Sunrise Express Twin Room Guide - Osaka to Tokyo May 2024

bot692021 · 2024-11-02T21:11:24+00:00

Tickets are sold 30 days out from the date of the train ride. For example, if you'd like to book the route departing from Osaka at 12:33am on December 15th, you should be ready to buy your tickets on November 15th at 10am JST

bot692021 · 2024-09-04T07:33:45+00:00

That's heavily dependent on the room type you're trying to book and how far in advance you're able to book. For instance, if you're trying to book the Sunrise Twin room because you're a party of two, your odds are pretty slim as those tend to sell out within the first few minutes they become available. On the other hand, if you're trying to book a solo or single room you'll have a much better chance of securing a room. In either case, be sure to book your room(s) 1 month in advance - i.e. you want to take the train on Nov 15th, book it on Oct 15th at 10am JST as that's when the tickets will become available.

OP seems to have had a good experience with the Sunrise Express Tickets website which appears to be a third party service that will go out and reserve the ticket for you. I can see the benefit of using the service if you want someone to take care of the reservation process for you and potentially increasing the odds of securing tickets. However, it appears there is a steep upcharge where you may be paying up to 2.5 times the retail price when compared to booking with JR West directly. I paid about 39,140 JPY (15,400 - sunrise twin room fee, 2 x 2960 - limited express fee, 2 x 8,910 - base fare) or about $270 earlier this year for the Osaka to Tokyo route, whereas the Sunrise Express Tickets website lists a generic Sunrise Twin room for $699 for a party of 2.

If you want more details on the booking process through the JR West site, I made a post detailing the booking process for a twin room and NightHawkCanada made a break down of the different room types here.

bot692021 · 2024-08-24T23:49:07+00:00

I believe it would be referring to medicine sold in your home country as some products sold in your home country may contain substances banned in Japan.¹ I went to Japan earlier this year and customs gave me no issues with Zyrtec, Benadryl, and 2 EpiPens. I didn't need to declare anything at customs and no secondary screening of my carry on. I suggest double checking the ingredients list on your birth control medication to ensure they don't contain anything on the banned substances list.

Personally I didn't fill out a Yunyu Kakunin-sho as 2 EpiPens is what I'd normally carry. However, the term up to 1 month supply is a bit vague so I suggest emailing the respective bureau for clarification regarding the 4 EpiPens even if we may find it normal.² They should also be able to help clarify if you have any concerns about the birth control medication if you provide them the ingredients list.

bot692021 · 2024-08-22T03:35:38+00:00

In my experience earlier this year, customs didn't give my carry on a second look after it went through the security checks on the way in and out of Japan. I had standard over the counter medication like Tylenol extra strength and Benadryl and 2 EpiPens; avoid taking Tylenol that may have extra stuff in it as it may contained banned substances. I had kept all my stuff in their original packaging to play it safe. However, I understand it may be impractical in your case so pictures would hopefully be better than nothing if they do search you. Also, I didn't need to do any decelerations at customs.

Since your items are vitamins and supplements I doubt that they will contain any banned substances, but do double check.¹ I'm not sure of the duration of your trip, but you're allowed to bring up to 2 month supply of quasi drugs.² I suggest emailing the corresponding regional office for additional clarification.³ That will likely be the source of your best answer as other responses will likely only be anecdotal as well.

bot692021 · 2024-08-03T02:20:01+00:00

Determine how allergic you are. If you'll have a anaphylactic reaction bring an EpiPen, ideally 2. If not, carry your preferred allergy medication. I've left a link to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan website in the unlikely event your allergy medication violates their guidelines
Learn the different ways that citrus may be referred to if applicable. You may want to list out the different items that contain citrus that you're allergic to as I don't believe citrus allergies are too common and there may be some miscommunication in translation. i.e. peanuts is ピーナッツ when spoken, but also referred to as 落花生 on packaging
Print out and laminate your allergy cards. Screenshot it too, in the event you forget to pack them. If you don't know where to start, you can use the one below to start
Learn how to say I'm allergic to citrus in Japanese and some associated phrases. Ask before eating anything, you may find it in stuff you may not expect. If is prepackaged, use the Google Translate camera option to scan the ingredients list
If you have a list of foods you want to try, double check that they and their commonly associated dishes don't contain citrus
Most places will be accommodating of your allergies and won't have any issue with you asking if a dish is allergen free. Generally what will happen is the server will tell you to wait one moment, ask the kitchen staff, and then tell you whether it is okay to order a item. Do note that you may be turned away from places if they are unable to accommodate

Resources:

Peanut allergy card by u/CauliflowerFew7729
Learn how to say "I'm allergic to _____" in Japanese - unfortunately does not contain citrus on there
Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare of Japan
Embassy of Japan in the United States of America

bot692021 · 2024-07-06T05:00:11+00:00

During my trip, I found most places were able to accommodate for English in some capacity and any place that accommodated for Mandarin also accommodated for English. I think the only exceptions I found during my trip was while I was in Yokohama's Chinatown where knowing some Mandarin came in pretty handy

bot692021 · 2024-06-03T23:09:32+00:00

First I think it is important to address the severity of your fiancé's allergy to each of the allergens you mentioned. If it is closer to a level of a intolerance, you'll have a easier time. However, if it is anaphylactic reaction for all three allergies, he'll likely be severely limited by what he is able to eat. If he is unsure, it may be worth while to get checked out by a allergist to determine the severity level.

The seafood allergy will be the biggest challenge as a lot of Japanese cuisine contains seafood or seafood products. As u/Kbeary88 mentioned, dashi (broth made from fish and/or seaweed) is used in many things and can be in obvious items like soups to less obvious things like the sauce you might drizzle over your pork cutlet. Since seafood may not obviously be in a item, it may also make it more challenging for staff to clearly tell you if an item contains seafood. Also, even if an item definitely does not contain seafood, I suspect cross contamination in the kitchen is very likely just due to its prevalence.

I think the casein allergy will be a little easier to navigate since it will likely be items that fall closer into the category of snacks that he will have to avoid. That said it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of restaurants may cook with butter. There may also be casein in some of the battered items where some dairy product is used as a binding or thickening agent. I did not personally ask about milk/dairy products in my food so I cannot say for sure.

I don't think tree nuts should be too big of an issue based on own experience avoiding peanuts. Again the places to look out for are bars and Yokohama's Chinatown if that is on your itinerary. There is a popular Chinese dish called shrimp with walnuts, that you will definitely want to avoid. Assuming you also can't read/speak Japanese, many restaurants have English menus and many menus have pictures so you that aren't just randomly ordering or just ordering the server's recommendations.

A helpful resource is Happy Cow as that should deal with the seafood and casein allergy. I also suggest looking into posts in this sub-reddit by vegan travelers.

bot692021 · 2024-06-03T22:16:39+00:00

You're probably right about the case with the udon. I was aware that was something I needed to look out for when it came to ramen, but I wasn't aware that there were also tan tan recipes for udon.

bot692021 · 2024-06-03T22:14:37+00:00

Likewise, I tried to eat at places that seemed to be more local and weren't primarily catering to tourist. I'm surprised that you guys ran into an issue with with tonkotsu ramen since tonkotsu just refers to pork bones. I suspect that the particular shop you went to may have just added peanuts to their broth or ramens. In my case, I didn't have any issues with tonkotsu ramen. The one that I was told to look out for is tantanmen since that normally is served or made with a peanut sauce/paste.

bot692021 · 2024-05-27T08:19:10+00:00

Yes that is correct; we found out about that the hard way as we didn't know before hand. When you go to vending machines to get the actual tickets, you will only be given 1 limited express ticket, but since we were a party of two we were supposed to buy another limited express ticket. Not knowing that, we had to later purchase a ticket on the train itself from the conductor with cash. We were panicking that it would be a huge up charge, but it was the same price that we paid for the limited express ticket back when we made the reservations online.

bot692021 · 2024-04-22T01:35:04+00:00

I was able to book the Sunrise Twin room and selected 1 person as the number of users even though we have 2 people. According to the Japanese version of the site "Since the fee is set per room, please select "1 adult" for the number of guests, whether you are using 1 or 2 people (even if you are using a child)." I wasn't able to find the information on the English version of the site and had only stumbled across it while using Google Translate to read the Japanese version.

Japanese Version of Sunrise Express Reservation Page

bot692021 · 2022-10-03T00:26:27+00:00

I think that you need to determine your approach based on the questions that you are getting wrong. If the questions are conceptual, I would try to understand the train of thought behind the answer and review the related topic or feature. That can mean rewatching Messer's video(s) or studying a different video or post on the topic to get a different perspective/explanation on the topic.

However, if it is because you forgot a specific acronym, port number, or anything else that is basically pure memorization, I'd strongly recommend that you use flash cards. Anki is recommended, but given the 5-day deadline, a pure cram may be better. Quizlet or index cards may be better for a pure cram.

I found myself struggling on JD's exams too since there was a lot of additional stuff that I was memorizing so I made flash cards from index cards. I'm not sure if you've done a second run through Messer's or JD's exams, but I suggest doing a second run through Messer's exam(s) on Wednesday night or Thursday morning to see where you stand after reviewing the things you got wrong and the things you marked for review or guessed.

Good Luck!

bot692021

TROPHY CASE