Reserve Tokyo to Kanazawa Shinkansen tickets online or pickup

Hey everyone,

I have a couple questions about which company to book train tickets with for ease of use and reserve seats ahead of time. We need to book online beforehand due to traveling during a Japanese domestic holiday in November.
If anyone has insight, that would be amazing. Thank you in advance!

Here is our route:
– Tokyo Station -> Kanazawa: Book with JR East or West
– Kanazawa -> Kyoto: Book with JR West
– Kyoto -> Tokyo: Book shinkansen via Smartex or JR Central

  1. In general, is it recommended to book with the company of where you will be departing from?
    For example, I could book the Tokyo -> Kanazawa + Kanazawa -> Kyoto all with JR West. But a friend told me I should book the first Tokyo -> Kanazawa leg with JR East instead in case there are issues since you can't go to a JR West ticket office for help in Tokyo. Not sure if that is preferred or booking the first two legs with JR West instead.

  2. Are there any gotchas with mobile tickets for the shinkansen? I was confused reading posts in the sub especially this being our first time.
    There is one Apple user (mobile available) and one Android user (no mobile capabilities, I think) in the group. Maybe it'd be easier for everyone to not do mobile tickets since it's not available on Android, but I digress.

  3. We were planning to use luggage forwarding from Haneda to our Kyoto lodging. However, we land at around 7:20 P.M, so I'm not sure if we'll make it before the Yamato transport center closes at our terminal. Not sure if I should consider booking the oversized luggage seats for the Tokyo -> Kanazawa + Kanazawa -> Kyoto route instead.

Much appreciated

by swagbuckingham