Getting a JR pass from Yokohama Cruise Port

I am in the planning stage on a fall 2022 trip to Japan. I plan to take a Norwegian cruise ship into the cruise port in Yokohama. I will have an exchange order for a JR pass, and my Suica IC card from previous trips, with about 1500 yen on it.

From my previous cruise, I know that there is a free shuttle to JR Sakuragicho station. I checked, and it does not appear to be a station that I can convert my exchange order to a pass. Itfs a smaller station, and I expected this. I then checked Yokohama Station, and it appears that it also does not convert. The two closest stations appear to be Shin-Yokohama and Kawasaki stations. This doesnft seem right.

One possible option for my first day would be to stay near Ueno, Station, which will also convert my exchange order to a JR Pass. I can easily use my Suica for the 570 yen fee. I was thinking that I was just going to stay near the port, and visit Chinatown and Minato Mirai on the first day, but I also wanted to convert the pass.

Am I correct, that I will need to go to Kawasaki or Shin Yokohama Station to convert?

Unless things have changed at Yokohama station in the last 4 years - there is a JR Travel office which allows you to transfer JR passes along with booking tickets. The store was the only main one which looked like a travel agent.

It was kind of in an L shape - with the inwards area being the location where you can transfer the tickets.

Shin Yokohama station is only a few more stops on the same train along the line towards Tokyo. So should be pretty easy to get there, pick up your pass. As you say you want to stay that night in Ueno, you could just do it on the way to your hotel? Either in Shin Yokohama or Ueno, no?
Sorry, I might be missing the gist of your question.

I was assuming Yokohama Station would be large enough to warrant being an exchange office. I understand Shin-Yokohama Station, because the JR pass is best used for long distance travel, and that is a Shinkansen station.

Instead of staying in Yokohama, I will probably go to Ueno on the first day, do the exchange for the JR pass, and check into the hotel.

Yokohama Station used to be a place where you could do the exchange. I guess not anymore, or at least not right now. Maybe check back closer to your trip.

https://japanrailpass.net/en/exchange.html
It appears that because the pass is a temporary visitor only product, they have closed (temporarily) some of the offices because there are so few visitors in that category. If/when the country re-opens for tourism I would expect some of the previous locations will be available for doing the exchange.

Thank You all, for the clarifications. I thought there was an exchange office at Yokohama, too. I have only used Hakata and Narita Airports as entry points, but I did have an issue with my Suica card, and fixed it at the Yokohama Station.

It makes sense that with the reduction of entry into Japan, that the number of offices capable of doing the exchange has diminished. It also makes sense that they may increase when Japan opens its doors for tourism.

The cruise ship arrives on the 27th, and it will be too early for fall colors in Yokohama and Tokyo. I believe places near Tokyo, like the Fuji five lakes and Nikko will be, and I would also like to visit Hitachi Seaside Park (Kochia Field) before going to the west coast (possibly Kanazawa, Takayama, the Alpine Route, and Kurobe Gorge).

My first hard date to be anywhere is November 2nd & 3rd, for the OfHara Festival in Kagoshima. I plan to get to Kagoshima on the evening of the 2nd. This means I have very few days to pick the best fall color spots of late October. I will probably visit Himeji on the 2nd, to break up the seven hours of train ride in half (Kanazawa-Himeji, Himeji-Kagoshima), and still visit something that day.

I then plan to go up the west coast of Kyushu, before going back to the Kansai region, for fall colors in mid November.

It could be, that my best bet is to put my luggage in a locker at Ueno, visit Hitachi Seaside Park, and then proceed to Toyama on my first day. This would mean obtaining the pass on the very first day. It might be that going to Nikko might be be a better choice than say, the Alpine Route, which will most likely be past peak. If I was to do this, I would probably use the IC card to Asakusa, and get a Toby Nikko pass. Activating the pass will be a day to two later.

I will probably get a Green JR pass, so part of possibly going on a day trip to Takayama from Toyama would be to sit in the front car in the Wide View Limited Express train. There are very few reports of fall colors in Takayama, but I would probably go to the Hida Folk Village, if I go there.

Any ideas on what the first five days of my trip should look like?

How do you plan when we donft know the borders will be opened? I have waited since Mar 2020 for a long holiday in Japan which includes cruise and train rides.

Why not plan? You can always cancel.

@Shisee

As of today (I just checked) Norwegian Cruise Line has a cruise on the books departing Seattle on October 11th, 2022; and arriving at Yokohama port in Japan on October 27th, 2022. I can book this cruise right now, if I want to. Itfs a small refundable deposit, at this time.

I donft know if Japan will be open by that time, but it might be. In the mean time, I can fund my vacation account, in the hopes that Japan may open its borders. Six months ahead of my trip, I can usually start booking hotels. Booking this far ahead usually required no deposit.

Everything will start to become serious about 90 days before the trip. At that point, I will need to pay for the cruise, and order whatever JR passes I want. Japan will need to have opened itfs borders by this time. The trip will start to become reality at that point, and not hopes and dreams.

I started planning this trip in October, reading the fall foliage reports on Japan Guide, and going to web sites for event and festivals being held this year. From there, I tried to get an overall idea of where I wanted to be in Japan, once I got there. I also checked the lunar cycle, in case I am thinking of going to Miyajima Island. The largest changes in tides happens at a new moon, so going close to a new moon will result in a better gfloating shrineh in the morning, and a gbeached Tori gateh in the afternoon, experiences.

After some planning, I have realized that a 16 day cruise followed by 16 days in Japan is not what I want to do. I have abandoned the cruise, but not the trip. I posted a thread gFall Vacation in 2022 reviewh, to see what others thought, and I have made changes from that itinerary since then, based on their reviews. I now have an overnight ferry cruise on the Seto Inland Sea on this trip.

Just reading other peoples itineraryfs can be helpful. One person was not aware of the fall/winter illuminations that some parks do. People will offer websites that will give more information on something you might want to do or see.

Reading the feature stories on Japan Guide can also give you ideas, especially the ones be posted right now, which will reflect places that I might want to visit. Right now, there are stories about winter illuminations, and Iga Ueno, a Ninja town in Mei Prefecture. I figured out that the fall Ueno Tenjin Festival is held here on October 23-25, if I want to attend it.

Does this answer your question?

@Shisee (again)

I start planning these trips over a year in advance, because this website will have questions pertaining to the same period (spring, summer,fall) when I want to travel. My first trip to Japan was late September to mid October, because of what I knew about fall colors in New England in the United States (Wrong!). It turns out that fall foliage in Tokyo and Kyoto is best in late November. In order to see fall colors in late October to early November, you have to either go north of Tokyo, or into higher elevations.

My next vacation is in March, and is a cruise on Norwegian to the Caribbean. I am currently paying that one off. They offered a lot of perks, including a lot of loyalty points for perks on future cruises. Thatfs one of the reasons this trans-pacific cruise hit my radar, and I started planning this trip.

The other thing is the cost. I plan on staying in Business Class Hotels, and a few hot springs resorts or ryokan on each trip. The Hotels are $50-$75 a night, and the resorts and ryokans will be more. I plan on about $75/day.

I double that, for food, transportation, and admission fees, to give me about $150/day. Some days will be a lot more, say if I want to include a day at Disney Japan, Fuji Q, Universal, an overnight ferry ride, or a Hydrofoil Ride to Yakushima Island. I tag on a little extra for those things. The JR pass alone can cost you about $40 a day.

I donft worry about airfare, because I have an Airline credit card, which has been accumulating miles all during this Covid-19 mess. I now have enough miles saved away for two trips to Japan.

Even with that expense covered, a 32 day vacation looks like I need to budget about $5000, which I donft have sitting around in a bank account somewhere. It works out to setting aside $500 each month for this trip, which I can do, if I have a goal in mind.

Once again, I hope this answers your question.