How to find seat availability of trains. JR Cyber Station guide.

Timetable and reservation
2015.06.24
a0006_000980_m

You might be nervous about booking of trains. Online booking is very limited. Most of you have to book your train after you arrive in Japan. Especially if you travel in peak season, such as Golden Week (late Apr to 1st week of May), Obon period (mid Aug) and New Years holidays (late Dec to early Jan), many trains are booked out. You may want to know how busy trains will be before you leave.

Unfortunately there is no way to find it online in English. But we have it in Japanese that is “JR Cyber Station”.

In this post, I show you how to use this site. I know that most of you do not understand Japanese. I believe that you will be able to use this site and find the seat availability of the trains after you read this post even if you do not understand Japanese. I will explain you how to use this site step by step in this post.

Step 1 Find the service segment of the train

You have to find the space availability one train by one train.

e.g
If you have a trip to Takayama from Tokyo via Nagoya, you will take the following trains:
The Tokaido Shinkansen for Tokyo to Nagoya
The limited express Wide View Hida for Nagoya to Takayama
In this case, you have to check the availability of Tokyo – Nagoya and Nagoya – Takayama separately.

You can find the service segment of trains at Hyperdia. Please see the link below to get the details about using Hyperdia:

Hyperdia perfect guide, train timetable and route search engine
If you want to build your itinerary by yourself, Hyperdia will help you a lot. This site is transportation search engine. You can search the timetables and routes of all trains, flights and airport shuttle bus. But this site is a bit tricky and too many functions and options to you. This guide will help you to find the way to use this site.
jprail.com
2013.11.26

Step 2 Get the station name in Japanese

You must have the station name in Japanese. There are several ways to get it. I think using Wikipedia is the easiest way. Please try to google “Wikipedia *** station”.

For example, try to get Japanese word for Kanazawa station. Please google “Wikipedia Kanazawa station”.

wiki-kanazawa1

I could find it at second in the first page. My language setting is Japanese, so I found Japanese wikipedia link at the first. But if you google it, you will find it somewhere in the first page. Now click the link at Wikipedia page.

wiki-kanazawa2

You can find Japanese word “金沢駅 (Kanazawa-eki)” in even English wikipedia page. Actually you may find Japanese word in other language wikipedia. Kanazawa station was written in many language in wikipedia, such as French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean.

Before move to next step, you have to copy the station name in Japanese. Please copy only “金沢”. We do not need “駅”. This means station in Japanese. You need only location name.

Step 3 Access to JR Cyber Station

JR Cyber station is only online service for checking availability for JR trains. Before you access this site, please check the time. Because this site is available from 6:30 to 22:30 in Japan time. Now please access JR Cyber station.
And then, click the first link that says “■空席案内（指定席の空席照会がご覧になれます）”.

Cyber station1

Now you need to choose date and time.

Cyber station2

Next choose the train type. Please see the image below:

Cyber station3

The procedure is a little bit different between Shinkansen and conventional line trains (other than Shinkansen). If you check the availability for Shinkansen, please see the next chapter. Otherwise please see the chapter “Step 4-b”.

Step 4-a Check seat availability for Shinkansen (bullet train)

If you choose Shinkansen, drop down menu is appeared and you can choose both departure and arrival station. Of course, you can paste the station name that you copied at wikipedia above.

When you complete to choose at all dropdown menu, you can click “検索”.

Cyber station4

You get the result. The availability and the category of seat are shown by the following symbols:

Sample result of Tokaido Shinkansen for Tokyo to Nagoya
Sample result of Tokaido Shinkansen for Tokyo to Nagoya
Sample result of Tohoku Shinkansen for Tokyo to Sendai
Sample result of Tohoku Shinkansen for Tokyo to Sendai

All train names are shown in Japanese. If you want to make sure these train names, these following links show you Shinkansen timetables online or PDF.

Tohoku, Akita, Yamagata, Joetsu and Hokuriku Shinkansen (JR East Official English site)
Tokaido and Sanyo Shinakansen (Tokyo-Kyoto-Shin Osaka-Hiroshima-Hakata)
Westbound (from Tokyo)
Eastbound (to Tokyo)
Kyushu Shinkansen (Hakata-Kumamoto-Kagoshima Chuo)

You may find the name of train from departure time.

Step 4-b Check seat availability for conventional trains (other than Shinkansen)

If you choose “在来線列車” (conventional line trains), you have to paste the correct station name at both departure and arrival. And you can click “検索”. If you fill in wrong name, wrong time or other errors, the following page is shown.

Cyber station7

But sometimes JR Cyber Station gives you the choice.

Cyber station8

In this above case, there are two similar names and it gives us choices. Please see the choices carefully and pick you the correct one.

And we get a result.

Sample result of Limited Express for Shinjuku to Matsumoto
Sample result of Limited Express for Shinjuku to Matsumoto

Other notes

When you use JR Cyber Station, please remember the following notes:

1. JR reserved seat ticket is on sale one month prior to departure dates. You cannot check the availability for more than one month.

2. When you check the availability, sometimes the seasonal train cannot be found. Most of popular seasonal trains, such as Resort Shirakami, JR Kyushu trains can be found.

3. Overnight train Sunrise Seto and Sunrise Izumo from Tokyo cannot be shown. Other direction (to Tokyo) can be found. But only availability for Nobi Nobi seat is shown. We cannot find the availability for other compartment.

4. Other overnight trains are seasonal operation and cannot be found at JR Cyber Station.

5. JR Cyber station can check the availability for JR trains only. You cannot get an availability for any express trains on private railway lines, such as Tobu railway, Kintetsu railway, Odakyu Railway.

6. Again, this site is available from 6:30 to 22:30 in Japan time only. You cannot access this site outside this hour.

I hope you could understand how to use JR Cyber station now.

Comments

  1. santi says:
    June 1, 2016 at 12:23 am

    Hello Takeshi-san,

    I have a Northern Kyushu Area Pass , can I use this to ride Limited Express Yufuin no Mori ?
    I also have a Japanese friend who can book this on-line on JR Kyushu website, but don’t know how (if can) use the Pass.
    Is there a Japan Rail Pass department telephone number or e-mail address I can write to to get a definite answer?

    Thank you

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      June 1, 2016 at 6:36 am

      Hi Santi san,

      You can use this pass to take Yufuin no Mori.
      I don’t think they have a contact for the customers directly by either email or phone. Do you want to know how to book train or how to purchase a pass?

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  2. suad says:
    April 9, 2016 at 7:50 pm

    Hallo there,
    I intend to visit Ashikaga Flower Park.
    Can I use Tokyo Wide Pass to access this spot?

  3. Liyan says:
    December 3, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    Hi takeshi,

    I am still looking for more info on JR.
    May I ask from Tokyo to Osaka and Kyoto to Tokyo. Both routes by Shinkansen.
    But I have no idea which train should I take? Need your info on this.

    Thank you!

    Liyan

  4. Lin says:
    September 20, 2015 at 5:55 am

    Hi
    I will travel to Kansai Airport on 5 Dec
    And I want to travel from Kansai to Takayama by JR limited express wide view in the morning
    Can I make reservation online? and how?
    And if I can book online where can I pick up the ticket when I arrive? What’s they operate time?

    Thanks you so much!

  5. Tiger says:
    September 10, 2015 at 9:59 am

    Hi Takehi,

    I am planning to buy the Haruka & Icoca ( round trip ) when arrive Kansai Airport. Please advise whether I may make the seat reservation for the Haruka at the JR ticket counter at the same time, and what is the cost for the reservation.

    My schedule :
    KIX to Kyoto
    Tennoji to KIX

    Thanks.

    • Takeshi / JPRail.com says:
      September 10, 2015 at 2:43 pm

      Hi Tiger,

      Reserved seat fee is not included in ICOCA and Haruka. If you want to book, you have to pay full express surcharge and not good idea to use this deal. Single ticket is better idea.

      But it’s not hard to find a seat without reservation. I have take this train many times but I have never seen all seats are full.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JPRail.com

  6. suad says:
    September 8, 2015 at 3:36 pm

    Hi takeshi,
    Which transport i can take from haneda airport to shinjuku by using Tokunai Pass?
    Thanks

  7. Ng Siew Bee says:
    September 1, 2015 at 6:13 pm

    Hi, I will be flying to Fukuoka on 19 Dec 2015. Will be staying at Miyazaki from 19 – 25 Dec, Beppu 25 – 27 Dec and 27 – 28 Dec at Hakata. I will be traveling around these area. Sight seeing extra. What JR pass shall I purchase to cover my 10 days in Japan. Pls advice.

  8. Elaine says:
    August 27, 2015 at 4:01 pm

    Takeshi sen,

    FYI, we can only purchase a JR Pass 3 months prior to travel. So, Yan probably had found out in June that he can’t.

    I tried at the local JAL Office. Just to let you know.

  9. Lily says:
    August 3, 2015 at 5:52 pm

    Hi Takeshi!
    I will be in Tokyo for 4 days. I intend to use mainly the JR Yamanote line. Which IC card should I get? Is it the Suica IC card? Will it also cover the Narita express two way fare? You mentioned in one article abt the Y4,000 yen Narita express fare valid for 14 days. Can I use that as well for my yamanote line fares?

  10. yan says:
    June 25, 2015 at 8:59 am

    Hi there,

    Love your posts, very helpful. I will be traveling in Japan in Oct. this year. Is it too early to buy a JR PASS now?

    Thanks

    yan

    • Takeshi / JPRail says:
      June 25, 2015 at 12:29 pm

      Hi Yan,

      You can purchase it now. JR pass must be exchanged within 6 months since exchange order has issued. But you may wait a bit more. Currency rate may be better but nobody knows.

      Cheers,

      Takeshi / JP Rail

1234
Copied title and URL