Beginner's Guide to Japan's Shinkansen Bullet Trains, Tickets + Riding

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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!

#shinkansen #japanbullettrain #japantravelguide #kenshoquest

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[williehardywayjr]

I’m going to Japan next week and your videos have been so helpful thank you soooo much !!

[ingehoffman]

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 🌅

[lisale]

Our family will be visiting Japan in June (yes we know it’s a rainy season 😬😬😬), your videos are quite helpful!! Thank you

[bw]

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!

[camilogonzalez]

@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.

[jessicatorlezi]

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!!!

[barrydevolin]

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...

[kieronspoors]

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. ☺️

[gailcrockett]

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.

[johndavidco]

Very detailed and helpful, as always. Thank you!

[gailcrockett]

Love you both! Arigato gozaimashita!!!🫂

[dolessllc]

We love your videos! What do you both do for a living? Just curious!

[UrielCaballero-hm]

@KenshoQuest, thank you for these videos, they are very helpful, God bless you! Quick question, for reserved seats on Nozomi trains, do you recommend a particular car number? and if so, why? I can see that there are multiple to choose from (16 cars except those unavailable depending on the type you're reserving). Thank you in advance. Blessings!

[chandipussegoda]

Hi Kensho,
I've been watching your family videos and they were great. 👍🙏My husband and myself are planning an 18 day trip in November. Love to see autumn colours. To cover reasonable part of Japan and avoiding JR 14 day pass, I am thinking to get Hokurika Arch pass and Kansi Hiroshima pass. Have few days in Tokyo with Tokyo wide pass. Whats your thinking on this, too much to do? Or 14 day JR is the easy option?
Thanks in advance

[thevilemaxim]

Hi there, my family and I are travelling to Japan in October and your channel is our go to channel for information, it’s a great channel. One question I have is our to I reserve a Shinkansen ticket if I have already got a Hokuriku arch pass ? Which I will be buying.

[aivm]

Thanks for the informative video. Are there any differences between unreserved and reserved cars regarding seat quality and legroom?

[shazza]

Hi, just found your channel and subscribed. We are traveling to Japan May next year, As far as i can see it would be best for me to purchase the Whole Japan Rail Pass? to travel from Tokyo to Osaka, to Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nara?.. Am i correct to think that the Whole Japan Rail Pass would be the best option for me, and thank you for your well detailed video's which i shall be watching many more. 🙂

[Wonderland]

I'm part of a party of 3 traveling on a Monday late afternoon from Kobe to Yokohama. I'm not really sure what our schedule will be during the day and I wonder if it's reasonable to buy tickets at the gate instead of reserving ahead of time? I've never been on this route and don't know how busy I should expect it to be. Thanks!

[gregmatsumoto]

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

[talomajr]

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 ☺