If you miss your Shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan, the outcome depends on the type of ticket you purchased, but the Japanese rail system is surprisingly forgiving. If you had a Reserved Seat (Shitei-seki) ticket and missed your specific train, your ticket is still valid for a non-reserved seat (Jidou-seki) on any subsequent train of the same category (e.g., Hikari or Nozomi) on the same day. You simply go to the platform and board one of the non-reserved cars (usually cars 1–3). You will not have a guaranteed seat, but you won't have to buy a new ticket. If you want to move to a reserved seat on a later train, you can take your ticket to a "Midori-no-madoguchi" (ticket office) and ask if they can change the reservation; some tickets allow this for free, while others may require a small fee. If you have a Non-Reserved ticket, it doesn't matter if you "miss" a train, as your ticket is valid for any train on that route for the entire day. The only time you might face a total loss is with certain "discounted" or "fixed-train" web-only tickets (like the Hayatoku), which may become void if not used on the specific departure listed.