Originally Posted by Didier
As I will be in transit in NRT airport 4/5 (on way to Seoul) and have time to go to JR office, is it possible:
- to exchange my voucher and book ahead shinkansen trains for 4/11 to 4/17 period (heard early-mid april is rather high season)
- also get a JR West pass for 4/8 to 4/11 so I save time when i arrive KIX airport on 4/8 early evening?
As I understand it, having been researching this for a while:
You can book tickets online a month in advance even before you have the JR pass. Then once you have the pass and have activated it, you can collect your reservations from the station, and they don't charge you.
Once you have your pass, you have to write a start date on it or something to activate it (I can't remember exactly). But you don't have to do that until you want to. I'm planning to pick up a 7 day JR pass at NRT when I arrive, but not activate it for another three days when I want to go to Kyoto. I'll pay for the Narita Express into Tokyo.
I don't know anything about the JR West pass, I'm afraid.