JR Ticket Office (Kansai-Airport station) — Local services in Tajiri

I Arrived JR office at about 10am, the line is not too crowded.

The only purpose I go to office is to get the limited edition ICOCA for tourists. When I get in I was not sure the line operation because on left side is the green seat reservation sign and right side with long line is JR pass.

I asked one of the staff during mid line in half-baked Japanese where can I get the limited ICOCA. He, a nice guy, ask if I can speak Japanese and I say yes , abit. He then ask me to line up at the green seat line which he explained the left line is for person who can understand Japanese and right is for English/Chinese assist counter.

The left line is pretty much empty and I immediately got called to right most counter and assist by a very polite lady.

I explained that I want to buy a limited edition ICOCA and handing 2 passport opened to arrival stamp page to her for verification. She ask the card need minimum 1500 yen charge and 500 yen for card fee which I expected. Hand her 4000 yen for 2 card and off I go.

For anyone looking for Haruka Express train, you don't need to line up at Green Machine, just use white machine like McDonald kiosk machine near the JR entrance gate and you can pick either reservation seat or if no reservations seat available, you will be given free seat where you can ride in car no.5 to no.8.

The ticket you receive will be like a shopping receipt where you need to enter via gate with ticket master checking your ticket (they will stamp it) , don't throw away because in train the conductor will check your ticket again and final destination the ticket master will collect your ticket when you exit.

Thank you JR office and staff for making my travel easy

Overall TLDR: Limited fujin raijin ICOCA available, passport need , open to arrival stamp page for verification. Minimum 2000 yen need for 1500 yen credit + 500 card fee. Card can keep long time, use in other prefecture IC card machine and charge via ticket machine if speak Japanese, line at green counter, faster. If no, follow JR pass line. Haruka Express use white kiosk machine near gate, keep ticket accessable all time. Enter/exit via human gate. Ticket will be...

The Kansai-Airport Express "HARUKA" is an express train that connects Kansai Airport with the major cities in Kansai, including Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe. Tickets can be purchased online in advance at JPY 2,200/adult; the system is straightforward and convenient. Travelers can follow the simple instructions provided by the website to redeem the prepaid tickets at the JR Station. There is no need to print out the code, as the printed version actually doesn't work as well as the one shown on the phone screen. One can choose the desired train at the redemption machine based on the departure schedule and seats availability. Each ticket clearly shows the train number, car number, departure time, and arrival time. Travelers must present their tickets to the staff at the entrance gate (right next to Gate A at Kansai Airport), the ticket inspector on the train, as well as the staff at the exit gate. The Hello Kitty design of the Haruka train is adorable. The 75-minute ride from Kansai Airport to Kyoto is smooth. Seats are clean, but the train thermostat is set a...

We planned to take the airport limo bus to Osaka but the long line at immigration caused us to miss the bus by 5 minutes. The last minute change of plan to take the train was a huge mistake. It appeared simple: we bought the next train to Osaka at a kiosk and got all the tickets, only to be refused entry at the gate with a message asking us to "insert all tickets". We were creating a long line so we let others to try. Half of the passengers also failed. We finally found a unformed person to assist us and were told we needed to buy another ticket. She had trouble explaining to us what we had to do differently to avoid buying the wrong ticket again. By the time we guessed the machine only gave us an upgrade to the so called express train but didn't give us a "local" ticket to work with the "upgrade", we had missed the train.

Who would have guessed the so-called expressed tickets are not the full fare and you need to buy another one to go with it? Extremely user...