Reserving seats before arrival in Japan (Golden Week)

Hi Robert,

It is indeed a known problem and there is unfortunately no simple solution. The best thing to do is indeed to have some one already in Japan buy and reserve the tickets for you, then when you arrive in Japan have the JR Staff re-book them with the JR Pass and ask for a refund for the price already paid.

Something that may be of use is a new internet reservation service provided by JR Called 5489.
This service allows you to reserve tickets over the internet beforehand and allows you to collect the tickets with the right credentials at any JR Train station within Japan. You can find the service here are at the link below. The problem is that the service is only available in the Japanese language as of now but it could take your worry away of having to get the tickets delivered to your Hotel.

Here is the full link:
http://www.jr-odekake.net/goyoyaku/e5489/

You can still travel the Shinkansen by non-reserved car if tickets are sold out, this means lining up at the platform where the non-reserved cars stop and you may have to come an hour earlier to secure seats this way in Golden Week. It is far from ideal but still a possibility you can consider

I hope this helps you,
-Daniel

Is this a legit website? It seems that it would allow reservations before getting to japan... I just reserved my seats. Of course it's JR East only...

http://jreast-shinkansen-reservation.eki-net.com/PC/English/JRTicket/SeatReservation/Guide.aspx

Hi there,

Yes you can use it to reserve you tickets.
Its one of the reasons I think that JR East is the most progressive of the JR companies.