Destinations
Tokyo: Narita, Haneda and Your First Day
Airport: NRT — Narita / HND — Haneda
Choosing between Narita and Haneda transport links, setting up an IC card, and reading Tokyo's rail network on your first day.
Tokyo has two airports and they are not interchangeable. Haneda sits inside the city. Narita is roughly 60 kilometres out, and the difference shows up as an hour of your life.
From Narita
- Narita Express (N'EX) — direct to Tokyo, Shinjuku and Shibuya, about an hour, reserved seating.
- Keisei Skyliner — fastest to Ueno at around 41 minutes, useful for the north and east of the city.
- Limousine bus — slower but drops directly at major hotels, which is worth a lot after a long-haul flight.
From Haneda
- Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsuchō, or the Keikyu line to Shinagawa. Both are around 15 to 20 minutes and connect straight into the JR network.
Set up before you leave the airport
- Get a Suica or PASMO IC card, or add one to your phone wallet, and use it for every train, bus and convenience store.
- Pick up a data SIM or activate an eSIM — station navigation without maps is hard.
- Withdraw some cash. Japan is far more card-friendly than it was, but small restaurants and shrines still run on coins and notes.
Reading the network
Lines are colour-coded and every station carries a letter-and-number code such as G-09. Use the codes rather than the names when you are tired; they are unambiguous and printed on every sign.
JR and the subway are separate systems. Transfers between them sometimes mean leaving one set of gates and entering another.
First-day pacing
Arriving in the afternoon and staying awake until a local bedtime is the single most effective jet-lag strategy here. See our guide on beating jet lag.
