# How to buy Shinkansen tickets from Tokyo

Buying a Shinkansen ticket in Tokyo is easier than it looks: you can book on your phone weeks ahead, or walk up to an English-language machine at the station on the day. What trips people up is the detail: which of Tokyo's stations your train leaves from, which booking site sells which line, when the Nozomi has no unreserved seats, and the rule for big suitcases. This page goes through all of it for the four classic trips from Tokyo: Kyoto and Osaka, Kanazawa and Sendai.

## Which line, which train, which station

Two companies run the Shinkansen out of Tokyo. JR Central's Tokaido Shinkansen goes west to Nagoya, Kyoto and Shin-Osaka, and on towards Hiroshima and Fukuoka; the Nozomi, its fastest train, takes about 2 hours 15 minutes to Kyoto and about 2 and a half hours to Shin-Osaka. JR East runs the lines to the north: the Tohoku Shinkansen reaches Sendai in about an hour and a half on the Hayabusa, and the Hokuriku Shinkansen reaches Kanazawa in about 2 and a half hours on the Kagayaki. Osaka's Shinkansen station is Shin-Osaka, not Osaka Station.

Every line starts at [Tokyo Station](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=JR%20%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%A7%85%20%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E5%8D%83%E4%BB%A3%E7%94%B0%E5%8C%BA%E4%B8%B8%E3%81%AE%E5%86%851-9-1). For Kyoto and Osaka you can also board at [Shinagawa](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=JR%20%E5%93%81%E5%B7%9D%E9%A7%85%20%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E6%B8%AF%E5%8C%BA%E9%AB%98%E8%BC%AA3-26-27), where every Nozomi stops and which is closer to Shibuya, Meguro and Haneda Airport, or at [Shin-Yokohama](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=JR%20%E6%96%B0%E6%A8%AA%E6%B5%9C%E9%A7%85%20%E7%A5%9E%E5%A5%88%E5%B7%9D%E7%9C%8C%E6%A8%AA%E6%B5%9C%E5%B8%82%E6%B8%AF%E5%8C%97%E5%8C%BA%E7%AF%A0%E5%8E%9F%E7%94%BA2937) if you stay in Yokohama. Trains to Sendai and Kanazawa also stop at [Ueno](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=JR%20%E4%B8%8A%E9%87%8E%E9%A7%85%20%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E5%8F%B0%E6%9D%B1%E5%8C%BA%E4%B8%8A%E9%87%8E7-1-1&query_place_id=ChIJA36n4inWCRIRVEwGkVYUSHY), handy from Asakusa, though a few skip it, so check your train. At Tokyo Station the Tokaido platforms (14 to 19) and the JR East platforms (20 to 23) are behind separate gates, a few minutes' walk apart.

Each line has fast and slower trains. On the Tokaido line the Nozomi is fastest and most frequent, the Hikari makes a few more stops and takes about 25 minutes longer to Kyoto, and the Kodama stops everywhere and takes close to four hours. To Sendai the Hayabusa is fastest and the Yamabiko stops more often. To Kanazawa the Kagayaki is the fast train and the Hakutaka the slower one.

- Allow 15 to 20 minutes inside Tokyo Station to get from the city lines to the Shinkansen gates, more with luggage or children.
- Search for Shin-Osaka, not Osaka, on booking sites and in route apps.

- → [Getting around Tokyo: trains, Suica and taxis](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/getting-around.md)
- → [Festival day trips from Tokyo](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/day-trips.md)

## Booking online: smartEX and JR-EAST Train Reservation

For Kyoto and Osaka, JR Central's [smartEX](https://smart-ex.jp/en/) is the official English site and app. Membership is free: you register with an email address and a credit card that supports 3-D Secure, and some overseas debit and prepaid cards are declined. You can book from 5:30am a year before your travel day, and seats are assigned a month ahead. Changing your train before departure is free as often as you like, and a cancellation costs a small fee. On the day you scan a QR ticket in the app at the gate, touch an IC card you registered, or print paper tickets at a station machine.

For Sendai and Kanazawa, JR East's English booking site [JR-EAST Train Reservation](https://www.eki-net.com/en/jreast-train-reservation/Top/Index) is the official route. You can collect paper tickets at a ticket machine in a JR East station, or link the seat to an IC card and walk through the gate with it as an e-ticket. smartEX does not sell JR East trains and JR East's site does not sell the Tokaido line, so a trip that includes both Kyoto and Sendai means two separate bookings.

Online booking pays off on busy dates and when you want a particular seat, such as the Mt Fuji side or a seat with space for a big suitcase. On an ordinary weekday it is just as easy to buy at the station on the day. Travel platforms also sell Shinkansen tickets; before you pay, check that you get a ticket you can board with, not a voucher to exchange at a ticket office.

- Turn on 3-D Secure with your bank before you travel. A failed card check is the most common reason a foreign card does not work on smartEX.
- Keep the card you paid with at hand: station machines usually ask for it, or for the booking code, when you print an online booking.

## Buying at the station: machines, ticket offices and gates

Big stations have Shinkansen and reserved-seat ticket machines with an English screen. You choose the destination, the train, the seat type and a seat on a seat map, then pay in cash or by credit card. A machine usually gives you two tickets, a base fare ticket and a limited express ticket, sometimes printed on one card. The same machines print online bookings, and at major stations passport-reading machines also issue the JR Pass and reserve seats with it.

Staffed ticket offices help with complicated trips, rail passes and refunds. JR East has closed many smaller ones in favour of machines, so the queues at Tokyo Station's offices can be long in the morning and around holidays. At stations, reserved seats for a given day usually go on sale at 10am one month before, and on a normal weekday you can often buy a seat for a train leaving within the hour.

At the Shinkansen gate, put all your tickets into the slot together, take them back out on the other side and keep them until you leave the station at the other end. An IC card such as Suica does not pay for a Shinkansen ride on its own unless you linked it to a booking. Coming from a city line, the simplest way is to tap out with your IC card and then enter the Shinkansen gates with your tickets; staff stand at the gates if a ticket is rejected.

- On JR East lines, Touch de Go Shinkansen lets a registered IC card pay for an unreserved seat, say on a Yamabiko to Sendai.
- Buying for two? Pick seats D and E in an ordinary car: the two-seat side, no stranger next to you.

## Reserved or unreserved, the Nozomi and the JR Pass

A reserved seat costs a little more and guarantees you a seat. JR Central also moves its reserved price with the season, a few hundred yen cheaper on quiet days and more at peak times. As a guide, a reserved seat on the Nozomi from Tokyo costs about ¥14,000 to Kyoto and about ¥14,700 to Shin-Osaka in regular season as of 2026, and an unreserved one a little less. Most Nozomi have three unreserved cars, numbers 1 to 3, and the Hikari and Kodama have more. The Hayabusa to Sendai and the Kagayaki to Kanazawa are all-reserved, so for unreserved seats you take the Yamabiko or the Hakutaka.

At peak times the Nozomi has no unreserved seats at all. JR Central makes every Nozomi all-reserved over Golden Week, Obon and New Year, and for its 2026 business year it added the three-day weekends from October to March. With an unreserved ticket you may still board, but you stand in the aisle or between cars. On those dates book as early as you can, or take a Hikari or Kodama, which keep their unreserved cars.

The Japan Rail Pass covers the Hikari and Kodama, and since October 2023 also the Nozomi if you buy an extra Nozomi ticket for each ride, about ¥4,960 between Tokyo and Kyoto or Shin-Osaka as of 2026. For one round trip to Kyoto or Osaka the pass rarely pays off. If Kanazawa is on your route, JR West's [Hokuriku Arch Pass](https://www.westjr.co.jp/travel-information/en/tickets-passes/other/hokuriku-arch-pass/) covers seven days on the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo and the trains on to Kyoto and Osaka, for ¥35,000 from March 2026, though not the Tokaido Shinkansen. The JR Tokyo Wide Pass does not reach Kyoto, Kanazawa or Sendai.

- After a holiday, come back the day before the last day off, or early on the last day, to miss the worst of the rush to Tokyo.
- If the Nozomi is sold out, look at the Hikari: it is often half empty and only a little slower to Kyoto.

- → [Is the JR Pass worth it for a Tokyo trip?](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/jr-pass.md)
- → [Golden Week in Tokyo](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/golden-week.md)
- → [Obon and bon odori in Tokyo](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/obon.md)
- → [New Year in Tokyo](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/new-year.md)

## Big suitcases: the rule people get wrong

On the Tokaido line, and on the lines beyond it to Hiroshima and Kyushu, a bag whose length, width and height add up to more than 160 cm needs a reserved [seat with an oversized baggage area](https://global.jr-central.co.jp/en/info/oversized-baggage/): the last row of certain cars, with space behind the seat. It costs nothing extra, and you choose it when you book online, at a machine or at a ticket office. If you board with such a bag and no reservation, you pay a ¥1,000 fee and the conductor may tell you where to put it. Bags over 250 cm in total cannot come on board. A large check-in suitcase is often close to the 160 cm line, so measure yours.

The JR East lines to Sendai and Kanazawa have no reservation system for big bags. Some cars have open luggage spaces, first come first served, and the overhead racks take carry-on sizes. On any line, the easiest answer is often not to carry the case at all: hotels and convenience stores send suitcases to your next hotel by delivery service (takkyubin), and between Tokyo and Kyoto or Osaka they usually arrive the next day.

- With a JR Pass, ask for a seat with an oversized baggage area at the ticket office or choose it on the JR Pass booking site.
- Strollers and sports bags do not count as oversized baggage, but using the oversized space for them still needs that seat reservation.

- → [How to get from Narita and Haneda to central Tokyo](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/airport.md)

## On board: Mt Fuji, ekiben and the busiest days

Going west from Tokyo, Mt Fuji appears on the right side of the train, about 40 minutes out around Shin-Fuji Station. Ask for window seat E in an ordinary car (seat D in the Green Car); coming back to Tokyo it is on the left, seat A. You need a clear day: winter mornings are best, while in summer the mountain often hides in haze.

Eating on the Shinkansen is normal, unlike on city trains. Buy an ekiben, a station boxed lunch, before you board: [Ekibenya Matsuri](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=%E9%A7%85%E5%BC%81%E5%B1%8B%20%E7%A5%AD%20%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%20%E6%9D%B1%E4%BA%AC%E9%83%BD%E5%8D%83%E4%BB%A3%E7%94%B0%E5%8C%BA%E4%B8%B8%E3%81%AE%E5%86%851-9-1) inside the gates at Tokyo Station sells more than 150 kinds from all over Japan, and kiosks on the platforms sell sandwiches, drinks and beer. Take your rubbish to the bins between the cars or on the platform. Talk quietly, take phone calls in the space between the cars, and check with the person behind you before you recline.

Apart from the holidays, the busiest trains are Friday evenings out of Tokyo and Sunday afternoons and evenings back, plus the early-morning business trains. In the middle of a weekday you can usually buy a seat for the next train.

- Car numbers are marked on the platform floor. Queue at yours: trains stop exactly at the marks.
- Shinkansen leave on the minute and doors close quickly. Be on the platform a few minutes early.

- → [Mt Fuji from Tokyo: views, Kawaguchiko and climbing rules](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/mt-fuji.md)
- → [What to eat in Tokyo and how to order it](https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/what-to-eat.md)

## Questions people ask

**How do I buy Shinkansen tickets online?**
For Kyoto and Osaka use JR Central's smartEX site or app, which takes overseas cards with 3-D Secure. For Sendai and Kanazawa use JR East's JR-EAST Train Reservation site.

**How much is the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto?**
A reserved seat on the Nozomi costs about ¥14,000 one way in regular season as of 2026. Unreserved seats are a little cheaper, and reserved seats cost a few hundred yen more at peak times.

**Do I need to book the Shinkansen in advance?**
On most weekdays, no: you can buy at the station shortly before you travel. Book ahead for Golden Week, Obon, New Year and three-day weekends, for a big suitcase seat, or if you want the Mt Fuji side.

**Which Tokyo station does the Shinkansen to Kyoto leave from?**
Tokyo Station, with stops at Shinagawa and Shin-Yokohama. Trains to Sendai and Kanazawa leave from Tokyo Station and usually stop at Ueno.

**Can I use Suica on the Shinkansen?**
Only if you link it to a booking: register it on smartEX for the Tokaido line, or as an e-ticket on JR East's site. On JR East lines Touch de Go Shinkansen also lets a registered IC card pay for an unreserved seat.

**Which side of the Shinkansen is Mt Fuji on?**
On the right going from Tokyo towards Kyoto and Osaka, so book seat E in an ordinary car. Coming back to Tokyo it is on the left, seat A.

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Tokyo Events: https://eventstokyo.com/en/guides/shinkansen