A few days before our trip, I was pricing out bullet train tickets from Kyoto to Tokyo on the SmartEX app, and I saw that there were green car tickets available for not much more than the price of regular seats. The green car is basically business class, with wider seats, a menu you can order to your seat and more room for bags.
In total, the three tickets cost $266 or just under $90 per person. The regular seats at the time were priced around $80 per person. This discount only works at least three days out, so if you’re planning to just buy your tickets at the station, the green car will likely cost more. I knew that we wanted to take a 5pm-ish train to Tokyo so I locked it in with the discounted upgrade.
Because of some stormy weather, we decided to try and take an earlier train than originally planned. I was able to move us to the 2:07pm train in the SmartEX app with no additional cost.
We arrived at Kyoto station and waited at the assigned spot by our track. It was easy to find thanks to lots of good signage. Our train of course arrived bang on time and we boarded to find our seats. Another advantage of the green car is that it was fairly empty, even at rush hour on a Monday, because most people don’t book in advance and don’t want to pay the premium.
As you can see, there’s an extra footrest, a large tray table and lots of luggage space above the seats. We only had our carry-on sized bags plus backpacks and an extra shopping bag or two and everything fit with no issues either overhead or in front of us.
There’s a buy on board menu that you can access once you log in to the wifi. I ordered a beer to my seat and it was cheap (I think around $3).
Unfortunately, I booked the wrong side of the train for Mount Fuji views. In the end, it didn’t matter as it was covered in clouds. This was another mountain I caught from the other side of the train in the window across from the bathroom.
We arrived at Tokyo Station right on time and found our way to the taxi area. There was a line, but it moved quickly. Our hotel in Ginza, the Hyatt Centric, was fairly close to the station and the ride only took about 20 minutes.
Riding the green car was a bit of a splurge, although because we booked ahead it wasn’t much more expensive than booking a regular car on the Shinkansen. We were finally ready to explore Tokyo for the last five nights of the trip.
Up Next: Hyatt Centric Tokyo King Suite Review
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