No Room on the Train

[kevin_standlee]

Gingerly poking my way around the (Japanese-only) web site for the Cassiopeia overnight train, I found a page on the site that appears to be the sleeper availability. If I'm interpreting it correctly, there are no rooms available on the train for the September 12 departure from Sapporo, and darn few on any trains at all. This is not that surprising. Fingers crossed that there will be a compartment available on one of the other three less luxurious trains.

I continue to find it frustrating that I could have made a commitment for a "sleeper" months ago, except that the system requires you to appear in person at a JR booking office in Japan to reserve the room, and even then you can't reserve more than thirty days in advance. No online booking; not even telephone booking. And the trains appear to be sold out the moment they become available. Amazing. It makes Amtrak, which will allow you to book a room about eleven months in advance, look space-age and high-tech.

Comments

[solarbird]

Unfortunately, you seem to have it right. The - means "no train run," o means lots of rooms available, △ means not many rooms left, and X means you're out of luck, and yes, no rooms available on the train.

The no-online-or-phone-booking makes more sense if you remember that Japan is still heavily into cash.

[interp1.livejournal.com]

The plan may be moot if you were planning on riding the sleeper train on a JR Pass, since they will make you pay full fare, the express train surcharge, and the bed surcharge regardless of holding a valid JR Pass.

Most Japanese travel agencies with a US branch should be able to make train reservations and ticket purchases, so you don't need to wait until you're in person in Japan for this. Nippon2007's official travel agency NTA just so conveniently happens to be in Redwood City, and the national number one JTB is in San Francisco.

I have it quaint that JR's online availability website only lets you access during business hours. It's not 24/7. If you haven't been using this already, http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/ may be a useful site for you. It may deprive you of the fun of looking up printed schedules and planning out routes, but it gives you train schedules and fares when you plug in the destination and origin stations. You still need to be a bit more specific with Google Transit.

The sleeper train fare from Sapporo to Ueno station is 29,470 yen. It's only slightly better than the 32,800 yen airfare from Sapporo to Tokyo.

[davidshallcross.livejournal.com]

I suspect that by this time Kevin is familiar with the details of the JR Pass, but, to clarify, the Japan Rail Pass website (http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en008.html) doesn't seem to agree about "make you pay full fare". I quote: "If you have a Green- or Ordinary-type JAPAN RAIL PASS and want to use a berth on a limited express or ordinary express sleeping car, you must pay the limited express or ordinary express charge in addition to the berth charge. Moreover, if you travel on a sleeping car that passes through Morioka to Hachinohe, you must pay on board the basic fares for the two local sections traveled over: IGR Iwate Ginga Railway (Morioka ·Metoki) and Aoimori Railway (Metoki ·Hachinohe). ". I read that as the express surcharge, the bed surcharge, and, just for the Morioka to Hachinohe segments, the basic fare.

David

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

That's how I read it as well, so if we are, for instance, able to get a compartment on the Hokutosei (the Cassiopeia already being full), besides the compartment/berth charge and the limited express charge, I expect we'll be charged the basic travel fare on those two lines quoted because it appears the sleeper travels over them. Going north, we won't pay, because we'll be on the Skinkansen line to Hachinohe.

Also, if I'm reading the route maps correctly, the Akebono sleeper from Aomori to Tokyo Ueno runs along the west coast route and therefore does not traverse the two privately owned lines; therefore, we would need to pay only the private room berth charge of JPY9,500 for JR pass holders, plus the limited express charge. This compares favorably to the cost of our hotel room in Aomori. And this is one of the reasons Lisa decided to use Aomori and not Hachinohe as our base for our days in the north.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

The plan may be moot if you were planning on riding the sleeper train on a JR Pass, since they will make you pay full fare, the express train surcharge, and the bed surcharge regardless of holding a valid JR Pass.

This contradicts what everything I've found on-line about using the JR pass says, notably this site, which says, "The Japan Rail Pass does not cover the cost for a couchette or private room! You will have to pay for it separately. In addition, you will also have to pay the (limited) express fee, which is typically around 3,000 Yen, if you travel in a couchette or private room." I would expect to pay the express train surcharge and the compartment charge. I would not expect to pay the train fare itself, as that is included in the rail pass. So, for instance, a private room on the Hokutosei between Sapporro and Tokyo Ueno is shown as JPY25,000 without a JR pass or JPY12,000 with a JR pass. (I'm guessing that may not include the limited express fee.)

This is roughly the way train travel is priced in the USA, by the way. There are two elements to the fare: the trip itself and the sleeper. Think of it as the hotel room cost, only the room moves. I'm not unfamiliar with the system. With the rail passes, our rail fares are paid; it's the sleeper surcharges that are still payable.

One thing that keeps changing every time someone quotes it to me is whether the compartment charge is per person or per room. On an Amtrak sleeper, you pay the same extra amount for a compartment (roomette) regardless of whether one person or two people ride in it.

Most Japanese travel agencies with a US branch should be able to make train reservations and ticket purchases, so you don't need to wait until you're in person in Japan for this. Nippon2007's official travel agency NTA just so conveniently happens to be in Redwood City, and the national number one JTB is in San Francisco.

Nice theory, isn't it? It sounds so easy and sensible. But I have e-mail from NTA's Redwood City office confirming that it is not possible to make a sleeper reservation from outside of Japan. Oh, they could hire someone to go make a reservation inside Japan, but then I would have to pay the full price including the full rail fare (which, from my point of view, I've already paid), as well as to pay for the person doing the work in Japan, because you have to have the issued rail pass (not the exchange order) and turn up in person at a JR reservation office to make a sleeper reservation on a rail pass.

This just seems a little odd to me, but I guess it works for them. Mind you, if their sleeper trains are running completely full even with a system that seems crazy to me, they certainly have no incentive to change it, do they?

The sleeper train fare from Sapporo to Ueno station is 29,470 yen. It's only slightly better than the 32,800 yen airfare from Sapporo to Tokyo.

So? That sort of misses the point of wanting to make the sleeper travel for the experience of doing so, not because it's the fastest way between points A and B.

[(Anonymous)]

plus after you've flown you'll need to sleep somewhere, so add that to the airfare cost if you want an accurate comparison.