Originally Posted by
cargo
Hi I plan on going from Tokyo to Hakata this summer and am getting the JR railpass and from what i understood the Hikari went straight there but on a post i saw early they were saying only the nozomi goes from tokyo to hakata. If that is so would i have to transfer at shin-osaka to another hikari or what?
With the Railpass, you cannot take Nozomi, so you will need to take Hikari to Shin Osaka, then change to another Hikari, most likely Hikari Railstar to Hakata. If you have lots of luggage, I would suggest you take Hikari to Shin Kobe, one after Shin Osaka to change as there is only one platform at Shin Kobe (some Hikari goes on to Okayama). If you travel between Shin Osaka and Hakata mostly, don't bother getting a "Green" first class railpass, as Railstar does not have "Green cars."