Yokohama District Immigration Office Access - Part I Shin-Sugita Station

Do you live in Kanagawa Prefecture and need to renew your alien residency card? Maybe you still have the old one issued by your local city hall and need to convert over to the new one?

Well, the Yokohama District Immigration Office, which used to be behind the doll museum across the street from Yamashita Park has moved to a rather inconvenient location compared to before. Although you can take a bus to get there from Shin-Sugita Station on the Keihin Tohoku Line, I'd rather take the train there and turn the dreaded immigration office visit into a day of exploring and enjoyment. This post is first in a short series on how to get to the immigration office and what you can do on your way there or on your way back.

First, catch Ofuna-bound train or the Isogo-bound train on the Keihin Tohoku Negishi Line. Get off at Shin-Sugita Station, which is the 7th stop from Yokohama (approximately an 11- or 12-minute train ride).

Depending on which car you disembark from, you may first see this sign with the escalators going up and down.

Since there is only one exit, it doesn't mater which way you take to leave the platform.

This is the sign that you will see on the platform indicating that you are at Shin-Sugita Station.

Opposite the escalators is a staircase. If you disembark from one of  the train cars near the front, you will see these stairs first. If you walk past the stairs, you will see the escalators on the other side.

Once you reach the bottom of the stairs or the escalator, you will come to the main corridor leading to the exit.

This is the only exit at the station, so it is quite easy to navigate.

Exit through the ticket gates with the green arrow. You can use a standard paper ticket, or an IC card like Suica or Pasmo.

Once you go through the exit, there will be a long corridor of shops on both sides. At the time of this picture, the right side of the corridor was under construction as was the ceiling.

Look for the sign that points to the staircase and elevator going up to Shin-Sugita Station on the Seaside Line (On some, but not all, JR has misspelled their own station name as "Sea Side" so just ignore the spelling. It's still the same station.)

This is a view of the stairs and escalator that will take you up to Shin-Sugita Station on the Seaside Line.

Just keep an eye out for the blue sign as shown above.

If you don't have a Pasmo or Suica, you will need to buy a paper ticket at any of these ATMs.

Since your destination is Torihama Station, your train fare will be 260 yen as shown in black in this photo.

If the ATM is not already on, just tap the screen to get started.

Tap "230" to purchase your ticket.

Use this part of the ATM when purchasing your ticket with yen bills.

This section is for purchasing tickets using coins. Note that 5-yen coins and 1-yen coins are not accepted.

After you tap the ticket price and then insert your cash, the ticket will come out here.

Although Suica and Pasmo cards are pretty much the same, I encourage anyone staying in Japan to get the Pasmo card. Suica is mostly limited to JR companies and their partners. Pasmo, however, can be used on any JR line in the Kanto area, convenience stores, private lines, as well as private and public buses and subways.

After you purchase your ticket, you need to then head toward the platform, which is on the same floor.

Enter the platform via the ticket gates closest to the ATMs on the left side of the corridor. 

The entrance gates will have green arrows as shown above.

This train is actually an automated people mover. There is no conductor, and since Shin-Sugita is the terminal station, you can catch the train to Torihama using either track. In this shot, the train was waiting for departure on Track 2.

Here, we can see a passenger waiting for the train on Track 1.

Again, it doesn't matter which track you take. Either one will get you on your way!

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