Chasing a Non-Existent Establishment - A Japan Rail Pass Rant

With having less than two months to go before I depart for an epic adventure, it is time for me to buckle down and get serious about getting together everything that is needed to hit the ground running when I arrive in Tokyo on August 15th. A few days ago I made a post outlining my 60 day countdown list of goals, and I have been steadily working my way through them in the past week.  The top ones on my list?  Send my passport out for a Chinese Visa and obtain a Japan Rail Pass.  Since the Japan Rail Pass cannot be obtained inside the country itself, you have to get it through a corporation in your current location prior to entering.  The Japan Rail Pass website indicates that you have to visit a brick and mortar store to purchase the pass and showed the closest representative was a travel agency called Japan Travel Bureau (JTB) with a branch in Cincinnati - about an hour away from me.  So after calling the store and confirming they sell the rail pass and I could go down to purchase one, I was on my way -- or so I thought.

The hour long drive to get to the travel agency should have been an omen of bad things to come.  After driving for almost an hour I made my way to the store's exit, and got stopped in construction that shut down the road completely.  Not just one lane.  Complete stand still.  Worse, my GPS could not find an alternative route and I was stuck for the better part of 15 minutes until a cop finally let our direction of traffic through.  Of course, I shrugged this off as just another every day occurrence since traffic due to construction is somewhat common in Cincinnati.  I finally arrive at the JTB branch and am greeted with a sign on the door to the effect of "Permanently Closed, Call XXX-XXXX to order through our purchasing line." The door is locked, and no one is apparently there. To make matters worse, the number posted was the number listed on the online website.

I call back and can't understand much of what the representative is saying because of their accent. I told them I was standing outside the store but the door was locked and was told that the store has moved to a new location in Arlington Heights and I can go there to get my pass.  Knowing there is an Arlington Heights about 10 minutes from the location I was at, I figured that this was reasonable and shrugged it off.  The agent gave me the address, and it could not be located in my GPS.  The street, does not exist.  After questioning the spelling with the agent (who told me the spelling incorrectly multiple times), I inquired that the location is in the Arlington Heights near Cincinnati, and they said yes and that I should go to Arlington Heights and ask someone and they should be able to tell me where its at since its a major street.

Ten minutes later, I arrive in Arlington Heights and do not find any street by the name they said.  Calling back two more times and I am told to just ask around once again.  It wasn't until I got someone else to call and ask another agent that we found out that Arlington Heights is in Illinois, about 5 hours away, and the number was being auto-forwarded to the branch.  You would think this would be something that would be mentioned when you first call and say you are coming in to get a pass, mentioning the office specifically!  Sometime in the recent past they removed some branch locations and are only working out of a centralized office. Not only that, we were told that the pass is available for purchase online from their website and I could order from there.  Something that the first agent could have told me 45 minutes before and saved an afternoon.  So after being entirely frustrated, I drive home and order it online just to get it over with and move on from losing nearly 3 hours of a day off work. 

$624 plus $12 shipping later, a standard 3 week Japan Rail Pass was on my way and arrived by Fed Ex this afternoon.  You would think this would be the end of the story, but it's not.  On the letter I was greeted with one final annoyance:   it was shipped from the store I went to that was listed as "closed."

I just don't think I was meant to win this one....