booking a JR reserved seat the week trains actually sell out

for the Tokyo-side JR East lines. steps in order, in the order I actually do them.

wifi in some stations is bad enough that setting up an account there is miserable

add a credit card, and have a backup ready

not every foreign card goes through on the first try. mine failed on a Amex once and worked fine on a Visa two minutes later

search by the exact station name, not the city name

typing a region name sometimes defaults to the shinkansen stop instead of the local JR station you actually want. check it before paying

reserve the seat as soon as the search shows availability

good windows (aisle near the luggage rack) go first on weekends heading toward onsen towns, especially in autumn

pay immediately once you've picked a seat

hold only lasts a few minutes, I've lost a seat to my own slow scrolling before

link the reservation to your IC card at a ticket gate machine before boarding

off-peak this takes 30 seconds. do it the moment you arrive at the station, not right before your train

screenshot the QR code anyway

in case the platform has no signal when you need to show it

Or start a list of your own. Free, it takes a minute.

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