Hyperedia was accurate to the exact time every time! Tell me what you did when you used it? At times we went to out of the way places and there were a couple of transfer times I thought would be dodgy eg. 3 minutes but it worked beautifully. What I did is I also printed off the timetable of stations from each destination so I knew exactly where we should be and what time we should be there. However, it wasn't really needed as on most shinkansen they do have a print out (in English) of each station just as we were about to arrive. The train to Kanasawa if my memory is correct didn't.

Sorry emd just reread what you wrote-its early morning where I am so still getting my head together! Firstly, depending on where you are going from there might be a faster train going to where you want to go to at a later time! For us it was only when we were travelling from Kyushu that there was more than a 15 minutes gap between trains. Don't forget that you cannot use a Nozumi with a JR pass- for us it wasn't a problem.

Another thought emd. We stayed in business hotels which had free computer access. That meant that we could keep up to date at home and if we wanted access to other sites. I also used an internet service in Kyoto (very near the JR station) which charged 280yen for half an hour. I don't know about the cost of printing pages but you might find that taking a laptop is unnecessary.

albaaust, glad to hear you had a great trip. I would love to read your trip report. In particular, did you end up staying at the Tour Club in Kyoto?

emd, you can leave your laptop at home. Florence mentioned once that there is a location in Tokyo where you can get a JR timetable in English. She also mentioned a book ("Japan by Rail" ? or something like that) that has schedule info in it. You could also check with JNTO (now, in Jan, Feb) to see if they have printed timetables (they used to). Hyperdia does give some convoluted itineraries. If you give me an example of a trip that is giving you trouble, then I can help you work out how to get the info you need. Basically, you use hyperdia to first identify the JR lines that serve your destination then the quickest trains (Hikari, Kodama, Limited Expresses, locals) and get the daily schedule for each.

In addition to the internet access where you are staying, you can also use internet cafes. The schedules are posted at the JR stations, of course, and I got in the habit of getting an outbound seat reservation on arrival in a city.

OTOH, BigFeat did use a portable device for destination guide info and stuff. With your methodical approach and thorough collection of information, I expect that you probably have it well organized. The tradeoff might be deciding which way is better for travelling light: carry the hardcopy printouts or lug a laptop. And maybe you can watch DVDs on it on the plane and/or he and you can play games. I saw a nice little laptop at the Newington Costco the other day. But that would be a sledgehammer solution to the problem of cracking the walnut of JR schedules.

Please insert a winky-smiley after "lug a laptop" above.

Hi again after all that research about the Tour Club we couldn't get a booking! However, I used a cheap hotel site to book the Dai Ni Tower Hotel in Kyoto. It cost about 120AUD a night perfect for our needs. It is about 5 minutes from the JR station and the major bus stops. There is also a number of shops, restaurants connected to the railway station so as I said it turned out fine. We had most of our meals in the restaurant area which was in the subway section of the station.The hotel itself was OK-usual cubicle bathroom and toilet, TV and only just enough room to store our cases.By the way was it you who were keen about the plasma TVs in the Tour Club? If so, it is a red herring -all the TV channels are in Japanese.You might get lucky and there might be an English dubbing service for one of the TV channels (can't remember the name..NKK??) but anyway, you will have to content yourself with watching baseball, Sumo wresting which has just started or the occasional movie!

Sumo, hai! Now? Where? I thought that the Kyushu Bassho didn't start until November in Fukuoka. Maybe it is local sumo for determining who goes to the Grand Sumo?

You could be right..as I said everything was in Japanese. I read some where (Lonely Planet?) that you can go and watch the Sumo wrestling live but from what I have seen on television it is a very quick fight! Having said that it was all part of immersing oneself in the culture!

albaaust: Get some sleep and then give us a good juicy trip report! This board has been asleep for days, we need the fresh blood. And dgruzew is getting ready to leave soon, so he needs your trip report to get him really revved up too.

mrwunrfl: Ok, if you think it is doable, I will be happy not to lug a laptop. I never travel w/one so why start now unless it is needed (and I can take the portable DVD player w/an extra battery for the flights) I will dig out that posting by Florence- I recall it and I remember there was some lively discussion on whether you really could get the English timetables or not, but if the outcome was that you can, by golly I will track the place down in Tokyo and I'll get the book too. I'll check w/JNTO too- I am thinking of dropping by there while I am in NY later this wk.

Just realised that I was given a hard copy in English of the JR timetable. I did not use it(because I already had my own copy of the itinerary). I think someone from a JR Ticket office gave me one so I believe they are easy to get!
As for my report..I do feel that I should write something in detail as I got a lot of help from people like you from this site! What do you think I should focus on?

emd is right, albaaust, we want to hear all about it. You can start at the beginning. Was it Qantas from Perth or JAL from Sydney, or what?

I'll be traveling on the train from Tokyo to Kyoto on Nov 21, which is supposedly a very popular time in Kyoto because of the momiji (autumn leaves).

I've just checked the website to reserve seats and it appears that I am only allowed to make the reservation 1 month prior to travel, applicable to JR pass holders.

However, those purchasing single tickets can make a reservation 2 months before travel.

Does anyone know if this will be a problem for me to wait until the 1 month limit? Is there a way around it? Is it possible to make the seat reservation as non-JR Pass holder?

HELP! I have my parents traveling with me, so standing for 3 hours or so is not very desirable for them.

Any tip is much appreciated!

Don't worry, you'll be fine. You will enjoy the autumn colors of the momiji (maple) leaves.

Hi again!

I'm still confused with the pricing of the tickets.
I will be traveling with the Japan Rail Pass. Does that include the ticket and the seat reservation? or does the seat reservation come in addition?

HELP!

The JR Pass includes seat reservations.

That is, you don't pay anything more when you get seat reservations.

http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en06.html