Ok its going to be my first time in japan and i have many questions.
I will be staying in shinagawa at the prince hotel. How long does it take for a train to take me from shinagawa to osaka? and are these train system complicated? is there a map where i can download to go over it? and what train should i take to get to osaka?

Welcome to FT.

First things first - I recommend that you read the thread: "Japan (Tokyo and beyond) Master Thread"

In that thread, you'll find links to some useful information - such as how to find train timetables. (Answer: On a web site called Hyperdia). Once you've looked there, you'll probably find answers to most of your questions. If something still isn't clear, that's the time to add a question to an existing thread or start a new thread.

Welcome to Flyer Talk and the Japan Forum.

Along with the suggestions above, there are some other things you can do to help us help you. Provide some additional information about your trip:

How long will you be in Japan? How long in Tokyo? Other places? How much actual train travel will you be doing? Are you arriving in Japan at Tokyo-NRT? Are you returning to Tokyo for your departure from Japan or leaving from another airport? How many are you?

The reason that some (or most) of the questions above are relevant is that the answer to your questions is - it depends.

The best option for a train from Tokyo to Osaka is via the shinkansen (AKA the bullet train.) It runs from Shinagawa to Shin-Osaka (just outside of Osaka) in from 2.5 to 3 hours, depending on which train you choose. The shinkansen is expensive and various discount options are available. If you will be returning to Tokyo within 7 days and expect to use other trains during the 7-day period, a Japan Rail Pass could save some money. On the other hand, if the only rail travel you will have is a one-way to Osaka, the Pass would not save money. The Pass must be purchased BEFORE you arrive in Japan. See information in the "sticky" at the top of this forum.

The previous post mentioned the timetable website Hyperdia. It is at: http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi .

Again, welcome. Post back with a bit more information and I'm sure we can help.

JR

A trip from Tokyo to Shin Osaka will take a little over 3 hours, if I recall correctly. If you intend to see Osaka, you will likely need to transfer to the local Osaka station, a short train ride away, and get on the local loop.

Initially, the train system was a bit complicated for me to understand. After my first day it made a lot of sense. The ticket inspectors are very helpful if you get lost (though few spoke English).

I am going to be there for a week.

march 23 to march 30.
i am going to arrive at narita at 4pm, leaving narita on the 30th at 4pm..
going to be me and a friend of mines.

The Japan Rail Pass will make sense if your planned trip to Osaka is within 7 calendar days. The round trip fare to Osaka is about equal to the price of the 7 day Japan Raill Pass, plus you can use the pass to take other JR trains.

Since you mentioned staying Shinagawa Prince, I assume you will not immediately travel to Osaka as you land on the 23rd. I would get the 7 day Japan Rail Pass to cover the travels on 24th to 30th, which should include the round trip to Osaka and the Narita Express outbound trip on the 30th to NRT. For the travel on the 23rd, I would get the Suica and N'EX deal. If you have lots of luggages, you may opt for limo bus instead.

Depends how long you plan to stay in the Osaka region. Instead of getting a JR Pass you should research into some of the Sunrise tour plans offered:
http://www.japanican.com/special/shi...dex.aspx#osaka

Some of them are really great deals as they come packaged with round trip shinkansen tickets, hotel accommodations, and sometimes attractions, that all come out cheaper (even cheaper then the JR pass plus hotels) then if you were to pay for things separately.

Again it all depends on your travel plans etc, but something certainly worth looking into.

Nice to see someone who plans ahead. ^

Welcome aboard!

Under the heading of simplistic things I wish I had known when first navigating Japanese train station names is that "Shin" means "new." You'll see a lot of Shin XXX. It's typically close to/just outside of XXX, since it's the new station for XXX.

Generally speaking, the stations with Shin- prefix are the Shinkansen stations for that city when they can't build the tracks to the main station. For example, Shin-Yokohama, Shin-Osaka, Shin-Kobe, etc.

There are also stations that are built to connect to other train lines that don't reach the existing stations, i.e. Shin-Kawasaki, Shin-Imamiya, etc. Or rarely it may be a station built by different rail operator, such as Shin-Ochanomizu.

Ahh, an interesting clarification. I'm glad I came up with a plausible, but apparently wrong interpretation. Thanks.

msb0b elaborated further, but you weren't wrong

新 is the character for 'shin' - new (also 新しい - Atarashii which also means new - Japanese being complicated)

新 is also the first character for 新幹線 - shinkansen - bullet train

The explanation you gave is absolutely correct. I just went ahead and extended it to the context that we travelers are most likely to encounter, i.e. Shinkansen stations.

Oh, LapLap you took the words right out of my mouth again. ^

Thanks a lot. and yea i tend to plan things ahead most of the time.