29th July
Today I took the day off as I commuted to Kyoto, using the Shinkansen. One thing I have noticed though is even if Japan is very convienient when it comes to transportation with the IC cards that I have previously explained, when it comes to Shinkansen tickets it’s a little more complicated. At least when buying it on the day of the departure at the ticketing machine, because I didn’t know that you have two buy to tickets which are sold seperatly. Firstly you have to buy the base fare of the “limited- express” aka the Shinkansen and with that you also have to buy a “non-reserved” or “reserved seat” ticket. So this lead to some confussion and I even had to take one train later than I had initially planned but the train station staff was very patient and helpful. But I can imagine if I couldn’t speak the languege that I would have had a little more trouble.
After this the rest of the commute was very easy and comfortable especially when it comes to seating space which is quite large on the shinkansen.