Kanazawa to Nagano

Hello,

We are planning our holiday trip for Dec 2018 and Jan 2019 now. I had traveled during new year period in Japan so I have some idea how bad it could get..but I am wondering about the direction between Kanazawa to Nagano. We are planning to take Shinkansen Kagayaki on 12/29, going from Kanazawa to Nagano (either morning or afternoon works). Any idea how bad this direction is during the new year period? We do plan to use the online reservation system to see if we could reserve seats in advance. We might be able to do travel this direction one day earlier (12/28) and not sure if that would make any difference. Any advice is appreciated..thank you!

In general 6 days of new year are holidays, so commuter trains tend to be less crowded in these days, from 29th Dec to 3rd Jan. Crowds in the morning rush hour are business person and students, so it is not correct that "trains are congested in new year days". There are other factors for the congestion such as popular new year spots or the new year events.

As for long distance train, it is quite a different story. Many Japanese move during the new year days (and Saturdays and Sundays connecting the new year days), basically from "central" to "provincial" at the start and the opposite at the end. Kanazawa is the "provincial" end of the Shinkansen and Nagano is close to the "central (Tokyo)". So on 29th Dec the flow is from Nagano to Kanazawa. Of course there is always opposite flow, so Kanazawa to Nagano on 29th will be somewhat crowded as compared to normal days (note that 29th is Saturday which pushes it to the crowded side). I can't say for sure, but 28th morning should be less crowded than 28th evening and 29th morning, since on 28th most people are still at work.

Now you can reserve Shinkansen seat online, even from abroad, though I have not tried since I am living in Japan.

https://www.jreast.co.jp/e/ticket/reservation.html?src=spmenu