Which trains have green pass

Hi. We are travelling in Japan from 2/10 for 2 weeks. Can anyone tell me if the green pass obtainable with a JR Pass is available on the Shinkansen trainlines with the following itinerary please.

Tokyo - Kyoto
Kyoto - Hiroshima
Hiroshima - Matsumoto
Matsumoto by bus to Takayoma
Takayoma - Tokyo

We are trying to decide whether to get a green pass but it depends on if they are available on these lines.
Thanks
Robyn from Australia

Green car seats are available on all the trains you will be taking, but not on the bus. In more detail:

Tokyo - Kyoto

Yes, all trains have green cars:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2018_tokaido.html

Kyoto - Hiroshima

Take a Hikari or Kodama to Shin-Osaka and then a Sakura train to Hiroshima. All these trains have green cars. There are also three direct Hikari trains in the morning which also have green cars.

Hiroshima - Matsumoto

Take the Sakura and Hikari trains via Shin-Osaka to Nagoya and then the Shinano limited express to Matsumoto. All these trains have green cars.

Matsumoto by bus to Takayoma

The buses between Matsumoto and Takayama have no green car seats and are not covered by the Japan Rail Pass.

Takayoma - Tokyo

All trains have green cars.

Note that Takayama is west of Matsumoto and the following sequence of travel would be more efficient:

Tokyo - Kyoto - Hiroshima - Takayama - Matsumoto - Tokyo

Note that you can also travel by train between Takayama and Matsumoto. Unlike the bus, the trains will be covered by the Japan Rail Pass, however, the trip will be slower and involve transfers along the way.

Thank you so much for your reply. Sounds like it may be worthwhile spoiling ourselves with a green pass. Hopefully when I am over in Japan I will better understand your train system.
Robyn

Really, ordinary class travel is luxurious enough for most people.

One nice thing to do is to take a Limited Express train with a Green Pass. Several of the Limited Express have the 1st car of the train the Green car, and the first class passenger compartment is seperated from the engineers comparment by a window. This means that the passengers can see out the front of the train, and get a 180 degree vies, especially if they are in the first row. If you can, try to get on the right side of the train, because the engineer's console will be on the left side.

My first experience of doing this was from Okayama to Shikoku Island on a Marine Liner. It was not even a limited express train, but it did have some of the seats in the first car behind the engineer's comparment. I have gone several times from Osaka to Kii-Katsuura on a limited express, and I try to get seat 1C when I go. I have been told that the train from Nagoya to Takayama has a 1st car that is also like this.

Not all of the Limited Express trains are like this. You may want to ask but I check this web page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinano_(train)

The Limited Express train shown does have the "open view" that I am talking about, and this is the train from Nagoya to Matsumoto.

I hope this helps.

I just tried the Link I gave you, and I am not sure why it is not giving you rhe full page. Try doing a search on your fevorite browser and use Wikipedia and Shinano, and see what pops up. What you want is the "Wide View" Limited Express train. This page showed an image of the train, and you can see the front of the train has a large glass window.

Thank you. All of this info is very useful and will be put to good use when we are travelling. From my reading so far the train system sounds quite daunting but everyone seems to manage ok!
Robyn

Regarding Green Cars on the JR network, JPRail has a detailed write-up that you might fined useful:

http://jprail.com/travel-informations/tips-for-japan-rail-pass/worthwh...

Note that it's a few years old so some details might be out of date (it mentions a few train types that have been withdrawn from certain lines, and doesn't mention some newer models).

Sorry, typo in the first line of my previous post ("fined" should read "find").

About the Shinano service that ebaychucky311 mentioned, I rode the Green Car on that train last year and the view from the first row was certainly impressive, especially with the Japan Alps rising majestically in the distance. I have a couple of photos on my blog (scroll to the lower part of the linked post below):

http://withinstrikingdistance.wordpress.com/2013/08/18/field-report-ma...

Cheerio.

Also, a sneak preview of what to expect on some of the shinkansen services Uji mentioned.

SAKURA: Operated using N700-7000 or N700-8000 trains. These are some of the newest iterations of the N700 series and the Green Car is one of the best I've seen.

http://withinstrikingdistance.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/field-report-ma...

HIKARI and KODAMA: Operated using trains of the 700 series and other variants of the N700 series. (I've also been on a Kodama run that employed a 500-series train.) There's a big difference between the Green Car interiors of 700 and N700 trains, but which type of train you end up on is pretty much down to the luck of the draw. I've read that the slower Kodama more often relies on older trains, but I've seen both old and new ones on those services.

Here's the inside of an N700:

https://withinstrikingdistance.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/field-report-a...

On the following trip, I went one way on an N700 and back on an older 700:

http://withinstrikingdistance.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/field-report-ka...

Thanks for the update. Very impressive. We have nothing like what your rail services provide for you over here in Australia. As long as we know all the trains on our travel itinerary cater for a JR Green pass I think it is worthwhile for us to get them especially as we will have our luggage in tow on all trips. The first reply I had confirmed all our trains catered for a green pass and no one has challenged it so I am taking this as being correct. I hope easy to read timetables are available at the stations!

I 100% agree with Winter Visitor, "ordinary class travel is luxurious." riding the shinkansen is luxurious on all their seat, unless you in the none-reserve car and you didnt book a seat and your pack in that car.

Also, re luggage, the spacing between seats in ordinary class is such that a 6ft 2in man with longish legs can (if absolutely necessary - and this has only happened to me about twice in 5 trips) sit with a medium-sized wheely suitcase in the space between him and the next seat without having squashed legs.

If one absolutely has to bring a lot of luggage, then I'd definitely advise a medium sized backpack and a medium sized wheely case rather than a large case. The smaller sizes will fit over your heads on shinkansen (and, being smaller, you should be able to lift them up), if the space for bags at the end of the carriages is already full.

"... a JR Green pass I think it is worthwhile for us to get them especially as we will have our luggage in tow on all trips."

You might consider using Takubin (delivery service). They will pick up your luggage from one city hotel and deliver it to the next city hotel.
All the larger hotels can handle it for you.

(Just to clarify: when I said "5 trips" above, I mean 5 trips to Japan - each of which involved multiple shinkansen journeys.