Japan Rail Pass: Step-by-Step Booking and Usage Guide

Nowadays, many travellers find that Japan Rail Pass is not worth it for their trips. But if you are among those avid travellers, who find it cost-efficient, and already decided to buy and use Japan Rail Pass, this detailed guide will help you understand, how to book, reserve seats and use it.

Still not sure if Japan Rail Pass is worth it for you? Read my guide to help you decide.

I have purchased and used 14-day JR Pass on our first trip to Japan. On the second trip, the Regional Pass (JR Sanyo Sanin Northern Kyushu Pass) was more value for money. Therefore, I have experience of using both types of passes and can share all my tips and tricks.

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Where and How to Buy the Japan Rail Pass

You are not allowed to purchase JR Pass in Japan in person (this was possible a few years ago, but no more). Therefore, your only option is to buy one online, before your trip to Japan. You have two main options, buying at the official website, or through the third parties. I have done both, so here is my guide based on my experience.

Purchase JR Pass at the Official Website

Note: I have linked the official website. If you try to Google it, it will be difficult to find it among dozens of different websites with variations of JR pass in their names. Most of these websites are third party vendors. There is only one official website linked here.

My recommendation would be to purchase on this official website for several reasons:

No need for receiving the voucher: once you make purchase online, you will receive an email confirmation and can simply show this to pick up your pass. You don’t need to wait for a voucher to arrive by post, as in case of the third-party vendors.
Making seat reservations immediately after the purchase: you can make reservations of any of your trips online, as soon as you purchase the pass. You don’t need to wait for your arrival to Japan. This may be important, if you want to book very popular sightseeing trains, which are included in the pass or to book a Shinkansen during the Sakura season. You will still need to pick up the reserved tickets at the station counters or at the machines though (see the details on that below).

The price on this official website used to be a little more, than with third parties. It could be as much as 10% more. However, lately from what I see the prices are exactly the same. So there are little advantages to purchasing from other sources.

You can buy the Pass on the website 30 days before you have to pick it up.

The website is not difficult to navigate. You will need to register with your email and buy the pass using your passport and a bank card. Purchasing on this website was a straightforward experience, I don’t think you will encounter any issues.

Keep in mind that the website doesn’t work during 11.30pm-4am Japan time, therefore, you won’t be able to make a purchase during those hours. You also can’t check anything, which was no fun, when I tried to do anything during my evening hours – which was night in Japan, so website didn’t work.

You will have to indicate the activation date of the card at the time of purchase, but this can be changed up until you pick up your physical card in Japan.

Purchase JR Pass from Authorized Third-party vendors

As I mentioned above, the third-party vendors used to have some discounts, so you could get the Pass for as much as 10% less. But lately, I haven’t noticed the discounts anymore. Still check, maybe you will find some.

You can buy the Pass on from most of these vendors 90 days before you have to pick it up in Japan.

These vendors sell JR Pass online, however, your email confirmation is not sufficient. You will need to either physically get your voucher at their office (if possible) or purchase online and wait for a physical voucher to be sent to you via post. This voucher will be needed in Japan to obtain your JR Pass.

As mentioned above, compared to the official website, you can’t make any seat reservations in advance, before arriving to Japan.

Here is the list of all officially recognized third-party sales offices . You can relevantly choose the one close to you or purchase from them online, if you wish.

Among them, I have only used Klook – many people love it, given that you can buy bundles and collect points on Klook. You can also get some discounts. I personally have used it on a number of occasions, including to buy JR Pass. My main reason was the price, I purchased it cheaper than I would on the official website. I can attest that the process was easy. Once I purchased, the voucher was sent to my address using DHL. It arrived in a few days (I think it took 4 working days). Given that I live in Georgia, post here doesn’t work too well, so I was a bit concerned about this. But there were no issues whatsoever. We then used these vouchers to obtain our passes in Japan with no issues.

Of course, I couldn’t make any seat reservations before arriving to Japan, like I would be able to with official website. But we arrived a few days before we needed to activate our pass, plus it was a 2-week pass, so I was able to get all the reservations I wanted upon arrival.

How to Pick up your Physical Japan Rail Pass in Japan

Whether you bought your pass on the official website and have an email confirmation or purchased it from third parties and obtained a voucher, you will need to personally obtain your physical pass in Japan. You can do so at the airports (Narita, Haneda, Kansai, New Chitose) or at major JR stations. Here is the official full list of the stations, where you can obtain the pass.

For this, you will need to have your email confirmation/voucher, as well as your passport. Obtaining the Pass doesn’t mean that it will activate on the same day. You can choose any day within the 30-day period to activate the card. You will need to know this date and let them know, when picking the card up though. You can’t change this date afterwards.

We picked our pass up at the Narita airport. It was evening and we had to wait in a queue for about 45 minutes. We could have done it later, but just wanted to get it over with. The process was easy and quick. We also made reservations for our first two trips.

How to Reserve Seats with JR Pass

If you purchased your pass on the official website, you can reserve online and pick up at the machines or counters, otherwise you will need to reserve at the machines or counters. Reserving online is quite easy and they give quite a good guide on how to do it. You can also change or cancel the reservations online. The reservations need to be picked up, so like below, you will need to find a machine, that has QR code reader, select “receive ticket reserved via website”, then you scan your JR Pass and input your passport number only once and it will print all reservations for you.

Reserving at the Ticket Office

Reserving at the counter is easy enough, you tell a person to book seats on certain trains on certain times for you. I have done this a few times, I gave them printed out list of exactly which trains I needed to book. Although they made some mistakes, so I had to ask them to change at least some of the mistakenly booked trains, as otherwise our itinerary would get massed up. Based on this, you definitely need to double check, when reserving seats at the ticket offices.

The ticket offices can be crowded, especially at the busy stations during the peak times, so you may have to use the machines (you may still have to wait but less than for the ticket office).

Using the ticket machines

Ticket machines can be good option, as you can yourself choose, whatever you want to book, so you can avoid mistakes. But the process can get tedious.

The official website provides information on how to reserve seats using the machines, but it can still be not too straightforward. Here’s what you need to know in my experience:

Not all JR station machines are equal. You need to find the ones that have QR code reader. They can be green or blue in colour, depending on where you are, so you can’t guess by colour.
You can use the machines in English language. Just choose the language before doing anything else.
These machines with QR code will have a section called “Japan Rail Pass”, which you can tap.
Select between picking up reserved seats or making a reservation.
Note how many seats you need.
Scan the QR code and enter your passport number – yes, you need to do this each time you are reserving a seat, it’s very annoying. You may also be able to scan your passport on some machines, but I was never successful with that – it never worked, so I had to input the numbers each time.
If you are using a second JR Pass – booking two seats at the same time – you will have to scan the second Pass and input the passport number – more annoying steps, I know.
Select departure and arrival stations, the dates and times you want. It will give you options you can choose from.
Once you select the train you want, you can choose the seats. On some trains, you can first select whether you want a normal seat or the one with oversized baggage (highly unlikely you will need this last one, unless you have ginormous bags). Then you can select a seat you want from the seat map – usually green circles are empty seats you can select from. You can also let it give you a random seat, if you don’t care.
Finally, you can confirm your selection and get your seat reservations.

Already tired just from reading all these steps? Weeeell, the problem is you have to do this for each train you are taking, if you want reserved seats. You can’t do it for several journeys at the same time. So I had to repeat this process with scanning, passport inputting and all, dozens of time. I have spent about half an hour standing at the machine and just reserving seats once. It certainly is no fun, so reserving them online is so much better. You then won’t lose precious time.

Using the JR Pass at the Ticket Gates

You use your JR Pass, as the ticket, while using the automatic machines or showing it to the staff. At the automatic gates, you slide your ticket and get it out, as soon as you pass the gate.

Normally, you should not need to use your reserved seat ticket at the gates. The only times you might need it, would be at some Shinkansen gates. Technically, they should let you pass without but on some rare occasions we also needed to input the reserved seat tickets – so we would put JR Pass and the reservation ticket together. I am not sure what was the reason, as you normally should be able to ride in non-reserved cars with the Pass without issues.

Essential Rules and Tips for Using the Japan Rail Pass

JR Pass Is Personal and Non-Transferable

Once you buy the JR Pass attributed to your name, you absolutely can’t change it and give it to another person. You have to obtain the physical pass using your passport and carry it together with your passport to show, if asked.

Don’t forget to carry your passport with your JR Pass all the time. If you are asked to confirm that the Pass belongs to you, you should be able to provide the ID proof.

JR Pass Validity: Counted by Calendar Days

JR Passes validity is counted according to calendar days. This means that 7-day pass starts working at midnight on day 1 (even if you first use it, say, 9am) and ends at the end of day 7 at midnight.

One great thing is that if you are on a train at midnight, your pass will be valid, until the end of that particular journey.

JR Pass Is a Physical Card – Not Digital or Replaceable

Lost your JR Pass? Unfortunately you can’t replace it. One very important detail about JR Pass is that it’s a physical card. Whether you purchase it online on the official website or via the third-party websites, you will either way have to obtain a physical card, once you arrive to Japan.

The card you receive is not replaceable. If you lose it by accident or if it’s stolen, no one will provide another copy of it, unfortunately. This is a very silly thing, considering how high-tech Japan is. One has an online purchase information, the pass is bought for a specific person and can’t be transferred to another, so logically, they should be able to easily give you another copy of it, once you show your id, right? Nope!

Many people learned it hard way, when they misplaced this little piece of paper. They had to then purchase tickets a second time. Therefore, keep it in the place you won’t forget and put it back immediately after using it at the gates. We fortunately never lost one, although had a scare once when we misplaced one. Most of the time though, we kept both of them in one particular location.

What’s Included in the JR Pass (Trains, Buses, and Ferries)

You can find the full list of all transportation that the JR Pass covers on the official website.

All Shinkansens, except Nozomi and Mizuho: While most JR trains are included in the Japan Rail Pass, there are exclusions. Keep in mind that Nozomi and Mizuho trains – the fastest JR trains – are not included in the JR Pass and would require a huge additional payment for you to take them. But honestly, you won’t feel a difference – the Hikari, Kodama, Sakura and all the other Shinkansen trains are almost as fast, and you will hardly lose any time. Just make sure to note, which train are you getting on to avoid the fine.

Some lines inside cities, but only a few: Not only Shinkansens but slow regional trains and the JR lines inside the cities, like Yamanote line in Tokyo and Loop line in Osaka, are included in the pass.

Buses and Ferries: At the same time, in addition to trains, you can use some buses and ferries – like the Miyajima ferry, as well as the JR bus line in Kanazawa.

Sightseeing Trains: My favourite part of it is that it includes some sightseeing trains, such as Hanayome Noren from Kanazawa to Wakura Onsen, Hida trains between Toyama and Nagoya, Aso Boy from Kumamoto to Aso, Two Stars 4047 between Takeo Onsen and Nagasaki, Hello Kitty Shinkansen and so much more. Check out my list of amazing sightseeing trains.

JR Pass and Green Cars: What You Can and Can’t Ride

Don’t ride Green Car with Ordinary Car Pass: If you purchased the Ordinary Car JR Pass, you won’t be able to ride in the Green Car (First Class). Therefore, make sure to avoid them, not to get fined. You can buy the Green Car JR Pass or exchange your JR Pass for the Green Car one by supplementing the difference.

Here are the prices for each type.

JR Pass Rules for Children

Children get discounts: As you notice from the JR Pass official website, children under the age of 6 ride trains free of charge, while those aged 6-11 get a discount. From 12, they are considered adults for the purposes of purchasing the Pass.