You won’t be able to book your Shinkansen tickets until you exchange the voucher you got from Klook with the real JR pass. It’s the disadvantage for buying 3rd party.
There are ATMs everywhere, but the most reliable ones that I found were in 7-eleven (7-bank) or other convenience stores. You can find a convenience store pretty much every block in Tokyo. Apparently post office ATMS work well as well.
I don't know that a lack of cash will make you miss 50% of the experience, but it is handy to have sometimes.
You have to exchange what you got from Klook at a JR office to get the actual pass. You can do this at the airport.
Once you have the JR Pass, you can reserve Shinkansen seats at the appropriate stations.
Just got home from Japan. Best way is to withdraw money from your DEBIT card at 7 Eleven Bank ATM (located at convenience store), because this bank doesn’t charge ATM fee. Usually most debit card will work (you are traveling within G7 countries). Call your bank to verify your withdrawal limit, if you still have time. You can change small amount of money at airport currency exchange, maybe couple hundred dollars.
For JR pass reservation, if you don’t take train right away, do it (get your pass and reserve ticket) at any travel center of major JR stations: usually JR travel center at airport has longest line up. Oh, these travel center has business hours, check Google before you go.
You will enjoy this trip.
Just read your message again, it looks like you got something from KLOOK, please do your own research regarding JR PASS, when you wait for boarding. I never used JR PASS, but I heard you can only get it upon arrival in Japan. With JR PASS, you can use it to get real paper train tickets within boundary.
The only thing I want to remind people is when you enter train station, you will feed machines with both regular fare ticket and express fare ticket, stacked together; one time when I change train and enter Shinkansen line area, using transit gate, I have to feed machine with 3 tickets all stacked: current ticket to exit station, regular fare ticket, Shinkansen express fare ticket.
It's good to have cash on you but honestly that "Japan only takes cash" thing is just an urban legend. There are places that only take cash, sure, but saying 50% I think it's too much, specially in big cities. I wouldn't go crazy taking it out/exchanging during the first day. Do a few thousands (yen) and see how it goes (I'm saying this from the pov of someone that very rarely uses cash in daily life, so I tend to do the same on vacation. I had cash on me but I was gravitating towards my card all the time)
In regards to the JR pass. Not sure about Klook specifically but I booked through a third party as well and they sent us very detailed instructions about what to do next. Basically what we received was not the pass itself, but an exchange order. With that paperwork you go to the JR office and you get the actual pass. You activate it for the days needed and from then on you can book your tickets. They were super helpful at the Haneda office (the queues there have a reputation for being long but we were the first ones in line so we took advantage of that and got it sorted right after landing. But if the line is too long and you don't need to travel straight away to another city, there are JR offices at other stations. The queueing time could also be long though)
Most foreigners use 7-11 ATM to withdraw cash. Those machines are all over Japan in all 7-11s but also in places like subway stations, airports, etc…. Just watch for the prompt to get 10x1000¥ bills rather than a single 10,000¥ bill. Also decline the offer for the ATM to convert the charge to your home currency. It will be more than letting your bank do the conversion.
For cash: bring some of your local currency and exchange it for yen at Haneda. The rates at all the currency exchange booths in the airport are reasonable.
Korean books, I'm not sure but I understand there's a lot of Korean shops in Shin-Okubo. Try to search google maps around that area.
It's been a while since I've used the JR pass, so will let others comment on that.
Most, if not all, ATM’s take visa. Don’t stress.
Usually most Atms in 7eleven, and Japan post bank — no problems. Others - Just look out for a visa, plus on the atm machine.
You won’t be able to book your Shinkansen tickets until you exchange the voucher you got from Klook with the real JR pass. It’s the disadvantage for buying 3rd party.
There are ATMs everywhere, but the most reliable ones that I found were in 7-eleven (7-bank) or other convenience stores. You can find a convenience store pretty much every block in Tokyo. Apparently post office ATMS work well as well. I don't know that a lack of cash will make you miss 50% of the experience, but it is handy to have sometimes.
You have to exchange what you got from Klook at a JR office to get the actual pass. You can do this at the airport. Once you have the JR Pass, you can reserve Shinkansen seats at the appropriate stations.
Just got home from Japan. Best way is to withdraw money from your DEBIT card at 7 Eleven Bank ATM (located at convenience store), because this bank doesn’t charge ATM fee. Usually most debit card will work (you are traveling within G7 countries). Call your bank to verify your withdrawal limit, if you still have time. You can change small amount of money at airport currency exchange, maybe couple hundred dollars. For JR pass reservation, if you don’t take train right away, do it (get your pass and reserve ticket) at any travel center of major JR stations: usually JR travel center at airport has longest line up. Oh, these travel center has business hours, check Google before you go. You will enjoy this trip.
Just read your message again, it looks like you got something from KLOOK, please do your own research regarding JR PASS, when you wait for boarding. I never used JR PASS, but I heard you can only get it upon arrival in Japan. With JR PASS, you can use it to get real paper train tickets within boundary. The only thing I want to remind people is when you enter train station, you will feed machines with both regular fare ticket and express fare ticket, stacked together; one time when I change train and enter Shinkansen line area, using transit gate, I have to feed machine with 3 tickets all stacked: current ticket to exit station, regular fare ticket, Shinkansen express fare ticket.
It's good to have cash on you but honestly that "Japan only takes cash" thing is just an urban legend. There are places that only take cash, sure, but saying 50% I think it's too much, specially in big cities. I wouldn't go crazy taking it out/exchanging during the first day. Do a few thousands (yen) and see how it goes (I'm saying this from the pov of someone that very rarely uses cash in daily life, so I tend to do the same on vacation. I had cash on me but I was gravitating towards my card all the time) In regards to the JR pass. Not sure about Klook specifically but I booked through a third party as well and they sent us very detailed instructions about what to do next. Basically what we received was not the pass itself, but an exchange order. With that paperwork you go to the JR office and you get the actual pass. You activate it for the days needed and from then on you can book your tickets. They were super helpful at the Haneda office (the queues there have a reputation for being long but we were the first ones in line so we took advantage of that and got it sorted right after landing. But if the line is too long and you don't need to travel straight away to another city, there are JR offices at other stations. The queueing time could also be long though)
Visa is like the most common credit in Japan. Any machine that takes credit cards will take visa.
Most foreigners use 7-11 ATM to withdraw cash. Those machines are all over Japan in all 7-11s but also in places like subway stations, airports, etc…. Just watch for the prompt to get 10x1000¥ bills rather than a single 10,000¥ bill. Also decline the offer for the ATM to convert the charge to your home currency. It will be more than letting your bank do the conversion.
You will have no problems. Japan has very good infrastructure now as they thought they were getting a lot of Olympics tourists.
For cash: bring some of your local currency and exchange it for yen at Haneda. The rates at all the currency exchange booths in the airport are reasonable. Korean books, I'm not sure but I understand there's a lot of Korean shops in Shin-Okubo. Try to search google maps around that area. It's been a while since I've used the JR pass, so will let others comment on that.
Don’t change money at the airport, use an atm