Kansai to Hiroshima on the 14th?

Hello all,

We are a family travelling from sydney, australia to Japan for 1.5 weeks and arrive at kansai on 13th night, staying at the nikko kansai, and the next day we want to get to hiroshima by midday.

My question is, we found it REALLY hard to make a hotel booking in Hiroshima for the 14th night becase we didn't realise that the Obon holiday has made things really busy (i only booked a hotel in hiroshima two nights ago and ended up paying 3 times the price!! Despite the price I think I was lucky to find that room, everything is booked out in Hiroshima!!). Being our first time to Japan, can anyone familiar please tell me if i'll have a problem getting from kansai to hiroshima on the 14th morning? I've done a quick search and the Ltd Exp Haruka leaving kansai 8.46 a.m. and then the Hikari leaving Shinosaka 9.59 a.m. will get us to hiroshima by 11.30 a.m., but does anyone know if the trains will be too busy for us to use??

There are four of us and we are using a 7 day JR pass, so I assume i will exchange the pass for a ticket and try and get a seat reservation on the 14th morning, but not being familiar with how this process works do you think given the busy holiday season in that area currently we might not be able to ride the trains to get from kansai to Hiroshima?

Thanks!!

Yeah , trains during Obon will be very crowded, but I dont assume they are too busy to use. It's still luckly for you to travel from Kansai TO Hiroshima, NOT to Tokyo.

Obon and especially Aug 15 are very atmospheric here. Enjoy your travel.

You don't say what time you arrive at KIX, but as you are staying at the airport, as soon as you clear immigration/customs you can exchange your voucher for the JR Rail Pass and make your reservations up until 11.00 pm.

The train you will get from Shin Osaka is an Hikari RailStar, as this starts service from Shin Osaka you should have a good chance of getting seats. Even if you can't get reserved seats, you should have a good chance of getting seats in the non-reserved section. The same pretty much goes for the Limited Express Haruka.

can anyone familiar please tell me if i'll have a problem getting from kansai to hiroshima on the 14th morning?

Yes. Virtually all seats in the shinkansen trains from Osaka to Hiroshima are currently already booked out for the morning of the 14th. Only the early departing kodama trains, which are slower, still have some vacancies.

The situation only improves after 17:00.

Hi ozholiday,

My name is Rakkio in Osaka city.
It's nice to meet you.

I can't speak English very well so I'm sorry when wrong.

You want to know trains jam in Kansai area in this season, don't you?
According to news, it'll be busy by 13th so 14th may be no problem.
Because most people take trains around weekend in this season.

Your 7 pass is Japan Rail Pass, isn't it?
I can't use it because it don't be sold in Japan so I checked it on Internet.
According to Wikipedia, the pass can use Haruka and Hikari.

But I only check it on Internet.
Check the URL.
http://www.japanrailpass.net/eng/en001.html

Have a nice trip in Japan.

Rakkio

How to verify vacancies on JR trains:
http://gutereise09.blogspot.com/2008/07/tool-to-check-train-...

Last fall we went straight from Kansai airport to Hiroshima upon arrival(we landed around 5 pm.) we did this because the hotel we had booked in Kobe wasn't available for a couple of days at the start of our vacation and we had planed to go to Hiroshima anyway. We called several Hiroshima hotels from the airport right after clearing customs and got rooms at the Toyoko Higashi Hiroshima Saijo ekimae. Saijo is a small town 30 mn by frequent trains from Hiroshima and we loved both that town and the short train rides. We were prepared to stay in Okayama or other places (I always carry a list of hotels in whatever regions we plan to go, with the hotel location maps etc.). We don't mind commuting 30 mn to 1 hour as everyday we commute 45 minutes--one way--by transit (we live in Canada). If you still have a chance you might want to cancel your expensive hotel and look for a cheaper one not smack in Hiroshima.