Question
I’m planning a bucket-list trip to Japan and keep reading about overnight sleeper trains that feel more like luxury hotels on rails. I gather there are three famous ones, each run by a different JR company, and that they’re notoriously hard to book. How do I make a reservation for a luxury train in Japanese?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
豪華列車の予約はどうすればいいですか。
Gouka ressha no yoyaku wa dou sureba ii desu ka.
How do I make a reservation for a luxury train?
What a trip to plan! Japan has three flagship luxury sleeper trains, each run by a different JR company. ななつ星in 九州(Nanatsu-boshi in Kyushu) loops the southern island on courses of one or three nights and was launched by JR Kyushu in 2013. JR West runs トワイライトエクスプレス瑞風(Twilight Express Mizukaze), which started in 2017 and travels between the Kyoto/Osaka area and the Sanyo and San’in regions. JR East’s TRAIN SUITE 四季島(Shiki-shima), also from 2017, departs Ueno on routes through Tohoku and Hokkaido.
Booking works by 抽選chuusen, a lottery — you apply months in advance through the official site or an authorised travel agent, and seats are drawn at random because demand far outstrips supply. The word you’ll want is 予約yoyaku, meaning reservation.