Originally Posted by
joejones
In case you didn't know, Shinkansen tickets to Tokyo are generally valid as far as any JR station within the 23 wards (i.e. the entire central area of the city). So when you arrive in Tokyo, you can transfer to a local JR train (e.g. the Yamanote loop line) for just about any central destination at no extra charge. This doesn't apply to the subway or private operators, though.
Key thing is to remember to retrieve your Shinakansen ticket stub after using it to get through the turnstiles!
La Cochinita, our son and I got off the Shinkansen at Tokyo Station with the intent of transfering over to the Yamanote line. Somehow I managed to lose one of our three Shinkansen tickets after we got inside the station. Then I couldn't find anywhere on the "sterile" side of the train station to actually buy another ticket to get on the Yamanote line. So I went over to customer service for help. At first they couldn't understand how three of us got in with two tickets, but they figured it out and sold me a one way ticket on the Yamanote line to where we were going.