MegatopLover

Thanks, Pickles. I have one more, hopefully my last, question.

I looked on the JR Central price charts for Nozomi tickets from Tokyo to Kyoto. One-way unreserved in the standard car, they were coming in around 13,000 yen (a bit more for reserved), if I understood the chart correctly, which is consistent with what has been stated above in this thread. That would make the standard round-trip cost 26,000 yen per pax. As far as I could tell, those are walk-up fares at the station and pretty much sold only at the stations, as Pickles indicated. Perhaps I can buy it a few days in advance, but I think I read on a JR website that ticket sales only start 30 days prior to the train's departure.

I called our local office of JTB, Japan Travel Bureau, to inquire about purchasing Shinkansen tix in advance. The guy who answered tried to sell me a 7-day JR Rail Pass. I know those are no good on a Nozomi and I only need one day, since we're going down and back the same day, so I was highly skeptical that he was just trying to sell me what he could sell me. The agent said that walk-up fares for Shinkansens get pricier as you get closer to the departure date just like airline tickets do, and that if I wait 'til I get there it should be about $700 for a roundtrip Tokyo-Kyoto, at which price I might as well fly. I told him I was getting roundtrip for about 26,000 yen on JR Central charts, though perhaps I misunderstood the charts. He didn't dispute that but told me to "jump on it" and take a fare that low while I can get it. (Of course he knows full well I can't buy that in advance online, so he's just trying to get me to buy the 7-day JR pass from him.)

This sounds like absolute hogwash to me. What gives?