Subject: Re: [76attendees] Kansai/Hiroshima Train Station: ATM/travel to hotel

From: SM <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:01:31 -0800

Hi Peter,

Once you are off the plane, you take a monorail to the immigration 
area.  There is a line for foreigners on the right-hand side.  Once 
you are cleared, you collect your luggage and go through 
Customs.  That should take around 45 minutes.

After customs, take the stairs to the first floor, then turn left and 
walk up to the JR (train) office.  There is a green sign.  But a 
ticket for Hiroshima.  You will be given three tickets the size of 
credit cards.  One is for the fare from Kansai Airport to the 
Hiroshima City Zone and the other two are for the two legs.   You can 
get a reserved seat.  The total cost is 12,300/- JPY.  There was 9 
minutes between arriving in Shinosaka and catching the Shinkansen 
Hikari.  See whether you need a longer duration before you purchase 
the train ticket.

Ask the person at the JR office for the track number of your train to 
Shinosaka.  It may be Track 4.  The gates are opposite the JR 
Office.  Once the train arrives, find your car number and your 
seat.  There will be a few stops before Shinosaka.  The train station 
are announced in English and there is also a sign in English.  The 
ride to Shinosaka takes 53 minutes.  The time of departure and time 
of arrival is printed on the ticket.

Once in Shinosaka, see the overhead monitors for the track number for 
the train you are catching.  It may be Track 21 or 22.  You need to 
go up one level to catch the train to Hiroshima.

Once you arrive at Hiroshima Station, you need to go downstairs to 
proceed to the exit.  Hand in your tickets to the attendant, then 
proceed to the left side to exit the station.  You will see the Hotel 
Granvia on the left.  The taxi stand is on the right.  The taxi ride 
is less than 1500 JPY.

Regards,
-sm

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From: Peter Saint-Andre <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:02:23 -0700

Thanks, that is very helpful!

On 11/6/09 7:01 AM, SM wrote:
> area.  There is a line for foreigners on the right-hand side.  Once you
> are cleared, you collect your luggage and go through Customs.  That
> should take around 45 minutes.
> 
> walk up to the JR (train) office.  There is a green sign.  But a ticket
> for Hiroshima.  You will be given three tickets the size of credit
> cards.  One is for the fare from Kansai Airport to the Hiroshima City
> Zone and the other two are for the two legs.   You can get a reserved
> seat.  The total cost is 12,300/- JPY.  There was 9 minutes between
> arriving in Shinosaka and catching the Shinkansen Hikari.  See whether
> you need a longer duration before you purchase the train ticket.
> 
> Shinosaka.  It may be Track 4.  The gates are opposite the JR Office. 
> Once the train arrives, find your car number and your seat.  There will
> be a few stops before Shinosaka.  The train station are announced in
> English and there is also a sign in English.  The ride to Shinosaka
> takes 53 minutes.  The time of departure and time of arrival is printed
> on the ticket.
> 
> the train you are catching.  It may be Track 21 or 22.  You need to go
> up one level to catch the train to Hiroshima.
> 
> Granvia on the left.  The taxi stand is on the right.  The taxi ride is
> less than 1500 JPY.
> 
> Regards,
> -sm
>

---

From: Scott Brim <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:51:42 +0900

btw if you exit customs on the right hand side (north), there is an ATM
directly across from you.

---

From: Scott Brim <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:52:58 +0900

> up one level to catch the train to Hiroshima.

I was on a Hikari train, track 20.  There are lots of signs.

---

From: Paul Hoffman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 2009 06:24:41 +0900

Printing off <http://www.ietf76.jp/kansai-jr.pdf> and giving it to the folks in the JR ticket office should help a lot.

BTW, last night we had 11 people \on the SFO->KIX flight who thought we might as well sit together on the trains to Hiroshima. That was, in fact, doable, but with a bunch of effort on the part of ticket agent. (She became the stuckee of the four agents because her English was clearly the best.) We warned her that there might be other big groups who might want the same, and she said "no problem" with a slightly worried smile.

Something that even seasoned travellers were surprised about: you get a pile of tickets and you stick them as a pile into the gate machines. The machine determines which ones to give you back. When you finally leave at Hiroshima, your last one gets sucked away.

Oh, and as for food: there are a good number of dinner-in-a-box places in Shin-Osaka, with a reasonable selection in the 1000 yen range. There was even one on the platform for our train going to Hiroshima, but there were also plenty downstairs in the giant hall. The vending machines on the KIX->Shin-Osaka train only had over-priced drinks, however.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--VPN Consortium

---

From: Rob Evans <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:11:00 +0000

> Something that even seasoned travellers were surprised about: you get
> a pile of tickets and you stick them as a pile into the gate
> machines. The machine determines which ones to give you back. When
> you finally leave at Hiroshima, your last one gets sucked away.

I think I got to grips with this.  You will have a "fare" ticket and a 
"seat reservation ticket" for each journey, possibly more than one of 
the latter if you have multiple legs with reserved seats.  To get to the 
Shinkansen platform you will probably have to go through two sets of 
gates, the first gives you access to the general platforms and you can 
do this with just the "fare" ticket (putting both in didn't work at one 
of the stations).  The second gate is for the Shinkansen platforms and 
you'll need to put both the fare and seat reservation tickets in 
together, on top of each other (it doesn't matter which one is on top).

Leaving the train the process is reversed.  Put both tickets into the 
first gate, which will keep the seat reservation.  Put the remaining 
ticket, the fare ticket, into the second gate at the exit from the 
platforms.  The gate will keep that ticket, but you're now out of the 
station.

I'm sure there are going to be other subtleties (and I'm sure someone 
will point out this is already described on Ole's or the local host's 
website), perhaps if you're using a station only with Shinkansen there 
is just one gate, but this worked for me...

Cheers,
Rob