What help do you need?

If you need in-depth discussion go to a tourist information counter although even this is no guarantee, I recently communicated with an older staff member in japanized kanji (attempting to takkyubin stuff which was a service that center advertised and indeed offered via body language once I wrote down 宅急便).

Lots of customer facing staff have been out of practice with English given the past three years, and the system is designed to be as self-service as possible.

The key is to speak slowly and only use the most basic words slowly and clearly (eg hand over Japan Rail Pass and say only the necessary eg "Kanazawa, tomorrow, 12pm, window seat", hand over Suica and say "not working").