July Japan Trip

Hi there,

I'm afraid you can only begin reserving seats once you've activated the exchange order for the JR Pass in Japan. Once you've done so, you can make all of your reservations for the duration of your trip on the same day and not have to worry about finding seats.

The JR Pass will cover those trips, and the Shinkansen tickets. The Nozomi Shinkansen is an express service mainly for commuters, that takes the same route as the Tokaido Shinkansen (included in the pass) with slightly fewer stops. Therefore upgrading is definitely not necessary, but the option is there to upgrade for specific journeys for about 4000-6500 YEN (e.g Tokyo to Shin Osaka is 4960 YEN).

Hope this helps!

Alexis