Using your JR Pass | Japan Travels

A busy Kyoto Station

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Using the Japan Rail (JR) Pass is pretty straight forward. You may come across a few bumps as you get used to your new pass but when you get the hang of it, it's as simple as simple can get!

1. Reserving Tickets. Reserving a ticket is a free-of-charge option provided to travellers embarking on long train rides (i.e. don't bother reserving tickets on Tokyo trains to get around Tokyo). Reservations will guarantee a passenger a seat especially on a busy train (otherwise one can simply hop on the train and sit anywhere they please until they have to get up for the one who has reserved it).

One can reserve seats online provided it is done the day before. One can also reserve seats at a JR Ticketing Office (a preferred option). Reservations are almost always guaranteed if booked in the morning (for an afternoon departure) or the day before.

In Narita Airport, after obtaining your JR Pass from Narita's Ticket Office and planning to use it immediately, the clerk with automatically reserve a seat for you on the Narita Express (N'EX), so you best know where you're heading to. For example, from Narita we needed to get to Ikebukuro but there were only two services that went there directly. It would have been one hellish morning of transfers with our luggage had we not planned out our schedule appropriately for that specific train.

The Narita Express (N'EX)

If you don’t plan on using your JR Pass immediately then you will have more flexibility in terms of choosing which train (N'EX or Sky Liner) at which time you will depart the airport. But you will have to pay extra as your JR Pass will remain invalid until the starting date.

2. Deciphering your Reservation Ticket. For visitors who are used to catching trains this shouldn’t be a problem. I admit my friends and I were pretty ignorant to public transport to begin with so we had a close shave heading off to nowhere.

Reservation tickets on a JR train

On the ticket there is a number telling you which car to board; ours had ‘8’ though at the time we didn't think anything of it. We had about 10 minutes waiting on the platform when we realised there was a huge '12' on the floor and for some reason confused that for the 12 on our ticket (which was actually the seat row number). A kind Japanese man must have seen the confused look on our faces as we pointed to our tickets then to the the numbers on the floor that he came to see what's up. He told us we were on the wrong part of the platform and had to go to where there was an '8' on the floor. We thanked him and strolled along comfortably on our way to 8 – besides, how far could 12 be from 8, right?

Our train arrived on the dot and soon we were sprinting towards 8 which turned out to be miles away, or so it seemed for people like us. The longest metro train we have back home is about 6-8 carts long during rush hour. Compare that to Japan’s 18 cart trains – and it wasn’t even a busy period. On top of that someone forgot to mention that the train would split in half later on. Getting on the wrong cart meant we would have had disembarked at either Ofuna or Takao.

Turnstiles/Ticket Gates at Ikebukuro Station

3. Don’t use the electronic fare gates. With your JR Pass you need to simply walk through a manual gate run by station operators. Usually there is a little window office next to the electronic turnstiles where you need to show your JR Pass. Sometimes you may need to enter a glass sliding door into an office and come out the other side. If you take a look at the picture above, you will see on the far left where you will need to walk through (where the yellow strip on the floor is). If you still need help, there are train station guides walking around. They are more than happy to help.

5. Use Hyperdia. You should familiarise yourself with Hyperdia. This is an online timetable for Japanese trains for all over Japan. Simply insert which station you're coming from and where your destination is and it will tell you which trains to take. This was like the glue to our itinerary. It helped us significantly while planning a smooth transition from one place to another.

4. Presenting it at a Hotel. Unfortunately I only discovered this fact after having already booked our hotels. The JR Pass actually worked in conjunction to some hotels. If you happen to be staying at a hotel affiliated to the JR Group you can present your JR Pass and receive a discount. Here is a complete list of all these hotels.

Hopefully that clarified any questions you may have about your JR Pass. Good luck on your travels!

Peaces :)