Shinkansen online

Hi there,

We want to travel from Kyoto to Mishima (and from there to Kawaguchi lake but that is another story) on May 1st. As I understood, this is Golden Week and travelling might be busy. So I want to book the Shinkansen pretty well in advance. Is it possible to book Hikari and Kodama Shinkansen tickets (and ideally reservations) online somewhere?

We arrive in Kyoto on April 29 and I am afraid that it might be too late to book arrangements on that day.

Thanks, Peter

All stopping at Mishima Shinkansen trains have enough non-reserved seat cars,
so no problem even if you could not make seat reservation.

Also this new service began fr last OCT 2017 as official of railway companies,
but do not know whether you can use it or not, read all.
https://smart-ex.jp/en/

Faster all "Hikari"(Shinkansen train name) have 5 non-reserved seat cars of 16,
but not so many and skipping Mishima type also exist, don't forget it.
Slowest(all stns stop type) all "Kodama" have 7(or 10) non-reserved seat cars of 16 and the most.
http://railway.jr-central.co.jp/train/shinkansen/detail_01_02/unit.htm...
Although it is faster to get on Hikari to stop at Shizuoka and switch to Kodama,
but the first Hikari may be a bit crowded. (depends on dep time)
http://www.hyperdia.com/en/

Seat booking already started fr 1 of APR.
In the current reservation status, enough vacant seats on all trains.

If will take a non-reserved Kyoto is not first dep stn, so would be better to line up early.

The link on SmartEx was an excellent hint! Although the app is not available in Germany I managed to create an American account and booked all shinkansen reservations right away! I am still puzzled - everything is so professional and working smooth in Japan. Why is there no proper JR website where you can book and print out tickets and reservations from all over the world? Even German Railway, the worst railway in any industrialized country, offers that...

Why?
There are several reasons that are reluctant to adopt a reservation system from overseas.

1) Due to the division of JNR(National Rail) by privatization about 30 years ago,
it is necessary to negotiate with all other "JR" companies concerned,
so with the judgment of only one company, it became impossible to create a large-scale system freely.

2) Support system for foreign languages cannot make perfect in short periods.

3) There is a problem with safety concerning system operation,
and the budget is enormous for constructing advanced system. (against crackers)
Onlineization and too much easier system are not always good.

4) Reselling, buying up(monopoly), and counterfeit(fake documents) problems are likely to occur.
These problems do not have any way to cope with anything from within Japan.
So in these cases, it would be safe for railroad companies to limit the purchase method.

5) World economic problems is not flat again by mad President Trump,
It is unclear how long the "weak yen" will last,
and if fuel rises again, travelers will inevitably decrease significantly.

However, there is a tendency to improve toward the Tokyo Olympics 2020,
but it will not change completely, only 2) will be good than now.