Beginner's Guide to Japan's BULLET TRAINS, Tickets & Riding Shinkansen
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- Learn the basics of purchasing tickets and riding bullet trains in Japan! These high-speed bullet trains, known as Shinkansen, can travel as fast as 320 km/h. Sprint from Tokyo to Kyoto in just 2 hours and 15 minutes. We explain how to reserve seats with a JR Pass or purchase single-journey Shinkansen tickets. We appreciate the commissions we earn when you purchase through our affiliate link: geni.us/shinkansen
#shinkansen #japanbullettrain #japantravelguide #kenshoquest
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FEATURED IN THIS VIDEO 🎬
💖 We appreciate the commissions we earn when you purchase through our Klook affiliate links!
Purchase Shinkansen tickets on Klook: geni.us/shinkansen
SmartEX ( for Tokaido Sanyo Kyushu Shinkansen ): smart-ex.jp/en/index.php
Link Shinkansen ticket to IC Card: smart-ex.jp/en/entraining/icc...
JR East train reservation: www.eki-net.com/en/jreast-tra...
Whole Japan Rail Pass on Klook: geni.us/wholejrpass
Official JR Pass website: japanrailpass.net/
TIME STAMPS
00:00 High-Speed Shinkansen Bullet Trains
00:17 Ride with JR Pass or single-journey tickets
00:36 What are Shinkansen trains?
00:56 Types of train cars
02:58 Reserving seats with JR Pass
04:21 Purchasing Shinkansen tickets
04:45 When to purchase tickets
05:04 Where to buy Shinkansen tickets
05:11 JR Ticket Office
06:24 Reserved seat ticketing machine
07:51 Buying tickets online
09:04 Linking ticket to IC card
09:30 Ride unreserved with IC card
09:54 Changing reservations
11:33 What if you miss your train?
11:51 Hop-on hop-off?
12:17 Luggage on Shinkansen
13:33 Food & drinks on Shinkansen
14:00 Amenities on bullet trains
14:32 Subscribe for Japan travel tips!
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🌺 ABOUT US
Aloha! We are a worldschooling family with three young kids. Our home base is the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii. We've been living a nomadic lifestyle for the past 15 years. We hope to inspire you to begin your own quest!
We appreciate the commissions we earn when you purchase Shinkansen tickets through our Klook affiliate link: geni.us/shinkansen 💕
Everything I needed was that someone explained it to me as I was a 5 year old, and you did it 😂 Thank you so very much!!!
You're welcome!
Our family will be visiting Japan in June (yes we know it’s a rainy season 😬😬😬), your videos are quite helpful!! Thank you
You’re welcome! Don’t worry too much about the rain ☔️. Just pack accordingly. And maybe have some indoor attractions lined up. 🌸 Heidi
Me too. No rain will dampen my spirits! See you there 👋
My wife and I are going in June too. No rain will stop us😎
I am visiting from OZ in two weeks time - your channel has been my Go To in preparation - really excited as it has been my No 1 Bucketlist country - many thanks and appreciate your work - be well 🌅
Visiting from Oz in 2025 - hope you have an awesome time!
Have a wonderful time in Japan!
you guys very detailed...good job
@Kensho Quest thank you very much for the very detailed videos. I found them very useful during my recent trip to Japan. My experience: Klook is very helpful, only drawback was that it only sells segments. From Tokyo to Takayama I had to buy the segment from Tokyo to Nagoya, and then the one from Nagoya to Takayama, carefully planning arrival and departure times for the "connection." I guess I was lucky that my trip was pretty much covered by JRWest and found their website to be very easy to use and purchase. US issued credit card, no problem. I did have to go to an office or machine, enter the code and show/insert the credit card for the purchase which you also have to do with the QR code issued by Klook. I did the calculations before my trip and the JR pass was not worth it, especially since I stayed for 28 days. The JR offices usually have long lines. Thank you once again for having made my trip more informed and stress less.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Just to clarify for anyone else who is wondering, there are a couple different ways to pick up a pre-purchased ticket from the machine. If you choose the "Pick Up Tickets" button, it will require you to enter your confirmation number and credit card used to purchase the tickets. However, if you select the "Read QR Code" button, you scan the QR code, confirm the section, and the tickets will print. Sometimes this method didn't work for us, and we had to use the previous method. 🌸 Heidi
Very detailed and helpful, as always. Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Love you both! Arigato gozaimashita!!!🫂
Dōitashimashite!
Great video. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thank you!
Just found your channel. I wish I had seen it a little before as we just got back three weeks ago from Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kanazawa. Glad I went, but quite the experience with crowds for guy from Hawaii, Big Island. Enjoyed everything tho, and plan to go back next year maybe Nara, Osaka area and Okinawa. Thank you, enjoy your channel!
I just sub....will watch your other vids soon!
Welcome! The crowds can be a bit much for us, too.
Thanks!
Thank you!
Very informative
Glad you think so!
Just wanted to say a big thank you to you both for your helpful videos.
I’ll finally be in Japan from the 9th next week! Looking forward to it! If I need any help while there, I know whose videos to watch. ☺️
Thanks. Have a wonderful time in Japan!
Your explanations are incredibly well articulated and organized. Booking Japanese trains is surprisingly complicated, but you have made the process much easier to navigate. Thank you very much. Maybe you could tackle European trains next...
Glad to have helped! It's been years since we visited Europe. There would be a lot for us to learn there as well.
Excellent review!👏
Been watching all of your videos because they are so informative. As an older person travelling alone in September to Morioka from Narita and staying 2 months, I have been stressed trying to figure out particulary, which, how, and what Shinkansen Hayabusa on-way ticket during a week day afternoon.
Thank you again.
You're welcome! From Tokyo Station, you can take either a Hayabusa or a Komachi on the Tohoku Shinkansen line all the way to Morioka. In fact, they may even be coupled together for that journey! Those are the red and teal trains shown linked together in the photo and near the beginning of the video. My 3-year-old son has been learning all about them recently! Here's our separate video explaining how to buy the tickets online: czcams.com/video/GD0Tp7zGSeo/video.html 🌸 Heidi
We love your videos! What do you both do for a living? Just curious!
Thanks for the informative video. Are there any differences between unreserved and reserved cars regarding seat quality and legroom?
The seats are the same in ordinary class non-reserved and reserved. You’re just guaranteed to get one in reserved and might need to stand in non-reserved.
Good information. But, how do I get access to the daily train schedule online? Do the trains travel daily are less often per week? Trying to schedule from USA
There are many trains per day. You could check your route on Google Maps. We've noticed that when we go into the JR Ticket Office to enquire, there are even more trains than the ones shown on Google Maps. Personally, I enter my starting and ending stations on Klook to see the options. It's just an easy system to use. Here's our affiliate link: geni.us/shinkansen And here's our full video explaining how to buy tickets on Klook: czcams.com/video/GD0Tp7zGSeo/video.html
If for example I booked my Shinkansen online,smart-ex on june24,roundtrip ticket from Tokyo to Osaka , arrived in 🇯🇵 on July 25, travel to Osaka on aug7, can I claim my Shinkansen ticket on the day I would arrive in 🇯🇵 which is July 25? Both my roundtrip ticket? Thank you
Yes, you can pickup both on same day.
If my flight to Narita Airport was delayed and arrived much later than anticipated. Where can I change my advance book reserve seat shinkansen ticket at the Airport? Any subway ticketing machine or only Shinkansen ticketing machine? Does Narita Airport have a service counter to make the changes? If I brought the advance ticket thru smart EX, can I change it from the website itself?
Hi, your best bet will be to visit the JR ticket office at Narita or visit the JR reserved ticket macine. If you bought from Smart EX then yes, you can make changes online.
@@KenshoQuest thanks for your kind explanation
For SmartEX, if buying ahead of time, the discount only applies to adult tickets and you can't add a child ticket in the same transaction so should I buy the adults together and the child separately? I'm assuming that won't cause any issues. Also it looks like if I purchase more than 30 days out, I can't reserve seats until within 30 days? Your videos have been super helpful for our upcoming trip in June ☺
Hi, glad our videos are helpful!
Yes, try to book them separately to get the child discount. If you are booking far enough in advance it should be no problem. Also, you are correct, JR company only allows the purchase up to 30 days in advance. They have a pre-order but I don't recommend that as there are no guarantees you will get the seat you want.
So if I purchase the hokuriku arch pass, and we wanna get off in kanazawa before going the rest of the way to kyoto can we do that? Like we'd get off and then like an hour later or so get back on.
Yes you can. The Hokuriku Arch Pass allows for unlimited rides on the designated route. However, the pass wouldn’t be cost effective if you only plan to get off at Kanazawa. It’s really meant for exploring multiple cities in the Hokuriku area. It would be cheaper to buy a single-journey Shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto or separate tickets Tokyo to Kanazawa to Kyoto. Here’s how to buy individual tickets: Easiest Way to Buy Shinkansen Tickets Online & How to Change Your Seat
czcams.com/video/GD0Tp7zGSeo/video.html 🌸 Heidi
@KenshoQuest thank you Heidi, we do plan to explore more cities along the arch pass but it was simpler to just use one as a reference. Thank you again you guys are absolutely amazing and have really help me plan out our honeymoon more thoroughly
Have a wonderful honeymoon!
Hello. I tried to buy shinkansen from the ticket machine before the departure date. We cannot choose the departure time when we book days prior to the departure date, arent we? If so, can we buy first, then decide the time and reserve seat on the departure date?
Were you trying to purchase a Reserved or Non-Reserved ticket? If you are buying a Non-Reserved ticket there will not be a specific time, just a date.
@@KenshoQuest we try to buy Reserved seat ticket prior the departure date from the ticket machine. Can it be done?
@@ap2445 Yes, if you are purchasing a Reserved seat from a ticket machine, you should be able to select the train time. Make sure you are selecting "Reserved Seat" then "For Seat Reservation on Shinkansen". Then you should be able to select the train, date, and time. If you later choose to change the time, you can do that at a ticketing machine, but there might not be as much availability. In this separate video we show how to change the train time at 05:37 in the video czcams.com/video/GD0Tp7zGSeo/video.html
@@KenshoQuest thank you very much for the information
Is it possible to choose your seats or are they automatically allocated?
Hi. It depends how you purchase your reserved seat Shinkansen ticket. If you purchase from a ticket machine or SmartEX, you can choose your specific seat. If you purchase online through Klook, you will be assigned a reserved seat. If you want to change your seat, you can do so at a machine or office, after you have collected your paper ticket. We show how to change a seat reservation in this separate video: czcams.com/video/GD0Tp7zGSeo/video.html 🌸 Heidi
@@KenshoQuest thank you so much!
Awesome video! When purchasing JR rail pass on official site does it get mailed to you in US or do you just pick up in Japan? I’m worried about not getting it in time if ordered within 30 days but want to make reservations beforehand. Thanks!
Hi. If you purchase through the official website, I believe they email you a confirmation number, which you take to Japan to pick up your actual JR Pass. They don’t mail a paper Exchange Order like travel agents do. 🌸 Heidi
japanrailpass.net/en/purchase/online/
How do I reserve the hello kitty train
Hi, it depends on where you will be traveling to/from. Also take into consideration that it doesn't operate every single day. And it only runs once a day. Here is a link to the page where you can check the date/time of availabililty: www.jr-hellokittyshinkansen.jp/en/
@@KenshoQuest I’m down there July 16 from Osaka to Hiroshima but I get stuck when it asks for train number… thank u so much for replying
@@lizpedroza9965 Going Shin-Osaka towards Hakata it is Kodama No. 849, departing Shin-Osaka station at 11:37am.