Originally Posted by railroadtycoon
Though I hate to bring up the topic of green vs ordinary, it has always been my opinion that unless you have some extra change to throw around, Ordinary cars have always been perfectly fine.
In my two trips on the shinkansen, I've also found the ordinary car to be fine. As for the taxi issue, I agree that you should find a bus or something. There are a lot of buses that run from NRT-Tokyo and from KIX into Osaka for about $30 or less.