Tokyo to Izu Shuzenji Reservations for trains

I would like to travel from Tokyo to Izu Shuzenji on 23rd December (returning to Tokyo again after that on 27th December) and would like to take the scenic train Odoriko Sapphire. I noticed that I can make a online reservations for this on the JR East website as a foreigner but only up to Atami station and not all the way to Mishima station or even onwards on the Izu-Hakone line to Izu Shuzenji station to get to my hotel.

Is it peak period during this time and how can I book online for my onward journey from Atami all the way to Izu Shuzenji? if I don't make any prior reservations and only buy my tickets 2 to 3 days before, can I still get a ticket on the spot? If not, is there a bus or how much is a taxi from Atami all the way to Izu Shuzenji? Thank you.

only up to Atami station and not all the way to Mishima station or even onwards on the Izu-Hakone line to Izu Shuzenji station to get to my hotel.

Sapphire Odoriko doesn�ft go to Mishima. Instead it goes down south to Izukyu-Shimoda. If you want to go to Shuzenji, transfer at Atami to Tokaido line (not Shinkansen: you can also take Shinkansen, but only slower and infrequent Shinkansen so you better take conventional Tokaido line train) to Mishima and then transfer to Izu-Hakone railway (not JR) to Shuzenji. Trains on these sections are all non-reserved so you can take these using IC cards or paper tickets on the spot.

By the way, Sapphire Odoriko is not a train for transportation, but it is for enjoying train travel by it self. So you might better consider going south to Izukyu Shimoda.

As far as I know, Saphir Odoriko trains (please look at a map of the area) travel southward along the eastern coast of Izu peninsula from Atami to Shimoda, so it does not go toward Mishima or Shuzenji.

You need to try to book a non-Saphir Odoriko (search with plain �gOdoriko�h) train to get directly to Shuzenji.


Or, you need to change at Atami to another train to continue onto Mishima, and change to Izukyu train to Shuzenji. (And from Mishima to SHuzenji , it is a non-JR train, so you won�ft be able to book it on JR website.)

I�fm afraid I don�ft know how to book tickets to Shuzenji Station from abroad in advance, but you could probably find out by calling the JR East Infoline (google it to get a number). This would be an international call but depending on your phone plan it might not cost very much (or maybe it might�c).

I took the Saphir Odoriko once, and it was a lovely ride, but I think that the bulk of the fun is after you pass Atami. I would not pay the money to take it only as far as Atami, to be honest. All seats on that train are green seats. The regular Odoriko had a change of train sets fairly recently, and it is also a nice ride. Not as fancy as the Saphir, but quite pleasant.

Unless you use the Japanese websites or maybe a (more expensive) 3rd party reservation site, it is not possible to buy tickets to Shuzenji online. JR East's English reservation system is limited to the service area of JR East and JR Hokkaido plus the entire Hokuriku Shinkansen.