JAPAN 9 DAYS Series | What if you miss your Shinkansen?

Continuing from ... JAPAN 9 DAYS Series | Hakone Day 2

What if you miss your Shinkansen? What will you do aside from panicking?

Aboard the train on the Tozan Line, we kept on checking the time. Only 30 minutes left, and we are still but a halfway to Odawara station. We will not make it. We did not make it.

We ran as fast as we could after we got off the train. We hurriedly got our luggage from the coin locker and came rushing at the JR Ticket counter. There was a queue. 2 persons ahead of me, and in my head, please please please be fast with your transaction. After 5 minutes, it's my turn. I babbled out in broken english, "How can I rebook my ticket?, I miss the train". And the old man in the counter, gave me a hand "X" sign. I freaked out, no no no!!! Please rebook my ticket!!!

Good thing, a girl came and told me in english, "You can use the same ticket on the next train which will arrive at 2:36PM, non-reserved seat".

So, what if you miss your Shinkansen?

1. It's okay just as long as there is a next train available to your destination.

2. Your paid reserved seat will go to waste. You can board the train on the non-reserved section. So it's best that you travel during the odd hours. Good thing there were a lot of good seats for us when we boarded.

3. DON'T MISS YOUR SHINKANSEN

We were supposed to take the Hikari 515 that will take us only 2 hours to Kyoto. When we missed it, we took the KODAMA 661 that took 188 Minutes. That's more than 3 hours. By the time we reached Kyoto, it's dark already. 

Nonetheless, it was a good learning experience for us. And a chance for me to write about it here and share with you - DO NOT MISS YOUR SHINKANSEN