Hello,
I am deciding whether or not to purchase a JR Pass for myself and 12 year old son. We will be in Japan for only 7 days from 3/28/15 to 4/4/15 . Our itinerary is HAN-Tokyo-Kyoto-Tokyo-NRT. Running the numbers, it seems to make sense to buy the passes but I do have the below concerns/questions:
It seems that the Haneda ticket office will be closed when we arrive. We arrive at 6:45pm Saturday night. Are there any other options? Otherwise, I guess we will lose the pass coverage for the monorail.
Shinkasen Hikari vs Nozomi. We are travelling during the busy cherry blossom time. Should I be concerned that the Hikari trains will be booked up? There seems to be so few Shinkasen Hikari vs. Nozomi. For example, we considered going to Hiroshima and taking the train back to Tokyo on Sat, April 4th but there is no Hikari train that would get us to Tokyo in time for our 5pm flight.
Related to the above is the issue of seat reservations on bullet trains. This website says that it is not necessary to book seats but again it is a busy time. Is there an extra cost for booking seats? Also is it true I cannot book seats until I get to Japan? If I do not buy the JR Pass, can I book Hikari/Nozumi seats in advance from outside Japan?
So given the time of year and the fact that we probably can't include the monorail from Haneda, is it worth spending another $40 or so each to get the trains we want? (Most of the increased cost it seems will be in the price of the train from Tokyo to Narita.)
Thanks for any help.
Skyy