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- Oct 13, 2013
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An experience with a broken tibia, crutches, and travel on the Shinkansen and Japanese trains, getting to HND, minivan transfer and airport experience.
Context
#tibia (shin bone), with an above knee cast - means unable to bend knee. Crutches
Need to get from Madarao to SYD via HND and 3 pices of luggage 80 kg total.
Travel insurance
Rigmarole with TI, but approval given for repatriation back to SYD via HND on an earlier flight and different airline with a family member acting as non medical escort.
Ta-Q-Bin
Booked Ta-Q-Bin (luggage forwarding service) with Yamato to forward 3 pieces of luggage total 80kg from Madarao to HND for pickup 2 days later on 15Feb. Total cost Y8000 about AUD$30 a piece. Luggage forwarding companies like Yamato, JAL ABC will hold luggage for you until you get there. Ta-Q-Bin couriers come to your hotel, tag the items, you pay and they take it away. 1 Waybill to fill out each piece. If you want to do Ta-Q-Bin, I have filled out a dummy Waybill so you know what to write where - see Ta-Q-Bin- the how to...
Flights
Booked 2xJ QF26 HND-SYD at half the cost of JAL and ANA $6600 total. (3 days before travel).
Booking seats on Shinkansen. Online booking? not...
Booked 2xreserved Green Class seats on the Shinkansen from Iiyama to Ueno. Luckily we booked 2 days earlier as the reserved seats were all booked out on the day of travel. Unless you have Japan Rail Pass it is almost impossible to book online and then pickup tickets on day of travel. You can book online but the tickets then arrive at only certain ticket counters which you have to pick up the day before travel. Iiyama is not one of those places which has a pickup ticket office.
So booking online means having to go to the train station twice - once to pick up tickets the day before and once to commence travel.
There are unreserved carriages but with a # tibia it was not an option.
Base fare = unreserved ticket. Add on reserved ticket, plus add Green or Gran class if thats your preference. Sometimes you may then get 2 tickets. One for base fare (this is the one you use at the ticket readers) and the other is the Green class reserved addon.
Why Ueno as the Shinkansen stop. Why not Iiyama to Tokyo?
Tokyo Shinkansen transfer station is a crazy mad house. People going every which way. Ueno is much better. While still a major station, it is not as crazy as Tokyo. Additionally those who are going to Narita can alight at Ueno to catch the N-Ex (Narita Express) without having to go into Tokyo.
Alternative transportation to HND from Ueno
If travelling only by train from Iiyama to HND, you need to catch 3 trains: Shinkansen to Ueno, local train to Hamamatsucho, monorail to HND. However with crutches, I thought easier to get a Minivan transfer from Ueno to HND by road. This was booked through getyourguide.com.
Cost Y14000 Minivan. Communication is via Whatsapp.
In the end we really didn't need to, but we didn't know in advance.
The driver was waiting at the ticket exit gate at the Central Gate with our name on an ipad. (just like the limo drivers at SYD airport)
Took 45 minutes from Ueno to HND.
Assistance at Rail stations
This is superb. Most rail stations have elevators for disabled.
Then there is personal assistance. Once through the ticket gate, a station assistant was asked to provide assistance via a Google translator. Did not need it as the crutches was obvious.
The process here is:
Find station attendant
He (was a he this time) looks at crutches and understands
He photocopies your tickets and fills out a form
He finds a wheelchair and pushes the wheelchair to the platform and stays with you until train arrives. Then wheels you to train door where you get off and enter train.
He then rings ahead to destination and organises a wheelchair.
On arrival into Ueno, a Wheelchair + attendant was waiting at the train door (they know exactly which carriage you are on - its on the ticket)
He (again it was a he) pushes the wheelchair to wherever your need to go. In this case it was the Central Gate - the main exit of the station
He waited with us until Minivan turned up then assisted with transfer from Wheelchair to Van.
Cost for this service = complimentary.
QF Checkin and luggage retrieval from Ta-Q-Bin
Found the luggage as promised. No hassles - just show the front copy of the Waybill you completed at luggage pickup.
Context
#tibia (shin bone), with an above knee cast - means unable to bend knee. Crutches
Need to get from Madarao to SYD via HND and 3 pices of luggage 80 kg total.
Travel insurance
Rigmarole with TI, but approval given for repatriation back to SYD via HND on an earlier flight and different airline with a family member acting as non medical escort.
Ta-Q-Bin
Booked Ta-Q-Bin (luggage forwarding service) with Yamato to forward 3 pieces of luggage total 80kg from Madarao to HND for pickup 2 days later on 15Feb. Total cost Y8000 about AUD$30 a piece. Luggage forwarding companies like Yamato, JAL ABC will hold luggage for you until you get there. Ta-Q-Bin couriers come to your hotel, tag the items, you pay and they take it away. 1 Waybill to fill out each piece. If you want to do Ta-Q-Bin, I have filled out a dummy Waybill so you know what to write where - see Ta-Q-Bin- the how to...
Flights
Booked 2xJ QF26 HND-SYD at half the cost of JAL and ANA $6600 total. (3 days before travel).
Booking seats on Shinkansen. Online booking? not...
Booked 2xreserved Green Class seats on the Shinkansen from Iiyama to Ueno. Luckily we booked 2 days earlier as the reserved seats were all booked out on the day of travel. Unless you have Japan Rail Pass it is almost impossible to book online and then pickup tickets on day of travel. You can book online but the tickets then arrive at only certain ticket counters which you have to pick up the day before travel. Iiyama is not one of those places which has a pickup ticket office.
So booking online means having to go to the train station twice - once to pick up tickets the day before and once to commence travel.
There are unreserved carriages but with a # tibia it was not an option.
Base fare = unreserved ticket. Add on reserved ticket, plus add Green or Gran class if thats your preference. Sometimes you may then get 2 tickets. One for base fare (this is the one you use at the ticket readers) and the other is the Green class reserved addon.
Why Ueno as the Shinkansen stop. Why not Iiyama to Tokyo?
Tokyo Shinkansen transfer station is a crazy mad house. People going every which way. Ueno is much better. While still a major station, it is not as crazy as Tokyo. Additionally those who are going to Narita can alight at Ueno to catch the N-Ex (Narita Express) without having to go into Tokyo.
Alternative transportation to HND from Ueno
If travelling only by train from Iiyama to HND, you need to catch 3 trains: Shinkansen to Ueno, local train to Hamamatsucho, monorail to HND. However with crutches, I thought easier to get a Minivan transfer from Ueno to HND by road. This was booked through getyourguide.com.
Cost Y14000 Minivan. Communication is via Whatsapp.
In the end we really didn't need to, but we didn't know in advance.
The driver was waiting at the ticket exit gate at the Central Gate with our name on an ipad. (just like the limo drivers at SYD airport)
Took 45 minutes from Ueno to HND.
Assistance at Rail stations
This is superb. Most rail stations have elevators for disabled.
Then there is personal assistance. Once through the ticket gate, a station assistant was asked to provide assistance via a Google translator. Did not need it as the crutches was obvious.
The process here is:
Find station attendant
He (was a he this time) looks at crutches and understands
He photocopies your tickets and fills out a form
He finds a wheelchair and pushes the wheelchair to the platform and stays with you until train arrives. Then wheels you to train door where you get off and enter train.
He then rings ahead to destination and organises a wheelchair.
On arrival into Ueno, a Wheelchair + attendant was waiting at the train door (they know exactly which carriage you are on - its on the ticket)
He (again it was a he) pushes the wheelchair to wherever your need to go. In this case it was the Central Gate - the main exit of the station
He waited with us until Minivan turned up then assisted with transfer from Wheelchair to Van.
Cost for this service = complimentary.
QF Checkin and luggage retrieval from Ta-Q-Bin
Found the luggage as promised. No hassles - just show the front copy of the Waybill you completed at luggage pickup.
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