russ_in_LA

Hi All,

If my understanding is correct, I should be able to exchange my JR Pass Voucher at Narita Airport immediately after landing, and then take the NEx train to Tokyo Station. I believe that the NEx train has only reserved seats; however, upon reviewing the process on the JR East website, it appears that one must pick up the tickets at least two days before the date of the reservation. So my question is, do I just make the train reservation in-person when I exchange the vouchers for the pass, or is there a way to make the reservation in advance and obtain the tickets before arrival, since same-day pick up does not seem possible.

Thanks for your help!

lindygirl

We went to Tokyo a few years ago and exchanged our vouchers for JR passes at Narita. I don't recall exactly but you may not be able to use the JR pass for the NEx train. The JR agent at Narita should be able to help you get to Tokyo Station. Either by helping you purchase tickets or direct you to another station at which you can purchase tickets.

For our return to Narita from Tokyo Station we booked our NEx train seats a day in advance but that's easier to do while you're there.

I wrote a blog post about Tokyo and Kyoto in case you're interested. I wrote about our itinerary, photos, and recs:
http://fanofblank.blogspot.com/2014/...and-kyoto.html

Mara

You just get the reservation on the next train when you exchange your voucher at NRT....

mrwunrfl

what Mara said.

>>Upon reviewing the process on the JR East website, it appears that one must pick up the tickets at least two days before the date of the reservation.<<
I think that your understanding of "the process" may be faulty. Do you have a link to what you are referring? Thinking about it, it just doesn't make sense that a railway would require 2-day advance reservation on an airport train given the variability of scheduled vs actual arrival times and estimated immigration an customs delays.

russ_in_LA

Hi Lindygirl! Enjoyed your blog post on Tokyo and Kyoto, as well as Thailand.

Mara, that seems to make the most sense. Thanks!

Hi mrwunrfl, here is the link I was using:

http://www.eki-net.com/pc/jreast-shi...ectWindow.aspx

Actually it says that tickets must be picked up the day before departure, but if you find something different, I'd be curious to know. Thanks.

Kavey

Same here, for both our trips (2012 and 2013) we bought the NEX Ticket for the next available train after we landed at the airport, no advance booking for the NEX necessary. We bought the SUICA / NEX package, I think we did that both times.

I keep meaning the keep the SUICA cards safe so we can use them next time but I think I've lost them once again!

One the first trip, we picked up our JR Pass first, that took quite a long time as I had them also make seat reservations for all the journeys I'd planned for the trip.

On the second trip, we went to the same ticket office, though we weren't getting a JR Pass, and bought the SUICA/ NEX there.

Reading54

Mara is correct.
When you exchange your JR voucher for a JR pass, tell the same agent you also want to book a NEX ticket to Tokyo Station. Assuming your pass starts on that day, the agent will give you NEX tickets (with reserved seats) on the next train to Tokyo station.

russ_in_LA

Thanks for the additional info Kavey and Reading54!

mrwunrfl

Yeah, that is really just talking about making online seat reservations for a N'Ex TO the airport for a departing flight. No way you can pick up the tix the day before arrival at NRT, obviously. Anyway, you don't really want advance reservations that would incur a fee because you can't know which train you will catch on arrival.

Kavey

(We didn't have our JR Pass activate until a few days in to our stay, hence it made more sense for us to buy the NEX Suica card deal).

eigasuki

Pretty sure I got NEx Ticket at the same time as I got my pass activated and pretty sure others were doing the same - A couple of people were making all their bookings, which was frustrating when you've been travelling for twenty hours and just want to get to your hotel.

Kavey

Eigasuki, we waited till everyone in the queue had bought their regular tickets and the office was empty before we asked them to make all our other bookings.

eigasuki

Good to hear Kavey. The people in front of me weren't as considerate- and there were several. Seems having seen the people in front of them do all their bookings, they thought that was the way to go.

Kavey

Aah. We were not in a rush, and we were happy to just sit. Our JR pass was handled as per our place in the queue but once that was done, we took a seat to wait till the queue had died down and then one of the staff went through my pre-printed spreadsheet detailing the bookings I wanted. I had written date and time, name of train, from and to etc. so it was not as slow as all that, as there was no need to look up times and ask us which ones etc.