Taking the Shinkansen (and getting cheaper tickets)

Last weekend, I took the Shinkansen down to Hiroshima for sight-seeing. While it's not my first time riding the Shinkansen, it's the first time that I've booked it and handled the entire process by myself.

The easiest way to get a Shinkansen ticket is to walk into a ticketing office and ask the staff to handle it for you. While you can reserve your ticket up to one month in advance, most of the time, it is also OK to buy the ticket just before you travel. There are 3 main types of tickets: free-seating, fixed-seating and green seats. Free-seating is the cheapest and only allows you to ride the non-reserved section of the train (if there's no seat, then you have to stand.). Fixed-seating allows you to choose your seat in advance, so you're guaranteed to have a seat. Green seats are premium-level seats.

However, there are ways to get cheaper tickets. Buying tickets from shops outside can help you save a bit of money. As can be seen in the picture below, my trip from Shin-Osaka to Hiroshima was discounted from 10,440 yen to 9,800 yen. The way these shops work is that they buy ticket packs (回数券) from JR and sell them individually with a mark-up of 100 to 200 yen per ticket. One ticket is for one way only, so you have to buy two. Note that JR sell these tickets in pack of six, so if you're traveling in groups of three, it is more economical to buy them directly from JR.

The shop will give you a ticket with no seat or date selected yet (the bottom tickets in the picture). You will then need to go to a JR station to select your date and seat at either the green automatic machine or the ticketing office. After you have picked your seat, you will receive the seat ticket, which you will need to use together with your first ticket (which I will call "base fare ticket").

In the above example, the base fare ticket covers the distance from anywhere in Osaka city to anywhere in Hiroshima city. Which means that, even though the Shinkansen leaves from Shin-Osaka, if you want to get in the JR system from anywhere in Osaka, you do not need to pay the fare from the station you got on to Shin-Osaka. The same applies for your destination.

The way to use the ticket is as follows. First, at the station you want to travel from, use the base fare ticket to get on to the JR train and travel to Shin-Osaka. Then, without exiting the JR system, find the Shinkansen gate use both the base fare ticket and the seat ticket stacked on top of each other to get past the Shinkansen gate.

Once you're inside the Shinkansen area, buy an Ekiben (a lunch box bought at a train station) if you want and hop on the train. If you miss a train, don't worry, you can ride on the next train using the unreserved section.

The inside of the train is very well-decorated. The seats are rotatable in case you're traveling in a large group. Some snacks are sold on-board, but it's better to buy them from the station if you need them. A power socket is also provided in case you need to charge your mobile phone.

Finally, after arriving at your destination, use both tickets to get past the Shinkansen gate and you will get your base fare ticket back (with the time of entering and exiting the Shinkansen area recorded). You can then continue your travel on JR lines or use your base fare ticket to exit from the station.

Overall, the Shinkansen is a very fast and convenient way of traveling, albeit a little bit expensive. Compared to air travel, the Shinkansen has many advantages. First, you do not have to go through extensive security checks and spend many hours waiting at the airport. Seasoned travelers might even reach the Shinkansen station only a few minutes before the Shinkansen leaves! Second is that you can use your mobile phones and electronic devices on board without any restrictions. Finally, Shinkansen tickets are very flexible. If there are any changes to your plan, as long as the departure time has not yet passed, you can change your ticket, often without paying any fee at all. On my trip back from Hiroshima, I've moved my ticket one hour earlier because the sightseeing finished earlier than expected.

That's it for today! This weekend, I will be traveling to Tokyo by night bus and I will be blogging about it next week (if the trip doesn't get canceled because of the Neoguri typhoon.)