High-speed serenity has been low-key available on the Shinkansen for a long time with hardly anyone noticing it.

A new Supreme Class is coming to Shinkansen trains this fall, offering luxurious private cabins for those with deep pockets. It turns out, though, that some bullet trains in Japan have quietly had available private booths for years, and at very affordable prices.

If you’re wondering how this service has managed to escape the attention of so many travelers in Japan, it’s because the private booth is only offered on certain trains, and can only be reserved by certain passengers. Specifically, it’s only found on N700S-series Nozomi Shinkansen trains running on the Tokaido and Sanyo lines (i.e. between Tokyo and Fukuoka’s Hakata Station), and the booth can only be booked by passengers who’ve also purchased a regular seat in Car 7. The booth is located in the connecting area between Cars 7 and 8, and is equipped with two chairs, a counter, standard and USB power outlets, and a window so that you can watch the scenery zoom by from your private space.

You can use the booth either by yourself or with one other traveling companion, and rather than booking it for the length of your trip, it can be reserved, in 10-minute increments, for a block of time up to two hours.

So what’s the surcharge, on top of your Car 7 regular class Shinkansen ticket, to use this private booth? Hardly anything. Prices are just 200 yen (US$1.25) per 10 minutes up to a half-hour, and 300 yen per 10 minutes between 30 and 60 minutes, which works out to 600 yen for a 30-minute session or 1,500 yen for a full hour (payment is done by credit card). Things get a little pricier after that, with 90 minutes costing 2,500 yen and two hours 4,000 yen, but still, this a pretty affordable pocket of serene solitude.

Another likely reason this booth has largely escaped attention from travel fans is that, despite being available since 2022, it hasn’t been pitched to luxury travelers. In fact, JR calls it the Business Booth, and its exclusive availability to Car 7 on N700S Nozomi trains is because Car 7 is designated as the S Work car, which is promoted as being a car for passengers who need to get some work done during their ride. As such, the Business Booth isn’t outfitted with swanky interior fittings, and was primarily designed as a place where you can open up your laptop, lay out some documents, and make phone calls or hold video conferences with professional colleagues. All that said, it still remains a place you can have all to yourself for a while during your Shinkansen journey, even if all you want to do is relax.

Use of the Business Booth cannot be reserved ahead of time. Instead, after boarding you can check for/claim available time blocks via a QR code displayed at the booth’s entrance or on a pamphlet at your seat.

And, once again, the Business Booth is exclusive to N700S Nozomi trains, and if you’re looking for one, JR Central allows you to check which Shinkansen of that class are running on the current day by clicking on the button labeled ビジネスブースを搭載している今日の列車はこちら on their official website here.

Source: JR Central via Maidona News
Top image: Wikipedia/MaedaAkihiko
Insert images: PR Times, JR Central
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