Originally Posted by zeo219

I will be traveling from the US with 2 kids, meeting my mom in Tokyo (Japanese resident) and doing a bit of sight seeing with her around Dec 20th-27th-ish. The 3 of us will be using a JR Pass (before the 10/1 price increase), but she will be buying her own tickets.

For our JR Passes:
1. I was going to purchase our JR Passes through Klook (for the discounts, and didn't think I needed to reserve any seats ahead of time), but since we will be traveling with her, I think it makes sense for us to try and reserve our seats in advance where we can to ensure we will all be seated together. Thoughts? Would this not be necessary?
2. If it is recommended that we should get seat reservations together in advance, my understanding is that if purchasing our JR passes through the main website, we can reserve seats online from our phones as we travel, is that correct (as opposed to having to reserve at kiosk or at midori no madoguchi)? We just have to pick up the paper ticket at the station before we get on the train?

For my mom's purchased tickets:
1. It looks like 90% of our trip would be covered by the smartEX mobile app. (Tokyo > Kyoto > Osaka > Hiroshima). Do these tickets/seat reservations also need to pick up at the station before we get on the train?
2. Has anyone tried using this app (to purchase and reserve) along with the JR website to reserve seats together? Is there something I am missing/should be considering?

Thanks in advance!