The Japan Rail Pass is an absolute must for visitors to Japan who are planning to travel around the country a lot during their visit. It is not so useful if you simply planning on staying in Tokyo for a few weeks. But if you are waiting to venture all over Japan then you would be well advised to get one.
To be eligible to buy a JR Pass you need to be a foreign tourist coming to Japan for sight seeing, which means arriving on a “temporary visitor” visa. This visa can last from 15 to 90 days depending on your home countries visitor agreements with Japan. The must be careful that the visa you will be arriving in Japan with is in fact a ““temporary visitor” visa, because any other visa is not valid and you will have wasted money purchasing the JR Pass.
The JR Pass must be bought outside of Japan from an authorized agent, you can ask the travel agent you purchased your plane tickets from and they should be able to help you.
Will will not actually receive your JR Pass at this point, you will be given an exchange order that you must hand in at a Japan Rail travel centre to receive your pass. You must hand in your exchange order within 3 months of it being issued to you. At the time you receive your pass, you will need to state from what date you wish it to be active. This can be any time within a month from the date you collect the pass. Passes are valid for either 7, 14 or 21 consecutive days depending on with pass you buy.
When using the JR Pass on the Shinkansen (bullet train) be careful not to travel on “NOZOMI” trains as the pass is not valid on these and you will need to pay.
You can use the JR Pass to get a reserved seat on Shinkansen, some limited express and express trains. To do so you need to go to the travel centre at a JR Station and show them you Japan Rail Pass and ask for a reserved seat. If you don’t get a reserved seat you can simply get on the train, but at peak train times you may need to stand for the duration of your journey.
Picture Sources: Bristosavage http://www.japantravellight.com/images/jr-pass.jpg