JR Shinagawa Station

Big station located on the Southern end of the city. Signage is good. Passed through here going to Kyoto.

Great hub station in the outskirts of Tokyo… connects to NRT via Narita express and HND via Keikyu. Think of Waterloo of London. If you ever traveled through Tokyo station you would be thankful going through Shinagawa.
There are only four Shinkansen platforms, no way of getting confused like Tokyo.
Local platforms are also super easy to navigate… did I say Narita express stops here?!
Keep in mind, Shinagawa is not center of Tokyo and just another big office buildings and train hub connecting to other bedtowns, hence its very boring town — don’t count on most of restaurant and bar to open late, in fact majority of them close very early.
Hotels by station: The Prince group has huge foot print but they are all under renovation. There is Intercontinental right above Konan side of exit, but pricing is same as staying in Tokyo station. There are other local brand business hotel but likely the rooms are tiny and you won’t fit your bag in the room.

JR SHINAGAWA STATION
My first trip to Japan, we stayed at a hotel close to the Shinagawa station, so I have fond memories of this area. There wasn’t a lot going on around the station, but it was easy to get to other areas of Tokyo from here.
This past trip, we did a day trip to Kyoto and had to stop by Shinagawa to get our tickets and board the train. We got there on Tuesday, April 12^th at 6am, right when their ticket office opened. Since we had bought the 7 day JR East pass, our roundtrip fare to Kyoto was included! I believe the tickets would have been around the cost of the pass which was 29,110 yen each.
Since the train ride was a couple of hours, we also grabbed some snacks at the convenience store New Days. It was located right outside the station entrance. I got two coffees: Fire Black coffee (140 円) & Georgia European (140 円). For snacks, I got a small Chicken salad (195 円) and a package of Chicken skewers (276 円). I don’t expect much from convenience store food and drinks, but in Tokyo, it’s actually pretty tasty.
Even though I only went to this station twice this past trip, I still have fond memories of taking this station daily when we stayed close by.

Im a huge fan of this station. Its a great place to shop or take a walk around. Inside the station is tons or shopping and food and department store type stuff. Its a one way line to haneda airport. Walk straight out of the central gate and to your right there are many restaurants in the connecting building.
If you take a left out of the central exit you can walk to the EPSON aquarium, bowling center, or shinagawa prince cinemas. This is the perfect slow saturday with family kinda day or a quick weeknight movie date. There’s plenty to do and not really expensive. Movies are often 1,000 if they arent new release.

We’ve are becoming very familiar with this station as we seem to be here every other day for the Shinkansen. Large station with lots of food stalls and tiny stores that sells everything else. This is a little easier to navigate than JR Shinjuku station. At least we haven’t gotten lost here yet–
If you know which train line you’re taking, it is very easy since everything is marked and they have English signs everywhere.

Shinagawa station is massive — if you have ever been to London Euston, or Manchester Piccadilly or even London Waterloo — Shinagawa is bloody Massive !!!
Not only does it house about three Tokyo metro lines, but also has connections to Haneda airport and also the other side of Tokyo through the metro and including all the tourist places you might want to visit ! Including Acihabara (electric city) /​Tokyo — main shopping or Shibuya the world famous crossing and loads of amazing sushi places ! These can all be found on the GREEN JR metro line
But the main reason it is so big that it also houses the local rail services I. e your London to Brighton trains. But ALSO the famous Shinkansen bullet trains — never have I seen some Trains so delicate yet capable of travelling at over 235mph at practical silence !
Be aware if you ride a bullet train
1) you have to board within 3 minutes and there are NO exceptions
2) the chairs spin round so you can effectively have a table seat with no table !
3) the power sockets are near your feet so you can if not careful kick out your neighbours plug
4) don’t have loud blaring music on as you WILL be told to stop
5) if you want to smoke on the train there are smoking rooms
6) if you want anything from the trolley service you have to stop them — they will not ask you
So go visit Shinagawa and be amazed ! Ps there is free wifi !

Seemed to do a lot of transferring here as it’s a major hub station for Shinkansen. It’s fairly well laid out with Shinkansen tracks at one end and a long main concourse to access the other lines. Signage is in English as well as Japanese so it’s pretty easy to navigate through the station.
There’s plenty of food and coffee stalls if you need to stock up before a journey.

It doesn’t get any more convenient than the Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. This is the perfect location to start /​stop /​transfer all of your trips in Japan. Both the MTR trains and JR lines stop here, so it is easy to get on and off the below ground and above ground trains.
Narita Airport to Shinagawa — you can catch a convenient train to and from the airport to the Shinagawa station. From there, you can catch whatever subway or train you need to get to the rest of Tokyo.
Shinagawa to distant locations in Japan (Osaka, Kyoto, Hokkaido, etc). At this location, you can find bullet trains that take you to different long-​distance trips to Kyoto (~2 hrs on Shinkansen bullet train), Osaka (~3.4 hrs on Shinkansen Bullet train).
There is a lot of help here at the station in case you need assistance. Also go and visit their food courts — delicious food!

One of the major station hubs getting to Tokyo. There are many JR lines from Shinagawa, depending on where you’re going, but easily indicated with color-​coded signs — and in English!

Japanese train stations are a world anomaly. They are the most crowded, organized, complex, clean train stations I’ve ever used. That said, I am thankful to know some Japanese as I would imagine it being a bit difficult understanding the complex system with out japanese language. The police box/​station staff at Shinagawa is a good place to start if you are unable to understand the confusing routes, literally looked like spiderwebs :)

This is a very nice station with pretty much access to anywhere you would like to go within Japan. There are a ton of food options inside the station as well as multiple outside of the station. I use this station fairly often to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka or Kyoto. You can also catch all JR lines throughout Tokyo as well as access to Haneda airport. The station is extremely clean as well.

Shinagawa is life for the business traveler.
I’ve been traveling to Japan for a couple years now on business and this is what I tell my colleges who travel with me to Japan. No matter what you do, try to stay near Shinagawa Station. The selection of restaurants are great and there is something for everyone. From authentic Japanese to Amazing Western. There is even a couple great spots for the vegetarian which is practically an impossible find in Japan. This abundance of restaurants has a reason and its because some of the largest companies are located there which requires such support. This also means that there are loads of supportive corporate buildings and hotels.
Beyond the great places to stay and eat the key thing about Shinagawa Station is that is a station at the crossroads of all the key lines. The Narita Express which will get you to the airport and back, The Shinkansen high speed rail to get you across Japan, and the various metro lines all converge in Shinagawa Station. All of Tokyo is within a 40 minute train ride for the most part.
So next time your in Japan for a few days on business do you best to stay near this great station.

One of things I love about Japan is how efficient their railways are and very sanitary, compared to Paris, London, and New York I think they are the best! Plus the bullet train is no joke that thing is clocking a cool 200 mph and that’s all I’m going to say on that subject lol

To get to Kyoto from Tokyo one must get off the JR Yamanote line at Shinagawa Station to catch the fast as hell Shinkansen Train (note it is not the fastest bullet train. still 200 mph aint snails pace) to Kyoto in little under 3 hours.
Shinagawa Station is pretty simple and (I believe) smaller than Shinjuku station and therefore gets my stamp of approval for easy transfers.

I stayed next the Shinagawa station for three nights. This station is massive and gets very crowded. JR train lines and subway metro lines connect at the station. Also, Shinkansen trains stop here. I was using JR train pass for a week. You save a lot of money if you are using JR train pass and staying close to this station. Make sure you use the central exit if you have JR train pass. JR also have a main office where you can buy train tickets to everywhere in Japan. There are so many restaurants, convenience stores, newspaper stands but the only western store I saw was Starbucks. This train station is very clean, spotless but there are not many trash bins if you need to trash something. This station is always crowded but in the mornings and late afternoon it gets packed. Most of the staff can speak some English or can tell you what you need to do when you need help. I also used bathroom facilities and they were very clean. There was a taxi stand at the exit however there was always a line waiting for taxi. There was also an exchange office at the exit of the the train station. It was very easy to find your way to subway station, to JR station or to Shinkansen station. There is also close by McDonald’s store but across the street.

For me, it was an exciting experience. The Shinagawa train station is massive, extremely packed with people (especially in the morning) and completely spotless. Not a piece of trash on the floors– it was a sight to see.
Even though it was super busy, there were many station employees who spoke English and were more than happy to help us with our tickets. We chose to experience the Shinkansen, the bullet train, from Tokyo to Kyoto. Of course, the tickets were more expensive than the traditional train, but what the hell, right?! You really have no idea you are going that fast (average speed around 180 mph) because the ride is so smooth. The train conductors walk through the cars, are very pleasant, and always bow at the front of the train prior to exiting.
I would highly recommend trying the Shinkansen when traveling around Japan, and the time saved with commuting is worth it.