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Reserving JR trains in advance during Golden Week

sophiedafonseca@hotmail.com
[email protected]
about 3 years ago
1 answer

Hello,

I arrive in Tokyo with my husband and 2 children from Paris in France on April 22.

Our trip is planned as follows:

  • April 23: Visit Hiroshima
  • April 24: Miyajima Miyajima
  • April 25 & 26: Travel to Uno (to visit Naoshima & Teshima)
  • April 27 to 30: Visit Kyoto (including a day trip to Nara)
  • May 1 to May 5: Visit Tokyo (including a day trip to Hakone)

I am a little worried as we are travelling during golden Week.
I will be buying Green JR passes for the 4 of us but would like to know if I can book our trains before arriving in Tokyo and activating it on April 22 as I am worried that there will not be any seats left.

Is it possible to reserve before activating the pass? What are you kind suggestions?
Also, if you have any comments or suggestions on the itinerary shared, thank you!

Many thanks,
Sophie

avatar
Daniel-san
19362 posts
about 3 years ago
Expert

Hi Sophie,

We don't have the option yet to reserve seats/trains through JRPass.com, though I hope this will be coming soon. So for now, you can reserve seats once you arrive in Japan and have exchanged the JR Pass. Golden week is busy, but most Japanese travel on the Nozomi trains, and most trains for JR Pass users are not impacted.

Even if non-reserved seats are taken, then you can come a little early and queue at the platform for a non-reserved seat. So you can always travel. The only route that is long is Tokyo - Hiroshima, this will take up most of a day. It might be nicer to book in a stopover, then again, it can also be nice to have as much travel behind you as possible.

Kind regards,
Daniel

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