticket vending machine accept credit cards ?
Can we board a subsequent train if we miss the one we booked in advance ?
Thanks a lot for any other related tricks and tips.
by flopiano