Originally Posted by
lkar
Does anyone have any experience reserving wheelchair places on the Hikari? We will be in Tokyo for seven days and want to do an overnight to Kyoto somewhere around the middle. As I understand it, wheelchair places cannot be booked until I'm actually in possession of the pass. Though we can be a little flexible with times, I need to book our Kyoto hotel and otherwise make arrangements. What I'm worried about is showing up at Narita and trying to book the wheelchair spots on Hikari for later in the week when we exchange our voucher, only to be unable to reserve places. That would make the pass close to useless for us.
Are you planning any long distance rail travel apart from the Tokyo-Kyoto roundtrip and the journey between Narita and Tokyo? If those are the only inter-city trips, you might be better off without the pass. You might consider that the savings of perhaps 5,000 yen per person (assuming you use it for 2 X Narita Express and 2 X Shinkansen) are outweighed by the constraints. If you do without the pass, you have far more trains to choose from - Nozomi departures are far more frequent than Hikari.
Alternatively, you could consider purchasing a package, which includes rail fares and hotel booking. In that case, advance purchase from abroad is possible, and you can tell agent about your requirements.