If anyone noticed hyperdia has been updated to add options such as excluding Nozomi trains, it now looks like it uses the engine of its japanese counterpart.

It has also appeared to fix the fare errors for special fare zones.

Yes, I noticed. I also noticed that some of the old links are now dead. The English link through grace.hyperdia is gone. You now have to go through the main page and select the English link, then bookmark.

JR

That's fabulous news!!!

I wonder if my nice letter to the Japanese Tourist Board had anything to with that change. (Time to write another one now to say how delighted I am with the update!!! )

The JTB? I've always sent emails via the direct link they have. To Hitachi Information Systems [email protected] .

From what I gather they translated over the Japanese engine of hyperdia (you can still see some glitches) but it looks much like its japanese site counterpart.

A long story, but I was chatting to someone from the JTB about it and they said they'd present my letter if I wrote one.

OK, why don't you ask them about allowing Nozomis on the JR pass? I wrote JTB about that ages ago, to no effect of course.

Edited to add: Whoops! It was JNTO I wrote, not JTB.

Honestly speaking if you want my opinion, the JR Pass is essentially a discount ticket that allows virtually unlimited rides on the entire network of JR trains (with obvious exceptions) for a pretty good period of time 7, 14 etc days, I think like the airlines if you were to purchase a restricted ticket your are bound by those constraints. The nozomi is a premium service, especially the tokyo-osaka run (you're allowed to use Nozomi with the JR West pass west of Osaka (which is sold by JR west and shinkansen services west of osaka), but the line is not as busy as its Osaka-Tokyo). From a business standpoint I can understand why they don't allow the use of the nationwide JR pass on Nozomi services.

More so during peak travel seasons, when you look at the board in the reservation office, almost all Nozomi trains are sold out with customers paying almost full fare. Again I can understand from a business point of view, their main point is to Make money.


Certainly I'm no expert and my view does not represent those of JR, its just my opinon on the matter.

Now I can also understand from a tourist point of view too, as it does limit the opportunities between Tokyo-Osaka.

JR has a NY office for foreigners, the email is in the thread about passive smoking. You're welcome to take it up with them if you like. But that's not something I'll be writing in about... (I know a good deal when I see it, asking for more is just taking the p!ss )


Hitachi is just providing a helpful service in English with Hyperdia, but they were kind of missing the point of what most English speakers actually needed by not allowing the Nozomi services to be screened out. As JTB actually recommend the website to tourists, I chatted with someone in the London office about the difficulties I was having. She said I wasn't alone and asked if I'd write up some details. Perhaps someone at the JTB had a word with someone high up related to Hyperdia/Hitachi over a drink or two. I doubt my lowly letter had anything to do with it - but it couldn't have hurt.

It's good for Japan's/Hitachi's international image after all - and surely that was the whole point of offering this service in English in the first place!

Conclusion - if you think something can be improved. Write! Who cares if you're not a citizen. If you're buying/using the product, it's aimed at you.

I agree with you LapLap about writing. I do all the time. Mostly to my local transit company about how they can improve services, I seem to always cite how Japan does it. For example I want to get my local train company to start running express train services skipping lesser used stations during the day, "Its being researched" at the moment.

I also keep getting letters back from my local politians office that says my name is "Ms" even though I keep signing my name with "Mr." ......

Yes - I think this is the thinking behind the rule that makes the JR Pass invalid on the Nozomi.

But, in truth, since the timetables were changed a couple of years ago so that most of the Hikari trains became Nozomi's... the Nozomi is not so much of a "premium" anymore. It has become the "plain vanilla" of the Tokaido Shinkansen.

I think JR tacitly acknowledged this - by creating unreserved seating cars on the Nozomi trains. (Prior to the timetable change, there were only reserved seats on Nozomis - and you had to pay a Nozomi premium over any other kind of Shinkansen). With unreserved seating, ordinary passengers can ride the Nozomi to Osaka and beyond at the same price as a Hikari.

The "and beyond" is the crucial thing - because if you're going further West (to Hiroshima, for example), it really helps if you can ride a Nozomi that goes direct from Tokyo - rather than the often rotten connection times that you get when you're limited to Hikari's.

So.... In my opinion (which is only my opinion and not that of JR or JTB or the JNTO or the CIA) JR should find a way to allow JR Pass holders to use the Nozomi. Maybe:
(1) open up the unreserved cars on Nozomi trains to JR Pass users
(2) give each JR Pass user one ticket that allows him to ride the Nozomi once during his 7 day stay

I know - there's no point in me writing it here. I need to write to JR East... well maybe I will.

JR East doesn't operate the Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen.

You'll have to write JR West and JR Central.

Acutally I was also saying that the JR Pass is esentially a "discount ticket" (a good deal discount ticket), and with that there are and should be restrictions from a business standpoint.

Actually if I ran the company(s) I would make it only valid for unreserved sections on Hikari's, and make people pay for the seat reservation fee if they wanted a reserved seat on the Shinkansen... YES I AM EVIL you wouldn't want me as head of JR. OK don't worry I will not write JR to do that...hehehehe
Though thinking, I wouldn't mind paying a "step up fee" charged depending on distance to ride the Nozomi with the JR Pass, this is somthing I think they might be willing to compromise on than allowing full acess with the JR Pass.

I've heard that there are works currently to revamp the JR Pass, though only through rumor and not hard fact.

Well that would certainly make the JR pass a less attractive option.

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, "You must not ask for so much."
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, "Hey, why not ask for more?"

(Leonard Cohen - Bird On A Wire)

Yep, nothing wrong with taking the p!ss sometimes.

As with so many things, if you don't ask, you don't get - or more truthfully in life, if nobody asks, nobody gets.

I usually write in about things I think I need, or will need, or see other people needing.

Nothing wrong about asking for things you want. (Just don't ask me to join in the campaign - I've got too many emails to write and thank you letters to send as it is! My last was to the Great First Western Line, gushing with compliments over how some of their guys resolved a sticky situation on Friday :-: )

I'm glad to hear that Hyperdia has been updated--I had a panic attack last week when I got a "Site not available" notice. Screening out the Nozomis will be very helpful.

It may have a few idiosyncracies, but it is certainly better than any other site of it's kind. I love all the different, very local routings--I ended up finding some options I never thought about. It also makes transferring on complicated routes much easier if you know all the transfers ahead of time.

I'm glad they have continued to maintain the site--a lot of good sites just fade away, or get runied by stupid airlines (WPAA Lister).