Yufuin no Mori reservations
 

Am finding that seat reservations on Yufuin no Mori 1 & 3 are sold out 30 days in advance.
I bought and registered a 5-day pass at JR Kyushu website. I want to take the train from Tosu to Yufuin on Oct 31. Am starting the day at Ureshino Onsen and guess I could go to Hakata or Kurume if that is what I hed to do.

I have tested getting reservations for earlier dates just to see what options I would have and to make sure I know the process.

Yesterday, 9/27, I did a reservation search for 10/27 and Yufuin no Mori 1 was unavailable and just one seat on YnM 3. Reservation opened at 1:30 PM PT (05:30 JT) and I was on it at about 1:35 PM
Today, both trains are unavailable on the 27th and 28th

What's the deal?

1) It's a popular tourist train.

Yes, it is a popular train. But how do those trains sell out in 3 minutes?

I found something that said that tour group operators can make reservations earlier than 30 day. If that is true then I would expect that they reserve more than they need and return the excess to JR Kyushu. Or they (agents in JP,China/.Taiwan/SK) sell them?

Because Japan.

During the peak travel time, even Shinkansen trains with each train having 1323 seats can sell out in a minute or two.

Yes, Yufuin is a very popular tourist destination, and Yufuin-no-mori express train is a very popular train for tourists heading to Yofuin. Besides, you are looking at travel on Oct. 27 and 28 (weekend travel) where the peak foliage season of the Yufuin area is from the end of October into November. I am not completely surprised to hear Yufuin-no-mori express train sold out immediately after the start of the ticket sales. You are trying to get a seat on the Yufuin-no-mori express train during one of the peak tourist seasons of the Yufuin area for weekend travel.

Better on the 29th, Sunday. One seat in each of three cars on YnM 1 and one seat in each of two cars in YnM 3.

This is at 06:30 JST, one hour after seat reservation became available for that day.
Same thing at 07;15

Popular, popular, popular. Ok.
And the previous two days were weekend, Fri, Sat, and now am looking at a maybe less popular day, Sunday, and see 5 seats on the two trains.

There are dozens of unavailable seats on the two trains that day. What are the chances that all of those seats sold out in the first hour and there were five seats left over at 06:30 - and 45 minutes later those five seats were still available. The one seat on the 27th hasn't sold yet.

I guess that can be explained that there were bound to be orphan seats. I don't buy that. It is probably due to tour group bookings or JRK is holding some seats back to sell at a closer in date.

I don't really need to know how the sales happen. I paid my money and will take my chances on the day and worst case is I take the Yufu 1 or some local.

yeah, good point

I showed up in Hakata one morning to ride this train some years ago... and was told it was sold out. I was still able to get on the train by "talking" to the conductor. Got last 2 lousy seats. Problem is, getting on a 100% full tourist train is not that much fun. Might be more enjoyable to just take regular trains if the schedule allows for it.

You are right! I had not considered the fact that the tourist trains will be full of tourists. That is because those two trains best fit my schedule. And I have never been on a tourist train other than the Fuji-Q train.

Took another look at my options and the only useful one is the non-tourist Yufu 1. For some reason, (because Japan) it looked like I could reservea seat on that train for the 31st Oct yesterday and it was wide open. Maybe 2-3 seast unavailable in each car, Couldn't even select that date for Yufuin no Mori.

Yufuin 1 means leaving Ureshino earlier than I want but it gets to Yufuin before the tourist trains. Will have 4 minutes to transfer at Takeo Onsen which would not have been an issue 20 years ago but should be doable. The transfer at Tosu is only 2 minutes so it better be on the same platform or I will probably miss it. I will give that a go and get to Yufuin at 10AM or, worst case, 4.5 hours later.

I booked the Yufuin no Mori 1 tourist train as soon as it became available. I am a tourist, after all. Many seats available on that train on that Tuesday compared to the weekend. Yufuin no Mori 3 was unavailable.

Later start to the day and easy connections. If I get to the station early then I might try making the non-tourist Yufuin 1 and bozrd an unreserved car/seat and then cancel the reserved seat on the tourist train.

Yufuin no Mori is a nice train, I was just saying if it is 100% full, not so nice.

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Echoing the above, +1 and I recently took the Yufuin no Mori #3 from Hakata to Beppu. We travelled on 8 January which was the last day of the Coming of Age Day holiday weekend. Tickets sold out within minutes of the 30 day window opening. I agree that the trainset itself is cool but the ride and experience was a bit of a letdown.

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We were in the third car, sitting on the right side. The overhead racks are pretty small, only enough to hold a backpack or small duffle. There wasn't any power available at the seats either. I've never traveled on a DMU train before where there are diesel engines in the car and not pulled by a locomotive; there was a bit of engine noise pulling out of stations and now and then between periods of coasting. We didn't bother ordering the special ekiben and relied on the many choices available at Hakata. The train was full of passengers heading to Yufuin with a very few people getting on/off at the stations along the way. Early on, there was a lot of traffic in the aisles as people went to collect their ekiben and drinks and with others wanting to see the rest of the train and snap photos.

After Yufuin, about 1/4 of the passengers rode on with us to Beppu; it was much more relaxing to have a quieter and less congested train ride and I walked the length of the train to check out the other cars and enjoyed the view over the engineer's shoulder.

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I found about 2/3 of the trip to be pretty bland, scenery-wise. Leaving Fukuoka, we passed through mostly residential and industrial areas with stocky and squat concrete buildings. The rural sections were mostly farmed fields. At a few stations and crossings, people would stop and wave at us as we passed by. It got more interesting around the middle of the trip as we started intersecting sections of the Kusu River now and then. We did have a great view of the Jion no Taki Falls from our seats and the train paused briefly so we could all take pictures. Most of the announcements were in Japanese, supplemented by some short English recordings at a few key points of interest. For some of the lesser points, cabin staff walked by holding large cards with short blubs ("We are now passing the Minou Mountains..." in several languages.

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From Yufuin to Oita, the scenery was mostly woods and forest, with quite a few short tunnels. I liked this stretch the best, followed by the run up the coast of Beppu Bay to the Beppu Station.

Overall, I am glad we had the experience but wouldn't be eager to do it again. We rode back to Hakata on the regular Sonic train via Kitakyushu and enjoyed the level of comfort, uncrowded cars, and en route scenery.

Turned out to be not so nice.

I boarded in Tosu and there was a couple with a lap child occupying my carefully selected window seat and the one next to it. I sat on the aisle two rows back. I decided to be a nice guy for a change. The little girl did come back to offer me some grapes as a consolation, so that helped. I just sat in my seat for the whole trip. There were people going up and down the aisle constantly.

The view was nice, but the view from the Kurokawa Onsen to Aso bus was better. Yufuin station was nuts. Lots of foreigners pushing around really big spinners. I do mean "pushing" for several of them whose luggage was more massive than their body.

Uh, dumb question how do you book this ticket in the first place?

it seems that it needs a jr Kyushu account and we cannot enter letters for names? So do you just make up random Japanese names for the account?

The site appears to accept foreign names.

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