Train Travel

We will be in Japan for the Rugby World Cup and want to do some train travel though not enough to warrant buying a rail pass. Can we prebuy our train tickets? If so how or else what is the best way to ensure that we get the trains that we want?

depends on yr plan, which venue game ticket u got?
https://www.rugbyworldcup.com/venues

If your itinerary doesnft warrant one of the many available passes, yes, you can buy tickets. The easiest in my eyes is to just buy them a few days before your trip at a train station. But there is also some online reservation available. But it comes with strings attached, such as that you must pickup the ticket latest the day before.
Thus I think it is just that easy to buy it directly at a station.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

If you use Hyperdia (there's a page on the main website explaining how to do that), you can look up train times and numbers (and fares).

You can then make a list of the train(s) you want to take, with dates and times, and you can go and buy the tickets whenever is convenient for you once you've arrived in Japan.

You didnft state your destination. You might be interested in one of Japanicanfs offer. Itfs a trust worthy Japanese company.
https://www.japanican.com/en/special/tours/shinkansen/index.aspx

It does depend when/where you are going. JREast have their Eki-net online reservation system and JRWest also allow online reservations. I also use the SmartEx web portal (not the app). There are also agents that do advance buying for people, but as a service it has a cost.