The site is all in Japanese but you can input the station names in roman letters when you initially start a search. The system will then convert those into kanji which you need to check to make sure they are the particular stations you want. The basics are similar to what was described for the JR West site. If you are not very practiced in reading Japanese you might want to have someone help you through the first time.

You can always use this system to check times, availability, etc. but to book tickets you will need to register online. Seats can only be reserved one month ahead but being registered allows you to put a reservation on the waiting list one week earlier (if you use a computer that is, I think this does not apply if you use the cell phone site). At the one-month point those pre-reservations are processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

You can reserve tickets for JR shinkansen and express trains for anywhere in the country but have to pick up your tickets at a JR East station. You can pick up the tickets from soon after you get confirmation of the reservation (via e-mail) up to just before the train leaves. Just go to the View or Midori windows at a station with the credit card you used online and the reservation number (good idea to print out the online page showing the reservation was completed or the confirmation e-mail), or use the credit card (and your credit card PIN number) in a reserved seat ticket machine (lavender colored ones).

You can make changes and cancellations of the reserved tickets online. There are some benefits such as small discounts, a point system, etc. You can also do various combinations of train tickets with JAL tickets, rental cars, hotels, as well as do some shopping, etc.

OpenTransit will hopefully make things better as well:

http://groups.google.com/group/opentransit

I, for instance, always use the 14-for-the-price-of-10 tickets for weekend trips to town, and on one leg of my commute the 11-for-10 ticket works out cheaper than a 6 month pass, once you factor in holidays/business trips/sick days. Also, the Osaka underground has a 3300-yen-travel-for-3000-yen card that I never learnt about until after three years here! And then there’s all the one day passes…

Jonneh: Thanks for your enthusiasm. I don’t plan on ever taking this site down, so hopefully all the tips will still be here for you when you finally make it to Japan.

Lee: Great tip! I’ll add this one to the update post too. Thanks!

Rick: Glad you found it useful. If you want to search in English, try one of the sites mentioned by Jethro, Lee and Deas.

Deas: Thanks for the comment. I’ll add your words to the update post as well with a link to the Japanese side of hyperdia.

Chris: Thanks for the Yahoo tip. I’ll try that out for my next trip since it gives me the weather too. I haven’t booked through jr-odekake before. We’ve only used it for the scheduling. If we want to reserve a train ticket, we do it in person and my wife usually takes care of lodging by telephone.

It looks like the jr-odekake site allows you to book online as well. JR had the most brain-damaged online booking system imaginable for a while, which they thankfully decomissioned. Has anyone used this new system yet?