Japan’s Major Train Stations

Japan’s big stations are small cities. Tokyo Station alone handles around three thousand trains a day across more than twenty platforms, and the first time you walk into it with a suitcase and twenty minutes to spare, it is genuinely daunting.

These guides cover the stations most Australian visitors actually pass through. Each one explains which lines run from there, what your Japan Rail Pass covers, where the Shinkansen gates are, and the handful of practical things that are worth knowing before you arrive rather than after.

Station guides

• Tokyo Station — the hub for every Shinkansen line in the country
• Kyoto Station — your base for the temples and the bus network
• Shin-Osaka Station — where the Tokaido line ends and the Sanyo line begins
• Shinagawa Station — often the smarter Tokyo departure point
• Nagoya Station — the gateway to Takayama and Ise
• Hiroshima Station — trams to the Peace Park, trains to Miyajima
• Hakata Station — Kyushu’s front door, five minutes from the airport
• Ueno Station — the quieter stop for every northbound Shinkansen
• Shinjuku Station — the busiest station on earth, and it has no bullet trains
• Osaka Station — Umeda, the airport express, and why it is not Shin-Osaka
• Nagano Station — snow monkeys, Zenkoji and the ski fields
• Kanazawa Station — the drum gate, Kenrokuen and the road to Shirakawago

Things that apply at every station

Finding the Shinkansen

Shinkansen platforms sit behind their own set of ticket gates, inside the station. You pass through the normal JR gates first, then a second set marked Shinkansen. Allow more time than you think at the big stations, ten minutes minimum from the main concourse.

Reserving seats with a rail pass

Every major station has a ticket office marked Midori no Madoguchi, the green window. Show your pass and your passport, say where and when you are going, and they will print a reserved seat ticket at no charge. Booking several journeys at once on your first morning saves a lot of queueing later.

Luggage

Coin lockers are everywhere, in several sizes, and they take IC cards as well as coins. At the busiest stations the large lockers fill by mid morning. Most big stations also have a luggage forwarding counter that will send a suitcase to your next hotel overnight, which is worth knowing if you are doing a day trip between cities.

Eating

Station food in Japan is good, not a compromise. Ekiben, the boxed meals sold on the concourse and on the platform, are regional and genuinely worth seeking out. Buy before you board, as only some services sell food on the train.