Penalty for unschedule JR stops?

Hi, in my past travel to Japan using JR pass, I had sticked faithfully to the reserved seating and destinations on Limited Express & Shinkasen trains. Booking were made through the JR ticketing office at the JR stations. However does anyone knows if there will be any penalty if I decides to drop off in between my origin and my destination and hop on another train to continue my journey subsequently? For example if I had a reserved ticket from Tokyo to Aomori by JR shinkansen & limited express but I decide to do a stopover at Sendai for a short visit and re-book a ticket to continue up to Aomori?--Thx.

does anyone knows if there will be any penalty if I decides to drop off in between my origin and my destination and hop on another train to continue my journey subsequently?

No, there is no penalty. But if many rail pass holders do not honor their free seat reservations, JR might think about dropping the "free reservation" feature in the future.

So, except in unforeseen special cases, I recommend to fully honor your seat reservation. If you want to remain flexible, use unreserved seats. Yamabiko trains along the Tohoku Shinkansen have unreserved seats.

If you reserve a seat all the way to Aomori and get off at Sendai, and then take up a seat on a different train from Sendai to Aomori, you are effectively occupying two seats from Sendai to Aomori. JR has not implemented a way to prevent you from doing this, but that still doesn't make it right. The JR pass is already a phenomenal deal, so please don't abuse it.

As Uji said, if you want flexibility, then use nonreserved seating.

I'm sure there won't be any problems if you simply notify JR that you're cancelling your reservation. Am I wrong?

If you do it in advance, cancelling a reservation made with a JR pass is okay (I've done it). I think the original poster was wanting the flexibility of making a spontaneous decision to just get off the train somewhere and then catch another train, without making arrangements in advance to void the part of the original reservation that wasn't used.

That's sort of like taking a full plate at an all-you-can eat restaurant, eating only half of it, and then going and getting another plate of food, leaving half of the first plateful to be thrown out.

What I meant was, if the user decides to surrender his reservation on the spot, can't he notify the conductor on the train just before getting off? Because that's what all the local non-pass-holders do. Then the conductor would come around to the people standing in the train and tell them that there's a vacant seat available for those who are willing to pay for the reservation section.

Btw, I find the JR conductors usually much more flexible and knowledgable than a lot of the staffs at the ticket counters.

thanks everyone for their input. I am not out to abuse the flexibility of the JR pass. My forthcoming trip to Japan I will be traveling with my baby daughter of 18 months. I am worried that she may not be adjusted or well- behaved enough for a long train ride. I may br forced to ''break up'' the journey for her. In the event so, ofcourse I will try to cancel the remaining pre-booked leg though it may not be easy as I'm not good at speaking japanese or ended up in a small JR station without english assisted booking.

Earthborne,

Are you aware of the English-speaking services shown in the following page?
http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/info/index.html

Also, some Shikansen trains (for example the E02 and E04 type trains) have baby beds as well as "tamokuteki-shitsu" which literally means "all-purpose room" where those with infants or disabilities may use sharing with others. You may want to consult with the reservation staff so that you can get a seat in trains that have those conveniences.

Hi Uco, thanks for these pointers. I did read some where that on the shinkasen there are baby facilities but I thought these were just tiny diaper changing or nursing room. Do u mean these actually are specialised baby train compartment with seats?

Earthborne,

As Uco says, they are multi-purpose compartments (there is only one per train on the shinkansen trains you will riding up to Aomori), but they provide enough space for baby feeding and nappy changing in private. You need to ask the conductor to use it, as it is normally locked. You can lock the compartment door from the inside for peace of mind while nursing etc. On the Hayate shinkansen trains heading north to Hachinohe, the compartment is in car 9, which is the Green car, so you might want to try and ask for a seat reservation in car 8 or 10 to be nearby. On the Super Hakucho from Hachinohe to Aomori, the compartment is in car 1, which has both Green car and standard-class accommodation, so you might want to ask for seats in that car.

Earthborne,

Surprisingly, I can't find any details about the compartments on JR East's site, but there are a couple of photos on this Japanese blog page (by a mother with baby), which should at least give you an idea of what to expect.
http://wagamamahime.blog68.fc2.com/blog-entry-70.html
The writer says it is pretty small, but it has a small seat (stool) and a small fold-down baby bed. Also note that there is no rubbish bin there. It's next to the conductor's office, so if you can't collar the conductor while he's wandering through the train (they don't normally check tickets these days), you can go there and ask to use the compartment.