Really? It sure doesn't feel like it. I personally think Singapore is hotter.

It is IMO also. They just have actually air conditioning there. Japan has their mandated temps so you get lulled into thinking you will get some reprieve indoors, but you don't. Drives me bonkers.

Egads. Thwarted again. Thank you for that input and makes sense why the “start date” I face was only end of September to same date in October. 😞

And there is no way I can pay pre-October 2023 increased prices and be able to make seat reservations online, correct?

I don’t see how you can either, sorry.

I have a vague recollection (but am not sure, so please check this) JR East's system has an option of reserving seats on the basis of having "purchased a pass elsewhere", with the understanding that you would then pick up these tickets the day before travel or be charged some sort of fee. But in any case this would only work for JR East routes.

You guys could also consider the non-reserved cars? If you board at the origin station (eg Tokyo instead of Ueno/Shinagawa) or at a major transfer station (eg Shin-Osaka) and go a bit earlier to be at the front of the line, I bet the odds of getting seats together are pretty good.

I will look into the JR East seat rez option. Thank you also for the idea about early boarding in non-reserved cars. Thank you!!

What are mandated temperatures? Restrictions on how much air conditioning can be used?

Not this year, or in recent years. Also, the Tokyo heat island effect is more pronounced.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/jp/to...weather/226396

https://www.accuweather.com/en/sg/si...oogle_vignette

Might have something to do with the fact that only 7% of Tokyo's space is reserved for trees/parks/nature. And the plan is to keep developing the remaining public parks into multi-tower concrete developments.

I think Tokyo has confused the concepts of Zero Carbon and Green City, and is now implementing a Zero Green policy.

I thought about this yesterday as I cycled along the newly widened stretch of Gaien Higashi Dori (Tokyo Metropolitan Route 319) around Ushigome Yanagicho - It's completely treeless. Four lanes of traffic with a concrete divider, and asphalt sidewalks without even a single flower bed or patch of earth to plant a shrub. No shade. No separated bicycle lane. Just an wide, ugly, stroad - a 500m long middle finger to pedestrians, cyclists, and residents that will eventually stretch as far as Edogawabashi, passing the Kusama Yayoi museum (with Natsume Soseki's old house just around the corner).

To the south of the Ministry of Defence, there is some greenery on the sidewalk - a few trees and bushes to shield walkers and buildings from the sun and the traffic. That's how Tokyo used to dress its wide thoroughfares. It feels like Tokyo has unlearned the lessons of how to mitigate the impact of throwing down arterial roads through commercial and residential areas. The current thinking seems to come from the 1950s or 60s.

In reading back to your original post, the JR East functionality won't be relevant for you since you are not using JR East services (Tokyo->Hiroshima). But the non-reserved cars should work as long as you go early and use the terminus station as much as possible. Also be prepared to sit apart for a short segment and then switch seats.

Example: if you cannot find seats for the whole group to be together upon boarding at Maibara, keep an eye out for people disembarking at Kyoto/Nagoya and switch into their seats.

After 311 everything changed here -- it used to be more like Singapore in stores and train stations -- but the government asked people to adjust to higher temperatures (one of the reasons the salaryman uniform has changed lol). Bottom line is that average termperatures in public spaces - like stores and trains - are much higher than before 311 -- while Singapore continues as the same,,,, Japan for the average tourist is just much more uncomfortable in the summer than in the past -- all in the spirit of reducing energy consumption and the move away from nuclear power....

Ventured out there early this morning and picked up a pretty fresh loaf of the Hokkaido milk bread. Ah, I'm not really a bread connoisseur and have always thought its main purpose were to clean my palates in between courses, but this thing was pretty d*amn good! I should've picked up two! I'm skipping the hotel breakfast again, and will head out there tomorrow morning to try some of the other baked goods.

This is more an observation than a recommendation but there has been a huge “boom” in what is called “salt butter rolls” or shio pan (salt bread) and the boom seems to have spilled over to South Korea.
They are made with an enriched dough (butter is added after the initial knead once the gluten strands have formed and then a bit extra is introduced) then carefully shaped and rolled, in the oven the extra butter “fries” the dough at the base but the inside is fluffy in airy laminates and surrounded by a light crust.
Mont Tabor has its own name for these; sa-fu-ju (each syllable commemorating the three defining “points” of a salt butter roll)
https://mont-thabor.jp/pan/safuju/

I’d describe it as between bread and brioche, they do make decadent sandwiches.

Honestly -- my wife and I could live on their bread (we were there today lol) -- but our waistlines would explode! After tennis on the weekends it is our guilty pleasure....