Very keen to know what “nostril text trip” started out as before autocorrect got to it.

"Most recent trip" perhaps.
N and M keys are adjacent, as are C and X.

I had the same thought. However, when I was exchanging my voucher for my JR Pass and reserving a seat on the Shinkansen to Kyoto at the exchange office in Shinagawa I asked if I could reserve a seat with luggage space as per the new rules, the staff member wouldn't let me. He gave me a tape measure and asked me to measure all three sides, and when that showed it was <160cm he said I wold have to put it up in the overhead rack. Getting the case up there was an experience I don't want to repeat! I noticed the row with luggage space in my car was empty the whole way.

On the way back I used a ticket machine to reserve my own seat and picked a seat with luggage space. I was the only person in the row.

I agree it’s much better to use a ticket machine. There was one segment where I couldn’t use a ticket machine to reserve a seat (not on the Shinkansen) but once you figure out what to do it’s very easy.

If the visitors come from the States, they may be leery of entrusting their luggage to a delivery service until they have experienced the miracle of having their luggage ready in their room when they arrive.

This next trip, I'm spending the first night in Narita-shi, so I'll have takkyuubin send the large case to my Tokyo hotel and just take a carry-on to the hotel in Narita.

yah. And that's why it will continue to be a disaster loading Shinkansens at Kyoto. It's not just people from the states. The European visitors wearing their scarves like it's a uniform are equally culpable with their gigantic fashion closets.....I mean luggage.

One trick I learned (from observing the porters on trains in India) is to hoist the luggage onto your head and neck before/after squatting it up to/down from the rack. Ends up being much less strenuous on your back muscles.

If you purchase your JR pass online from the official JR site, https://japanrailpass.net/en/purchase.html , you can reserve seats on up to 6 legs as much as 30 days in advance.

We asked for oversized baggage seats on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Shinagawa and have been given seats 1b and 1c (not the back row of the carriage). I think 1a is a space for a wheelchair so are we meant to put our bags there? I cannot see any mention of this online. Thank you.

Why do you think that?
I think Row 1 is at the "front" of the car on Westbound trains and at the back on Eastbound. See the seat map below for trains heading West. Of course configurations differ on different train types, but I think the orientation of the numbering is the same.
https://railway.jr-central.co.jp/tra...1_01/seat.html

thank you so much - you were absolutely correct