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Here is a Shinkansen ticket:

enter image description here

I understand most of it, but the line below the "to" and "from" feels contradictory to me. It says that

7月23日から4日間 4 days starting from July 23

and also that

7月23日当日限り有効 valid only for July 23

If the ticket is valid only for July 23, what is the "4 days starting from July 23" doing here? Is it valid for all 4 days or just 1?

In addition, apparently the 11880 yen ticket is split into 7340 and 4540 yen. The former is marked 乗 and the latter 特. What does this mean?

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  • I am sorry I am unable to post an answer now; but please look up about the base fare and additional express fees.
    – fkraiem
    Jul 23, 2017 at 17:42
  • Oh, and by the way, don't let the fact that you have the base fare and fees combined in a single ticket confuse you; it works exactly like with separate tickets (and you can always get separate tickets if you prefer, though they make more sense for more complex itineraries).
    – fkraiem
    Jul 24, 2017 at 0:34

1 Answer 1

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TL;DR: Your (full) ticket is valid only on July 23rd.

Japanese bullet train fares consist of two components: there's the base fare (乗車券 jōshaken, "board train ticket") plus the special fare (特定特急券 tokutei tokkyūken, lit. "specific special express ticket"), which is for Shinkansen bullet trains as opposed to ordinary express trains.

For your ticket, the base fare (乗) is valid for four days, but the special fare (特) -- which is without a reserved seat, hence 自由席 (jiyūseki) -- is valid only on the 23rd. So you could, for example, travel to Nagoya by bullet train, stop for a few days, and then continue to Tokyo by local (non-express) train... although it wouldn't actually make any sense to do so, because it would be cheaper to get a bullet train fare to Nagoya only and continue with a separate ordinary ticket.

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  • Nope, a stopover in Nagoya, or anywhere other than in Tokyo, is permitted. ;) Read again my QA about it. travel.stackexchange.com/questions/66616/…
    – fkraiem
    Jul 24, 2017 at 7:03
  • Doesn't the 都区市内各駅下車前途無効 condition explicitly prohibit stopovers? See: chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/detail/q1298820662
    – lambshaanxy
    Jul 24, 2017 at 7:42
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    Only inside the departure or arrival city zones (your link gives an error).
    – fkraiem
    Jul 24, 2017 at 8:02
  • The base fare part of this ticket is a standard Maibara to Tokyo city zone, nothing special about it.
    – fkraiem
    Jul 24, 2017 at 8:19
  • @fkraiem Ok, that makes more sense, answer corrected.
    – lambshaanxy
    Jul 24, 2017 at 11:21

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