Shinkansen reservations

Hi there. I'm traveling to Japan in February for a couple weeks with friends, and after a week in Tokyo we plan on travelling by shinkansen to Hiroshima, and then back towards Kyoto and Tokyo at the end. We will all have Japan rail passes, should we bother making reservations? I suppose it wouldn't be too much trouble to write where we're going and the dates on paper, but on the off chance we need to go last minute, do they usually get 100% booked in February?

Any tips for the shinkansen?

Thanks!

If you travel in a group and want to stick together, definitely make reservations. It's usually easy to get a non-reserved seat, but even a twosome is already more problematic.

By the way, traveling "last minute" does not mean you can't reserve, unless you mean it literally.

as far as I know you can also make a reservation and then change it at no cost as you have JR pass. So yes, in a group, reservation would be preferred. For travelling alone, I normally don't go with reservation.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Yes - you should exchange your rail pass early (in Tokyo) and book your seats on the Kyoto-Hiroshima-Kyoto piece as a minimum. The rail pass gives you access to the (few) Hikari, (mainly) Sakura and (occassional) Kodama trains. Most of the time people travelling on a JRP will be getting the Sakura from Shin-Osaka (or from Hiroshima on the return) and the reserved seats get fully booked. Non-reserved seats are an option, but to avoid the potential for standing on that leg, I would just do the reservations.