: once you get through the Shinkansen gates at the JR station, you can look UP and see a giant electronic schedule.
: which cars are reserved and non-reserved and its arrival time. Mike must mean its departure time, not its arrival time.
I think it's better to first find a large electronic schedule board in front of the gate and check the track number. Then you step into Shinkansen zone through a gate, go to the track and see a smaller schedule board there.
Which station in Osaka do you begin with?
Shin-Osaka Station is the only station in Osaka for Shinkansen.
Shin-Osaka Station: Timetable: Shinkansen: Eastbound:
http://www.jr-odekake.net/eki/time_09/Shin-Osaka270207....
All the trains in this timetable stop at Nagoya. As to the HIKARI trains (indicated in red digits), they are all daily trains for the present.
: how do I know if the train is Hikari, Nazumi or Kodama? Are all of them stopping at the same platform?
You are going to use a JR Pass, right?
You can not tell whether a train is NOZOMI by its shape or the track number. The best way is to see a timetable in advance and a schedule board of the station.
If your HIKARI is numbered 5yz (504, 510, etc.), the train is started from Shin-Osaka. Getting on it early, you can hear an announcement like "This is the HIKARI super-express bound for ABC."
Shinkansen trains run very truly according to schedule, unless they are slowed down or suspended for security in case of a heavy rain or so. If a schedule board shows a train which should have departed 5 minutes before, that suggests they are behind schedule, which seldom happens, though.
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