Japan - Tokyo Station to Shinagawa

I'm taking the Yamagata line to Tokyo Station and then need to get to Shingawa.

Is it possible to buy a Narita Express ticket that allows us to take the Narita Express train from Tokyo Station to Shingawa station?

Or any other suggestions?

Traveling tomorrow so any quick help is appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm taking the Yamagata line to Tokyo Station and then need to get to Shingawa.

Is it possible to buy a Narita Express ticket that allows us to take the Narita Express train from Tokyo Station to Shingawa station?

Or any other suggestions?

Traveling tomorrow so any quick help is appreciated.

Thanks!


Assuming you mean Shinagawa?
Yes - but it's rather expensive for such a short journe - reserved seat mandatory so will cost you ￥1600 and the transfer from Shinkansen to N'EX at Tokyo is quite a long way.

Slightly cheaper and faster would be a 6 min Shinkansen journey at ￥1000.

More sensibly, just get a local train on the Yamanote line, Tokaido line, or Keihin-Tohoku line - all about 10mins and ￥160.

There's good english signs in the stations - if you want a local train, use a transfer ticket gate and it should eat your shinkansen supplement ticket and give you your fare ticket back, you can then pay a supplement when exiting at Shinagawa if necessary.

Slightly cheaper and faster would be a 6 min Shinkansen journey at ￥1000.

More sensibly, just get a local train on the Yamanote line, Tokaido line, or Keihin-Tohoku line - all about 10mins and ￥160.


Considering the frequency, local trains would be faster. Since OP will come from Yamagata Shinkansen, the Tokaido line is, I believe, most convenient. Its platforms are closer than any other train line's. In the concourse, there are elecrtronic timetables which show next Tokaido line trains. Head to platform 7,8.

Considering the frequency, local trains would be faster. Since OP will come from Yamagata Shinkansen, the Tokaido line is, I believe, most convenient. Its platforms are closer than any other train line's. In the concourse, there are elecrtronic timetables which show next Tokaido line trains. Head to platform 7,8.

Yes - local trains are clear more sensible for this journey.
But Tokaido line isn't as frequent as Yamanote line (every 10-20 mins vs 2-3 mins) - and only 2 mins faster.
So best go to platform 5 and 6, only a few yards further. All trains from both platforms will stop at Shinagawa and the OP can get on either Yamanote (track 5) or Keihin-Tohoku (6), whichever comes first.

Nogbad is right.

The merit of Tokaido line is that it originates in Tokyo station, so you can expect vacant seats available.

Assuming you mean Shinagawa?
Yes - but it's rather expensive for such a short journe - reserved seat mandatory so will cost you ￥1600 and the transfer from Shinkansen to N'EX at Tokyo is quite a long way.

It is certainly possible to sneak inside the NEX train when the conductor isn't looking and hide in the bathroom for one stop...not that I've ever done it before, of course...

Seriously, with three options available, the local JR train from Tokyo to Shinagawa is about the easiest trip you can make. They even have information booths inside Tokyo station with staff that speak rudimentary English if you should have trouble.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 5_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B206 Safari/7534.48.3)

I did all the options other posters mentioned (tokaido line, local line, shikansen and narita expresss) at afternoon peak hour. The tokaido line option is definitely the best balance between money and comfort (did nex and shikansen only when I was holding JR pass, which are free anyway except Nozomi train - that I found it's the annoying option if you stick to rules)

Yamagata Shin-kansen trains use platforms 20-23 on this map (http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/stations/img/map_e/e1039.pdf). Go to platforms 5-6 and take whichever train (Yamanote or Keihin-Tōhoku Line) that comes first. All trains from these platforms go to Shinagawa.

Note that between about 10am and 2pm, the Keihin-Tohoku line (blue) will be slightly faster than the Yamanote line (lime green) since for those 4 hours daily it skips some stops.

Note that between about 10am and 2pm, the Keihin-Tohoku line (blue) will be slightly faster than the Yamanote line (lime green) since for those 4 hours daily it skips some stops.

Well, faster by one minute, so it would not make sense to ever not take the first available train, even if the Keihin-Tohoku line departed even one minute later than the Yamanote line during the above time period. The only time it makes a difference is if both trains are leaving at the same time, in which case the Keihin-Tohoku will save you 1 minute. So the bottom line is, the easiest thing to do is to just go to Platform 5-6 and take the first train that comes along.

Thank you very much for all your help. Extremely helpful!

I will take the local train from platform 5/6. I'll be arriving at 8pm so hopefully won't be too crowded... I'll be bringing my 3 year old in tow so hopefully it will be okay.

Thank you very much for all your help. Extremely helpful!

I will take the local train from platform 5/6. I'll be arriving at 8pm so hopefully won't be too crowded... I'll be bringing my 3 year old in tow so hopefully it will be okay.

This being Japan, that's still a fairly crowded time during the week. You probably won't be able to sit, but I don't think the two of you will get particularly squashed either.

If you buy a reserved ticket from wherever to Shinagawa (instead of Tokyo) then it (probably) costs the same and you can ride whatever train you want, including NEX or other Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shinagawa. Although, it has to be a JR train of course.

If you buy a reserved ticket from wherever to Shinagawa (instead of Tokyo) then it (probably) costs the same and you can ride whatever train you want, including NEX or other Shinkansen from Tokyo to Shinagawa. Although, it has to be a JR train of course.

All JR tickets to Tokyo are valid to anywhere in the general Tokyo area provided you exit the shinkansen part of the station into the main station. There are two exit areas for the shinkansen at Tokyo, make sure you don't take the one that exits the entire JR part of the station.

All JR tickets to Tokyo are valid to anywhere in the general Tokyo area provided you exit the shinkansen part of the station into the main station.

More specifically, if the ticket is for a journey of more than 200 km, it is valid to/from any station in the 23 wards of Tokyo.

The same rule applies in other major Japanese cities -- a long-distance ticket to/from Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, etc. is valid to/from any JR station in the city, not just the Shinkansen station.

If a ticket to/from Tokyo is for a journey of 100-200 km (Utsunomiya, Atami, etc.) it is valid to/from any station on or within the Yamanote Line. If it's shorter than that (e.g. a NEX ticket from Tokyo to NRT), it is only valid to/from the listed station (or a station en route).

Does the terminal station have to be specified in advance. Like in this case if the OP buys a ticket to Tokyo and then continues to Shinagawa. Will the ticket machine protest when OP exits turnstile at Shinagawa?


More specifically, if the ticket is for a journey of more than 200 km, it is valid to/from any station in the 23 wards of Tokyo.

The same rule applies in other major Japanese cities -- a long-distance ticket to/from Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, etc. is valid to/from any JR station in the city, not just the Shinkansen station.

If a ticket to/from Tokyo is for a journey of 100-200 km (Utsunomiya, Atami, etc.) it is valid to/from any station on or within the Yamanote Line. If it's shorter than that (e.g. a NEX ticket from Tokyo to NRT), it is only valid to/from the listed station (or a station en route).

Does the terminal station have to be specified in advance.
No. You don't have to specify your exit station in advance. You could transfer from Shinkansen to the Yamanote line at Shinagawa and go wild: Roll dice at each stop to determine whether to keep going around the loop or exit the station.

No. You don't have to specify your exit station in advance. You could transfer from Shinkansen to the Yamanote line at Shinagawa and go wild: Roll dice at each stop to determine whether to keep going around the loop or exit the station.

And if you get off at Uguisudani, you might get really lucky!

if you get off at Uguisudani

OK probability boffins:

Kenji gets on a uchi-mawari Yamanote train at Shinagawa.
He rolls a six sided die at each station and decides his next action based on the result.
1 or 6 = He stays on the same train
2 or 5 = He alights and gets on a Yamanote line train going the opposite way
3 or 4 = He alights and finishes his journey

What's the probability that he'll finish his journey at Uguisudani?

(By the end of this class, we will be working on a more complex version of this problem involving two dice and the full Tokyo metropolitan railway network).

OK probability boffins:

Kenji gets on a uchi-mawari Yamanote train at Shinagawa.
He rolls a six sided die at each station and decides his next action based on the result.
1 or 6 = He stays on the same train
2 or 5 = He alights and gets on a Yamanote line train going the opposite way
3 or 4 = He alights and finishes his journey

What's the probability that he'll finish his journey at Uguisudani?

Uguisudani is 10 stops away from Shinagawa, so he will have to avoid getting off the train at least 10 times. There is a 1 in 3 chance he will have to get off the train, which means there will be a 2 in 3 chance that he will not.

Doing (2/3)^10 gives us an upper bound of 1.7% chance that Kenji will be able to do that much.

As it's already less than 2%, I refuse to whittle down poor Kenji's chances of getting lucky any further...

Thank you all for your help. Went to platform 5/6 and took the first train. Was easy to find. Thanks again!

he will have to avoid getting off the train at least 10 times

Thanks for tackling this one head on. :)

I think he has to avoid 3 or 4 at least 11 times - He's on the uchimawari, so his first opportunity to change back to get the short route to Uguisudani is at Osaki. Of course, there's also the very slim chance that he might make it to Uguisudani the long way round.

Thanks for tackling this one head on. :)

I think he has to avoid 3 or 4 at least 11 times - He's on the uchimawari, so his first opportunity to change back to get the short route to Uguisudani is at Osaki. Of course, there's also the very slim chance that he might make it to Uguisudani the long way round.

The chances of him changing trains at the earliest opportunity (1/3), continuing to ride through the now 11 stops to Uguisudani (1/3^11), then getting off (1/3) are about six in ten million. Any other combination is even more convoluted, and will not more than triple his chances, bringing the odds up to slightly more than one in a million.

Kenji ain't getting no nookie tonight...