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Shinkansen: Does "Unreserved Seat" means "No Seat"?


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Yes, I remember the Hakuba-Tokyo-Narita by train route was about an hour longer than the Hakuba-Nagano-Tokyo-Narita route by bus and shinkansen. That way is faster but I hate having to change buses and trains so often. In my last trip to Naeba the chartered bus from Narita to the hotel in Naeba door to door was fantastic.

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I know what you mean, K in HK. I used to do those CX packages with a mandatory one night stay in Tokyo (or Sapporo if in Hokkaido). However, I've given up on those exactly for that reason...I want to get to the resort straight from the airport. That's why I do my own custom-made packages now. They're much cheaper too, I've found.

 

Sunrise, the recent Naeba outing was disappointing because of the weather and that also prevented me from hooking up with Montoya and Tsondaboy. At least I can look forward to Switzerland...heading there next week.

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That's a shame, I guess it was windy up there with lifts closing? I thought conditions were supposed to be amazing in that Xmas period. Maybe depends on when/where you were skiing?

 

Have fun in Switzerland.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Markie:
the train journey with a beautiful view of the lake just before Hakuba.
The three lakes are called

Kizakiko
Nakatsunako
Aokiko

(south to north)

Don't ask me if the three lakes are all girls.
:p

If you got it, you are really good at Japanese, I guess \:\)
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Markie

I am not on a package tour. We are on free bonus flights with CX. So, collecting milage does make sense!

 

Unfortunately we arrive very late, and return very early. Basically losing valuable time. I wouldn't have mind to have paid, but then we would have lost the milages, which is not eneugh to go to Europe for 4.

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K in HK, that's a good idea to use up your mileage if it's with Asiamiles because I understand that has time limits.

I never get to use mine properly because of all the restrictions and often end up using it on the "limosine service to the airport".

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to follow up on my experience:

 

I tried to buy a ticket on Friday 27th Jan for the early Sat. Shinkansen - no reserved seat available anymore. That did mean standing 61 Minutes from Omiya to Nagano. Standing between the reserved cars was quite comforable, but the non-reserved area was packet with standers.

 

For my return late Monday we back non-reserved and did found seat in the (anyway quite full) non-reserved area.

 

Interesting side note: The 09:10 Alpico Bus from Nagano to Hakuba was of course full - but they had lined up several busses and we got there in time anyway.

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That's good it worked out albiet standing.

 

another side note - on my shink up on Saturday from Omiya, I got into the nearest carriage to the escalator and it turned out to be a reserved one, I told the guy I'd go to the unreserved and I was in car 8 and unreserved was 1,2,3. He saw my skis/boot bag and other bag and said is that your luggage and I said yes and he told me I could stay where I was without paying the extra.... nice of him.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by sunrise:
That's good it worked out albiet standing.

another side note - on my shink up on Saturday from Omiya...
Which one you took? We had the 07:18 - but reserving was a bit of a waste as the train was pretty empty. Shinjuku-Omiya was only 26 Minutes anyway.
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