HOW TO BUY SHINKANSEN TICKETS ONLINE? SMART-Ex - Discount Tickets on Japan Bullet Trains

in Japan the bullet trains are called shinkansen and if you're planning to do multiple cities on your trip to Japan like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc. taking the shinkansen is the fastest and most convenient way to get on a shinkansen you need to have a ticket of course you can buy a shinkansen ticket at ticket counters or ticket vending machines at the train stations in Japan but you can also buy it from your home even before you come to Japan using your phone and credit card in today's video I'm gonna show you exactly how you can buy shinkansen tickets online using an app called Smart-Ex so what is Smart-Ex? Smart-Ex is an app provided by JR Central, JR West and JR Kyushu three companies of the Japan Railways group this application allows you to buy shinkansen tickets on the shinkansen lines that these companies operate which are the Tokaido shinkansen, the Sanyo shinkansen and the Kyushu shinkansen so what are the destinations covered by this app? this application allows you to buy shinkansen tickets to 46 stations in the southwest part of Japan starting from Tokyo, the capital of Japan, and continuing all the way to Kagoshima, a prefecture on the southernmost part of the Kyushu island on the other hand, which destinations are not covered by this app? this application does not cover the Northeast part of Japan so if you're going to Hokkaido, Aomori, Fukushima, Nagano etc you cannot use this app to buy shinkansen tickets I will leave the list of all stations purchasable on this app in the description below this video so please check if the places you want to go to are included or not can you download the app? currently the app is available in the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan but if you can't download the app you can still use the web version of Smart-Ex before we learn how to use the app there are two things worth bringing to your attention the first one is about the oversized baggage if you're traveling with a large size baggage which has overall dimensions of more than 160cm or 62 inches you are required to reserve a seat with oversized package area don't worry a seat with oversized package area will not cost you more money you don't have to pay any extra for this area. it's free of charge but if you bring an oversized package on board a shinkansen without a reservation for it you may have to pay 1000 yen so make sure you know the size of your baggage and go ahead and reserve a seat with oversized package area if needed for other smaller baggage similar to carry-on baggage allowed by most airlines you can use the overhead racks or small storage areas in the front or back of the cars package with overall dimensions larger than 250cm or 98 inches are not allowed on the shinkansens and the second thing I would like to bring to your attention is discount tickets yes you can buy shinkansen tickets at a cheaper price using this app and in my opinion this app is by far the easiest way to find cheap shinkansen tickets which is also official and direct from the train operators for example they have the Hayatoku 21 Wide a discount if you buy your ticket 21 days before your departure day Haya means early or fast and Toku means discount cheaper price or something good for you so for example the normal price of the Nozomi shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto is 13 770 Yen but if you book the same ticket 21 days in advance the cost is only 11 820 Yen which means you can save roughly 14 percent almost 2 000 Yen for one way and almost 4 000 Yen for a two-way ticket they also have the Hayatoku Green which is a discount ticket for those who make the reservation at least three days in advance on green cars which is like the business class of the shinkansen another option of the discount tickets is the Hayatoku Family these are discount tickets when you buy at least two tickets at a time it's really helpful when you travel with your family or friends and you only need to book three days in advance to get the discount alright now let's download the app so that we can talk details open your internet browser and search for smartex shinkansen japan and download the app from the link on their official website you can register for an account by providing your contact information email address and your credit card information after you activate your account and login this is how it looks like at the very top is the main function which is to search for the trains and reserve and under this search menu there are three tabs that allow you to search for the trains you want by time, by the train itself and by non-reserved seats but after browsing all of these three options I ended up only using the first one which is search for the trains by Time so here's how it works let's say we want to buy one ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto we can select on which day we want to go the tickets are open for sale one month in advance so let's say today is February 16th then we can buy tickets of March 16 from now they also have a system called pre-sale which is like a waiting list let's have a look at this pre-sale system later in this video for now let's say we want to buy a ticket on March 16 which is a month from now then we can select the time we want to depart Tokyo Station or the time we want to arrive at Kyoto station it seems that the first shinkansen departing from Tokyo is 6 a.m and the latest one is around midnight so let's say we want to be on the first train departing from Tokyo which is 6 am next you can select the number of tickets you want to buy apparently you can buy up to a total of six tickets adults and children but for now we're gonna buy one Adult ticket moving on you can select whether you want to reserve a seat with the oversized package area or not there are also additional options where you can select to sit near a smoking room if you smoke or buy non-reserved seats or no transit trains once you are done with your request it will show you a list of trains per your search conditions in a very clear and easy to understand presentation after you select the train you want it will show you a list of fares available for that train so for this train we have the fares for ordinary car green car, non-reserved and discount tickets at the bottom and for each fare option they have a question mark where you can check out in details what that fare means and all the related conditions so that you know exactly what you're getting let's say we choose the Hayatoku 21 Wide Discount Ticket which is the cheapest fare available here then you can select the car and the seat you like from a seat map as you can see on this map the last row is grayed out it's because these are the seats with oversized package area so if you book a seat with oversized package area you will be able to select one of these seats but for now let's say we select seat 1E after that we can move on to confirm all the information of our ticket if we are not happy with any of the information shown we can go back to choose another fare or do the train search from the beginning otherwise if everything is fine just hit Purchase and we are done so how are you going to use the ticket? there are three ways you can use the ticket you just bought to get on the train the first way is to go to one of the vending machines at the station and print out the ticket using the QR code issued by the app and then use the ticket to get on the train like in the normal way the second way is to scan your QR code at the ticket gate this way you don't need to print out ticket and you don't need to have an IC card however this QR ticket can only be used at certain gates that have this QR mark and for now not all stations have this kind of gates just yet so in that case you will need to print out the ticket at the ticket machines at the shinkansen stations and the third way is to incorporate the ticket you just bought into your IC card and use the IC card at the ticket gate this is the way our family usually use and we found it the most convenient way for us since we use the IC cards to get on a commuter train to get to a shinkansen station so if we combine shinkansen tickets to the IC cards getting on the shinkansen is just like getting on a normal train with just one tab at the ticket gate and you can use any IC card for this method including the 28 day IC card for visitors like the Welcome Suica card anyway if it's confusing to you like it is to many Japanese there are many staff at the ticket gate to help you out can you cancel your ticket on the app? yes it's very easy to cancel and or buy new tickets on this app it only takes a few taps however there is a cancellation fee so make sure you check it carefully before canceling your tickets what about that pre-sale system? when you buy a ticket on a pre-sale day your ticket is not secured yet you will be able to select two options of the trains on the pre-sale day and you will be on a waiting list for those trains and first come first serve when the tickets are open for sale you will be confirmed whether or not you get the ticket based on that waiting list this is very useful for peak seasons like New Year, Golden Week, Obon or Sakura Seasons etc where you'd want to reserve your tickets ASAP is this app for you? if you are a JR Pass Holder this app is not for you A, because you already bought the ticket which is the JR pass and B because you cannot use this app to reserve for a seat on a shinkansen for your JR pass if you buy the JR pass online and you want to reserve your seats in advance you need to use the JR website designated for that this app is more for non-jr pass holders if you don't know what a JR Pass is I made a video explaining about it in details how it can save you money when you visit Japan when you need it and when you don't need it etc I'll leave the link below so that you can check it out well that's it for today's video I hope it helped you know how to buy shinkansen tickets on your phone so that you can use it on your trip to Japan if you need to as always, thank you so much for watching and for all of your support I see you in my next video take care and have a nice day

Channel: ONE GOOD DREAM

Views: 76,846

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Id: 1HanXXUv6y8

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 25 2023