So I live In Yamanashi (Tsuru-shi) and need to get to Nogoya on Monday. I will travel early.
I need 1 adult ticket for Shinkansen from Mishima to Nagoya around 11:55 on this Monday.
However I will not be able to buy in advance, as there is no JR offices nearby and the SmartEX app will not let me register, as something goes wrong when I try to register my credit card. Tried to call JR, but no help to get.
Today I realized the amount of tourist that are here now (for the autumn colors) and thus it made me question if it is even realistic to get a Shinkansen on the day, without reservation?
Anyone who can comment ? Thanks
13 comments
There are non reserved seats but on crowded days, they might be full and I have seen people sitting or standing in the alleyways as a result.
Monday mornings however might not be vacation rush time.
You’ll be able to get on, you just won’t be able to sit down and will likely be stuck in a hallway.
You can use the unreserved cars. You may have to stand if they’re crowded.
You’ll have no problems getting on. Getting a seat may be difficult but getting a ticket won’t be.
In addition to my other comment, you should be able to make a reservation on the JR website and then pay at the station when you pick up the ticket. We’ve done that before.
I’ve noticed a lot of Japanese companies don’t take international credit cards over web. Tokyo Disney doesn’t even take them. You should be fine to buy a non-reserved seat from the Shinkansen ticket machines the day of. Those tickets are good for one one-way trip between the stations you specify the entire day so you’re not tied to a specific departure time by anything other than your own schedule. If your train is over-crowded, you’ll just need to stand like on a local train.
Go to your nearest JR station with people working and you should be able to buy the ticket in advance there.
I took the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagoya around the same time on Thursday and found a seat no problem. It was busyish but not packed.
Lol few months ago during that big typhoon I had to get from Tokyo to Nagoya. Trains delayed, stuck for hours, can’t even get a green sha seat had to stand
You should be able to buy a ticket early at Mishima and choose what train you get. Some might have seats free too. Easy if you’re traveling alone.
If you don’t mind heading out a little early, you can get a reserved ticket at the shinkansen station day of. By early I mean like 30 minutes to an hour prior to boarding.
I used to travel between Osaka and Tokyo for work monthly. I would book my return ticket for the latest possible train I might need to catch as I never new exactly when I’d finish. If I finished early, I’d switch tickets to an earlier train at the ticket window at Tokyo station. There were always open reserved seats for trains leaving sooner. That was the nozomi on weekends. Kodama on Monday should have open seats on most trains. 1 hour before you want to catch it should be safe.
My smartex stopped taking my chase visa just recently as well, but i got a Mastercard to work. You can probably cheese Line Pay since it’s a JP visa and use it to pay for a ‘at the last second’ ticket like i do.
Wife and I often go to Tokyo via Kannami-Atami-Tokyo route without reservations on weekdays so you should be good to go. She uses that online reservation system (SmartEx) and I just buy the tickets at the gate, old style with no issues.
However, keep an eye on the weather as some bad weather will delay the Tokaido Shinkansen.