Read previous article: Introducing the Japan Rail (JR) Pass
Swapping the ‘Exchange Order’ into the Japan Rail Passport is quite simple. The only tip I have is, if possible, have it immediately exchanged upon arrival at the airport as opposed to exchanging it from any of the urban train centres. You can exchange it even if you don’t plan to use it straight away as you have the option to choose the date you want the pass to commence. The JR offices at the airport are likely to be less crowded and may be more forgiving than a completely packed out and super busy urban train station.
The process of swapping your exchange order is consistently the same wherever you plan to pick up your JR Pass but below I will describe how I got mine from Narita Airport’s Terminal Two.
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| Bilingual signs in every Japanese train station |
1. Finding the JR Ticketing Office. After getting through customs you will find yourself on the 1st Floor where the international arrival lobby is. There will be abundant English/Japanese bilingual signs and plenty of pictures to spare pointing you to where the railways are, so don’t fret about your level of Japanese. Ultimately you will be led down a flight of escalators to 1B which is the floor where the railway platforms and railway offices are.
The Keisei and JR Ticket Counters are hard to miss and in Terminal 2 (and everywhere else for that matter) it looks like this:
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| JR Ticket Office in Narita Airport |
Wherever you decide to swap your exchange order, the JR Offices will be just as conspicuous and will always be near the Ticket Gate Entrances (or turnstiles). If not, try spotting anything bright green like the one pictured above as JR Offices are uniformly all the same.
2. If the JR Office is closed. This was the problem we encountered when we arrived at Narita 7.30 in the morning. The JR Office wasn’t going to open for another hour but we desperately wanted to catch the Narita Express before then. Fortunately in the instance the office is closed, one can still pick up their JR Pass from small windows/offices next to the 'Ticket Gate Entrance' which is consistently situated beside any turnstile (see map below). The good thing about arriving early was that there was no queue!
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| Map of the train platforms at Narita Airport |
3. Fill out an application form. If you happen to come by the Ticketing Office with a long queue, they will expect you to fill out the Rail Pass Exchange application form while you wait. There will be a huge sign pointing to a table or counter where you can pick up an application form. You need to state your name, your passport number, your nationality and the date of when you would like to start using your JR Pass.
4. Handing in your application form. When you get to the front of the line make sure you have your exchange order, the application form, your passport and especially your friends ready. This is not for moral support, heh. The clerk will need to check each application form and each passport of each individual person, so your friends will need to be present for that. From there onwards, you will have your JR Pass :).
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| The JR Pass |
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