I’m on my way back to China on Thursday, but here are some of my ‘prep notes’ for my two-day stayover in Tokyo before I travel on to Hong Kong on Sunday. Tokyo is very big, and not like Western cities with one ‘defined’ downtown. Several big urban centers are built around the major train stations. (No way you can get 35 million people in the world’s largest megalopolis to where they need to be if you didn’t do that !). The black map diagram is of the Marriott Courtyard hotel in the Ginza district where I will stay .. a long way from the airport, but in the middle of a very nice area.
Notes for Tokyo Narita Airport Arrival
At JR East Travel Service Center – Narita Airport Terminal 1, 8:15 – 19:00, every day of the year
buy a combination Suica card + N-Ex return for the green car, it costs Y 5500 for a round-trip.
For the Shinkansen (Super Express ‘bullet train’) the stations are –
Ofuna Totsuka Yokohama Musashi-Kosugi Omiya Ikebukuro Takao Hachioji Tachikawa Kokubunji Mitaka Kichijoji Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Tokyo Chiba Yotsukaido Narita Narita Airport
Terminal 2 Narita Airport Terminal 1 Narita Airport
All seats on the Narita Express require prior reservation. Advance reservation for the seat and travel interval are required.
Round trips
- Outward reserved seats are available for the Narita Express when purchasing a Suica & N’EX package.
- The special-value outward ticket can be used to board the Narita Express and travel to any JR East station in the Designated Tokyo Train Interval, the yellow area on the map. Riders may get off the train along the route as long as they do not exit from the ticket gate.
- Return reserved seats can be reserved in advance at designated seat ticket machines and JR Ticket Offices (Midori-no-madoguchi).
- The return ticket is valid for entry at any station within the yellow area on the map. When returning to Narita Airport Station on the Narita Express, riders may get off the train along the route as long as they do not exit from the ticket gate.
- If you miss your booked train, you cannot use the seats on a later limited express even if you have a Green Car ticket. In this case, please stand.
We are operating the Narita Express (N’EX) with a partial suspension of service. N’EX departs from Narita Airport Station every 30 minutes or hourly from 7:31 to 11:15 and from 14:15 to 20:44. Please note that the service of N’EX departing from Narita Airport between 12:00 and 14:00 is to be cancelled, but the Rapid trains run every hour for Tokyo.