Originally Posted by
moondog
Oops. I missed that part. I thought the main reason to use one of those agencies was because they sent the tickets to you.
Fortunately, there is another alternative to the train station scrum. Any remote kiosk (I usually use the one near JA Temple) can print tickets for a fee of Y5. I didn't believe it the first time Ctrip advised me to do this, but it works like a charm.
I think they said this won't work for foreigners since we need to have passports checked at one of the stations. The only reason we used an agency was to reserve the seats in advance. Supposedly the internet purchase pick-up line is shorter too.