7 day rail pass individual time bookings?

Im visiting japan in october and ive calculated for the time that im there a 7 day rail pass on is probably going to be my best bet for the joirneys im making in the couple of weeks im there.
My question is with that 7 day pass do i effectively have unlimited access to the trains i want at any time of day of do I still have to book a specific individual time slot?

Prior bookings are necessary if you use reserved seats (as opposed to unreserved seats). Most local trains don't have reserved seats, but long-distance trains and shinkansen have reserved seats. Some also have unreserved seats (which you can use without prior booking), but some have only reserved seats, making prior booking a neccessity.

While it is an "all you can eat" pass for the JR network (and you must be doing some extensive travel to make it pay off), it is only JR trains and not all trains. Japan has over 100 different rail companies and many viistors will use services from other companies that are not covered. Common exclusions are trips to Koya-san, Romance Car to Hakone, or the metro/subway systems.

i want at any time of day of do I still have to book a specific individual time slot?

If you mean to ask whether you can book for the train from first to the last of the day, then yes you can. There is no restriction, such as �gonly 10:00 to 16:00�h.

As Uji mentioned, there are some JR long-distance trains that do not have any unreserved seating, and you always need to book seats on those in advance. In fact, the number of trains that have no unreserved cars seems to be growing. JR West recently changed a number of widely used limited express trains (such as the Thunderbird, the Yakumo, and the Kuroshio) to reserved-only basis. So you can no longer just �ghop on�h these trains without a reservation. And these days Nozomi trains suspend unreserved seating during the busiest times of year.

If you do decide that the 7-day nationwide JR pass is right for you, note that if you want to be able to make (or change) seat reservations online in advance (a huge convenience) you need to purchase the pass through the official JR site. If you get it from an agency, you can only make reservations at a ticket machine or staffed ticket counter. This means you have to wait until you get to Japan to make the reservations, and it can be somewhat inconvenient. In both cases (agency or official site purchase) you do need to pick up the actual seat ticket at a machine or staffed counter at some point prior to departure of the train.

To back up the comment from Kim, the train I caught today (Sapporo to Hakodate) changed to fully reserved just recently. The last time I caught this one the non-reserved seats were still available. Seems to be a trend, but in reality, the seat reservation fee is normally only a few hundred yen and with a rail pass there is no additional charge for a reserved seat.

Thanks for the advice all, much appreciated.

Does anybody have a link for the official website to buy them from so i know im getting them from the right place?
Also once ive purchased the JR rail pas how do i then proceed to reserving my seats on the specific journeys?

https://japanrailpass.net/en/

Read through the various pages of the web site and it should tell you everything you need to know. It is very easy to make reservations online, and also to cancel or change them. (After you get an actual seat ticket issued, you will have to go to a staffed office if you want to cancel or make a change, though.)

Seat reservations are good when you plan everything in advance, and are a very good idea for any long rides or for trains that are likely to be full, but it is sometimes nice to be able to just show up at a station and hop on a limited express train without having to reserve in advance. (Usually you can get reservations and seat tickets in just a few minutes at a self-serve ticket machine, but sometimes the lines can be fairly long even at a machine.) So I am sorry to see the trend toward all-reserved seating. But for most Japan tourists it won't be a problem.

No one seems to have mentioned that you can�ft really use Nozomi and Mizuho Shinkansen with the JRP. These are the fastest Shinkansen between Tokyo and Kagoshima. You actually can use them but a hefty surcharge on the pass applies. If you are doing as much travel that a 7 day pass pays off, reason is that you�fll travel far in that time. So you might want to use the fastest option available
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2361.html

I'd like to see this 7 day itinerary where a 7 day pass pays off.

Its not a seven day itinerary, its 14.

All previous talk has been 7 day pass.

But yes if you say 14 days now. I'd love to see a 14 day itinerary for a 14 day pass to pay off.

Im in the country for 14 days but ill only need a 7 day pass based on my arrangements.

My itinerary isnt your concern. Im asking a question about booking specific train times with a jr pass.

The contributor @H has asked a valid question of the OP. Given how terrible many people are in working out train schedules, it is reasonable for them to ask. Sure, if you are travelling to Hokkaido and way down south in a seven day period ( and potentially a hugely inefficient schedule), wanting to know isn't unreasonable.

For the average Japan tourist with an average itinerary, the nationwide pass at the current price will not �gpay off.�h However, it is not true that you have to spend an inordinate amount of trains (or have an inefficient itinerary) in order to break even on the JR pass. Over the years, I have nearly always gotten at least twice face value out of my Japan rail passes, and I have had wonderful, imaginative itineraries that did not consist of endless train riding. The new prices for nationwide rail passes are less than twice the old prices, so obviously all of my itineraries would have paid off even at the new price. And as I have mentioned in other posts, using rail passes strategically has saved me a lot of money on hotels over the years, as well. There are also other benefits (and drawbacks) to the JR pass.

I would certainly never share my own itineraries on a public forum. But I would never be happy with a typical itinerary. Of the three nationwide passes, I think the 21-day pass is the easiest product to plan an imaginative itinerary around, but I would have no trouble coming up with good plans for a 7-day pass, or even for a 14-day pass.

The nationwide JR pass has never been a good choice for all tourists, and with the new pricing, it is even less so. But I am a little surprised at the depth of the antipathy I am seeing towards it. I would never mock people who pay two or even three times the weekday rate for a Saturday night hotel stay in a popular location, or who come up with the same destinations as practically everyone else. There are sound reasons for their choices. But for some people, there are better choices.

As for the contributor �gH�h, this person showed up fairly recently on the forum and has already contributed a lot of very nasty troll-like posts, the above remarks not being the worst of them. I wish they would learn to moderate their remarks or else move on over to TripAdvisor.

H has been around a lot longer than 'just recently.'

Anyways I asked to see the itinerary cos I find it interesting that someone has figured out a pass pays off, but does know how the ticketing system works or where to buy the pass from.

I thought it was a valid thought and not troll-like.

OP has said his/her itinerary is not of my concern. So happy to leave it there. Let's move on.