Originally Posted by
ksandness
I would advise against using a Seishun 18 ticket. Most local trains are like Tokyo subway cars, with padded seats running along the walls of the train, but you may have the misfortune to end up on an old-style local that has hard seats with the back and the seat part at a 90° angle from each other. The average church pew is far more comfortable, and there is no leg rrom if someone is sitting across from you. The other disadvantage is that you need to have to have access to detailed knowledge of the train schedules. Hyperdia will work, but you have to know exactly what you're looking for.
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I would advise against Seishun 18 because it’s a royal waste of time if you are in Japan for only a short period of a week or so. I did Kyoto to Sendai once as a student some twenty years ago and it kind of took the whole day from first departure in the morning to almost last arrival in the evening.
However, the situation you describe above with uncomfortable seats and necessity of detailed train schedule knowledge will hardly be a topic if using Seishun 18 on the Tokaido Line btw. Tokyo and Kyoto. Those trains are all new and the schedule is quite frequent with only relatively short waiting times. At least that’s what I remember from my last Seishun 18 trip from Tokyo to Maibara 3 to 4 years ago. The situation is however quite different if you’re travelling rural areas like Hokkaido, Shikoku or Hokuriku.