Goodbye armrest space battles
Have you ever heard of the “S Wok cars” of the Tokaido and Sanyo Shinkansen?
These seats are located in the middle of Car No. 7 (No. 6 to No. 10) and are designed for business people.
The purpose is to enhance the business environment in the car, and online meetings, which have taken root after the COVID-19 pandemic, can be joined from the seat.
If you are somewhat considerate of your surroundings, you don’t even have to move all the way to the deck to talk on your cell phone.
I particularly like the transparent partitions installed in seat B, the middle of the three rows of seats from A to C.
This allows for 1.5 times more seating space for an individual passenger than a regular reserved seat.
Although the number of tourists visiting Japan is expected to increase, there is a risk of not being able to spend time comfortably in a crowded Shinkansen train cabin.
Especially in the morning and evening, when many business travelers are on the train, the seats are often full, and the mood of the trip depends on the good sense of the person sitting next to you.
No one wants to spend 2 hours and 20 minutes with an inconsiderate person who claims space by sticking his or her arms far out from the armrests.
With 1.5 seats of space in the S Wok cars, you no longer have to worry about armrest battles.
Of course, there is the risk of someone sitting near you who taps furiously on a computer keyboard, but the distance is a little farther away, so the stress you suffer is less.
If it were possible to sell the right to S Work seats by a shopping program, the Japan Net Takata would be able to sell the seats on their program, saying, “What a great price for this comfort at 1,200 yen each way! For only 1,200 yen extra, you can change the atmosphere of your trip!“.
Oasis on the Shinkansen
I set a cup of coffee I bought at a store in a drink holder next to the partition and started working.
The table is also comfortable because it can be adjusted to a precise level that makes it easy to operate a computer.
Before I boarded the train, I thought it would be like an office or a café with a lot of noise, but after eight round-trip trips, I found it to be as quiet as a regular seat, and I was able to concentrate so much that I forgot I was on a bullet train so far.
After careful consideration, work-related matters are basically confidential outside the company and should not normally be heard around you.
If you are unfortunate enough to encounter a noisy situation due to a call or web conference, you would wear earplugs or noise-canceling headphones and enjoy my work, a movie, or music.
While the stress of competing for space in a seat is beyond our personal control, there are many ways to solve/reduce the stress of noise alone.
Some people may have experienced fatigue while traveling on a Shinkansen train with people sitting in front of or behind them who talk a lot.
The seat 8A, “middle seat” of the S Wok seating area near the middle of bullet train car No. 7 (No. 6 to No. 10), is a premium seat like a “chateaubriand of beef fillet“, protected by businessmen in front and behind.
It is hard to believe that the “S Wok Chateaubriand Seat,” an oasis of comfort on long journeys, can be secured for an additional 1,200 yen on top of the reserved seats.
The people at JR Tokai who developed the transportation plan for business travelers probably don’t even realize the value of these platinum seats.
EX Travel Pack Trap
Once I experience the comfort of S Work seats, I will sadly find myself looking for a seat every time I take the Shinkansen.
I use Express Reservation (EX Reservation), which allows me to freely change the boarding schedule and time from an app on my smartphone, but I am so obsessed with these seats that I now abandon the advantage of EX Reservation, which allows me to change as many times as I want, for fear that I will not be able to sit in an S Work seat after the change.
I get motion sick if I work on a computer for a long time on the Shinkansen, so my average work time is about 30 minutes to an hour out of the 2 hours and 20 minutes from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka.
I spend most of the remaining travel time eating lunch box, reading books, listening to music, and relaxing, but the purpose of using S Work on business trips is to say, “The bullet train is my office. I’m always ready to fight a meeting or a phone call!” I give my application at.
However, when overnight stays are involved, the company must use travel packages that include a bullet train and hotel according to company regulations.
The accounting department told me, “For business trips that combine the EX Shinkansen and a hotel, you should book with the “EX Travel Pack!” So, I tried to make a reservation through an app on my smartphone.
As with EX reservations, I try to secure an S Work seat on Shinkansen car 7, but no S Work seats are shown regardless of the date or time.
I couldn’t live without my desert oasis, so I came to my senses and contacted the JR Tokai EX counter.
The JR staff on the phone explained at first, “Please select S Work reservations from the EX Travel Pack!”
I told him, “EX Travel Pack does not show S Work on Shinkansen seat reservations!” I, as an S Work geek, told her about the situation, but she did not seem to know about it, so I asked her to check it with your boss.
As it turns out, the current EX Travel Pack reservation system does not allow registration of S Work seats.
In other words, if you want to reserve S-work seats, you will have to make a train reservation with EX and secure a hotel separately.
This was unacceptable to me, a disciplined person who adheres to company regulations.
I hope the person in charge of JR Tokai’s EX reservation system will take a look at this blog and revamp it so that S Work seats can be secured with the EX travel package.
In return, though, let’s also acknowledge that they are raising the price of “S Wok Chateaubriand seats“.
