General tips on buying train tickets in Japan as a foreigner

You CAN NOT buy train tickets online in Japan unless you have a JR credit card
You can buy at the station on the machine or over the counter, or ticket centre at larger stations
Most ticket centres have counters dedicated to Foreigners where staff speak better english, I found the lines there then to be shorter too
www.hyperdia.com/en is a super useful website for looking up schedule, I found it much more user-friendly than JR.com

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