Visiting Japan for a few days in Feb and the Wife would like to visit the Ghibli Park. Only way to get tickets seems to be a package with JTB - price seems pretty good so that’s fine. However, JTB require kanji and katakana names, and will only take Japanese addresses. Can’t find any contact details, so coming here to ask: any issues using JTB as a foreigner? If it’s fine, what’s the best way to fill in the name fields that won’t cause a problem, and am I ok to put the address of the hotel I’m booking through them when completing details?

Use your hotel address

https://japanesenameconverter.nolanlawson.com/
Put in some random katakana

As long as they are able to contact you (email), it should be ok

If you have a hotel concierge, ask them to do it

Google Translate is a fairly reliable way to get a Katakana version of your names that you can copy and paste into an online form. Click the audio icon under the Katakana to check that it's OK.
For the Kanji field, you could try typing your names as usual. If that fails, just paste in the Katakana version. (Alternatively, try double-width letters if you know how).
Good luck.


Google doesn't know that Cholmondeley is pronounced "Luxury Yacht," but it does a reasonable job with most names.

It'll only be this hotel, so that’s not really an option. I’ll just do it with Google Translate as long as there aren’t hidden pitfall.

That’s the Pythonesque reading, usually it’s the sheltered side of a good friend.

I see JTB have continued their knack for being unwieldy and frustrating.

Lordy it's awful. Managed to get it to work in safari, but it took so many accounts I didn't need the translation on! Hopefully that works, I'll have a Japanese colleague give it the once over for me. Thanks all for the advice.

I recently had to do this on another form. I just put my name in Roman characters (e.g. how I'd normally write it) and it worked fine. I think that's better than katakana as it's going to exactly match what's on my passport.

It depends on the forms
For free text it will be ok
For pre-designated name forms which require either hiragana or katakana or you to write them both, you will have to put in what is requested

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "required." Are you referring to forms that literally won't accept romaji, or forms that just say "Name in kanji" and "Name in kana" or similar, with the implication that that's what's required/wanted but actually will take anything? My suggesting is in all situations other than when the form won't accept roman characters as a technically-enforced rule, put in roman characters for your name even if the instructions on the form don't account for this. Whomever is reading the information will figure out that you're a foreigner and don't have a Kanji representation of your name. And, if some subsequent system requires a foreign name in katakana, they'll probably transliterate it for you.

Hello! Please, I am wondering if this technique worked for you. I am planning on going in Feb and having the same issue. I did convert my English name to Japanese with google translate, but I didn't want to commit yet because I wasn't sure if they would accept my name being different on my passport. It also wants a phone number that is in a different format than mine? Please tell me what you did and if it worked! Thank you so much!

We're not going until the beginning of Feb. I've spoken to a Japanese colleague about it, who said that the name was fine but hasn't [yet] opined on the phone number. My worry is that it said something about the tickets being delivered by mobile/needing a mobile for the park tickets. If that's literally delivered via SMS/MMS then it's going to be an issue, if it's just "you'll need a smartphone to display the ticket" [likely meaning it arrives by email] then not a problem.

I believe it was free to cancel until three weeks out, so I'm hoping to figure out more before that point!

It wouldn't take roman characters, IIRC.

Thank you so much for your reply! Please let me know if you learn more. I love Ghibli movies so much.

I am not able to post a link, but if you google JTB USA Ghibli Park (Aichi) - Ghibli Park Package / Hotel Keihan Nagoya with Breakfast, it looks like they have tours for USA citizens. I sent them a request.

A bit late for OP, but it seems Ghibli Park will be selling tickets directly to foreign visitors (sales start 1/10 for visits starting 3/15):

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/g...sh-site-122222
https://ghibli-park.jp/en/ticket/

It appears to be a phased rollout; at first, foreigners can only buy tickets for "Ghibli's Grand Warehouse."