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Reservations on Shinkansen

tingest
tingest
almost 11 years ago
4 answers

Hi all!

I will be travelling to Japan from 17 April to 26 April.
I'm going from Tokyo - Shizuoka - Kyoto - Hiroshima - Tokyo (crazy for 10 days I know)
But my problem is I've actually planned all my shinkansen timings at around 8am plus for all the locations and I just totally forgot about peak hour!
So I was wondering,

1) Can I make reservations for all the rides in advance? I've read somewhere that reservations are only accepted on JR East line. (I've bought my JR Pass btw!)
2) Should I plan my Shinkansen timing to avoid the peak hour (after 0930am)?
3) Does the peak hour apply to all prefectures? I know Tokyo is insanely crowded in the mornings, but is it the same in Shizuoka, Kyoto, and Hiroshima during 7am to 9am?

Sorry I have so many questions! Would really appreciate some help on this!

Thanks!
Kai Ting

avatar
Daniel-san
18919 posts
almost 11 years ago
Expert

Hi Kai Thing,

1.) You can make all the reservations when you are in Japan and have your JR Pass. You can reserve seats nationwide at every station.

2.) People use the Shinkansen mainly for long distance traveled and there's not really a rush hour. Using the train around 8 am is completely fine.

3.) During 7-9 there's always a lot of commuting going on but that's mainly on local train lines, metro and buses.

Have a great trip!
Daniel

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