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Is it necessary to book all tickets in advance?

CR
CR
over 7 years ago
2 answers

Hello,

My partner and I will spend 2 weeks in Japan at the start of May.
Our itinerary is Tokyo > Hakone > Osaka > Miyajima > Kyoto > Kanazawa > Takayama > Matsumoto > Tokyo.

We will use JR passes and I'm wondering if we should book all train tickets for our whole route as soon as we arrive in Tokyo? I know this can be a busy time and want to ensure we don't encounter issues with trains being fully booked for our dates.

I have booked accommodation for the whole route so have set our dates for each city/ town.

If we have prebooked our train tickets in advance however, we wouldn't have any flexibility to stay a few hours longer in places we particularly like.

Please advise the best approach!

Thank you.

avatar
Daniel-san
19158 posts
over 7 years ago
Expert

Hi there,

You should be okay if you book the tickets 1-2 days in advance but you could book the whole thing in one go if you wish.

You can always change tickets for free, showing your JR Pass and asking the JR Staff to book you on a different train.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

CR
CR
2 posts
over 7 years ago

Thanks Daniel,
It's good to know we can make changes if necessary. We'll probably book the whole trip when we arrive in Tokyo and make limited changes if needed; we'll be moving every 1 to 2 days so would probably be easier to set times from the outset.

One other question: I put a train schedule together for our trip as a guideline using the Hyperdia website. Some of the transfers (between trains) look tight on time . Do the JR Staff advise on the best approach considering transfers etc. Or if we miss a transfer, is it easy to hop on the next train?

Thanks


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