Tokyo for First-Time Visitors: The Essential Guide

Narita or Haneda: what the first hour actually looks like

Haneda sits inside the city, with two rail lines under the terminals. Narita is out in Chiba, and everything from it is a proper intercity run.

From Haneda, the Tokyo Monorail reaches Monorail Hamamatsucho in as little as 13 minutes for 520 yen (519 yen by IC card), where you join the JR Yamanote line. Do not be thrown by the signage: the operator adopted the nickname Tokyo Panorama Line for the Haneda Airport Line in November 2025, and it is the same train. Keikyu is the alternative, 11 minutes to Shinagawa from Terminal 3, and because its trains run through onto the Toei Asakusa subway line, one train reaches Shimbashi in 21 minutes, Higashi-Ginza in 23 and Asakusa in 34 with no change at all.

From Narita, the Keisei Skyliner is the fast one: non-stop in 36 minutes to Nippori and 41 to Keisei-Ueno, up to three an hour, 2,580 yen one way at the counter or 2,310 yen booked ahead. JR’s Narita Express needs 53 minutes to Tokyo Station at best but keeps going to Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Yokohama without a change, and its 14-day round trip ticket is 5,200 yen against 6,280 yen for the same reserved return bought normally.

Which IC card can you actually buy?

The chip shortage that stripped the ticket machines has passed, but the cards on sale are not interchangeable.

• Welcome Suica. Sold under its current arrangements since 27 March 2025, from dedicated machines at Narita Terminal 1, Narita Terminal 2 and 3, and Haneda Terminal 3, and over the counter at JR East Travel Service Centers including Tokyo, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ueno and Yokohama. No deposit, sold pre-loaded from 1,000 to 10,000 yen, valid 28 days from purchase, one per person as a rule.
• TOURIST PASMO. The same idea from the other camp: no deposit, 28 days, no refund on money you load. Sold at the airports only, by Keikyu at Haneda Terminals 1 and 2 and Terminal 3, and at the Skyliner and Keisei information centres at Narita Terminals 1 and 2.
• A plain Suica or Pasmo. Unregistered cards went back on general sale on 1 March 2025, so an ordinary ticket machine can issue you one again. It costs 500 yen more as a deposit, refunded when you hand the card in, and it does not stop working after 28 days.
• A card on your phone. Both Suica and Pasmo can be added to Apple Wallet on an iPhone 8 or later, and JR East runs a separate Welcome Suica Mobile app for iOS whose Suica stays live for 180 days rather than 28. Set one up before you fly rather than at the gate.

The trap with both visitor cards is that deposit-free design: the balance is not refundable when you leave. Top up in small amounts in your last two days and spend the rest in a convenience store.

Three rail companies, three fares, and why the Japan Rail Pass rarely pays in Tokyo

The Yamanote line belongs to JR East. The Ginza, Marunouchi and Hibiya lines belong to Tokyo Metro, a separate company. The Asakusa, Mita, Shinjuku and Oedo lines are Toei, run by the metropolitan government. Each starts your fare from zero, so a route hopping between two companies can cost more than a longer ride on one. Tokyo Metro’s own fares run 180 to 330 yen on paper and 178 to 324 yen by IC card, and switching to Toei takes 70 yen off the two fares combined, provided you use the designated orange transfer gates, and complete the change within 60 minutes where the route puts you outside the barriers. A few sections do not qualify.

This is what catches people out about the nationwide Japan Rail Pass. It is a JR product, so it buys you nothing on Tokyo Metro, Toei, Keisei or Keikyu, which between them are most of the network you will use. A seven-day ordinary adult pass is 50,000 yen, going to 53,000 yen for any purchase made on or after 1 October 2026, and it repays itself only on long shinkansen legs.

What does work is the Tokyo Subway Ticket: every Tokyo Metro and Toei line for 1,000 yen over 24 hours, 1,500 over 48 or 2,000 over 72. It is restricted to overseas visitors and residents from outside greater Tokyo, and it does not cover the Yamanote line. If you do not qualify, the one-day Toei and Tokyo Metro ticket at 1,100 yen is sold to anyone. Note too that JR East revised its fares on 14 March 2026, its first across-the-board rise since the company was created in 1987, at 7.8 per cent on ordinary fares and 7.1 per cent averaged over everything.

Paying, tax refunds and the rules first-timers get wrong

Japan is more cashless than its reputation suggests. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry put the cashless share of consumer spending at 58.0 per cent for 2025, worth 162.7 trillion yen. The useful flip side is that over four yen in every ten still moves as cash, and the holdouts are the places you came for: small restaurants, shrine offices, older counters and market stalls.

Tax-free shopping changes on 1 November 2026. Until 31 October you pay the tax-exclusive price at the till. From that date you pay in full including consumption tax, then clear a customs check on the way out, either at a customs terminal or through Visit Japan Web in the international departure lobby, before you check in any bag holding the goods. The money is not handed back at that terminal: once customs confirms the export, the refund comes from the shop or the approved refund operator it uses, by that shop’s chosen method, and some deduct a handling fee. The goods have to leave Japan within 90 days of purchase. The 5,000 yen minimum per shop per day, before tax, stays, while the 500,000 yen ceiling on consumables and the sealed-packaging rule are dropped.

Two etiquette points deserve a correction rather than a repetition. Escalators: by custom Tokyo stands on the left and Osaka on the right, so the reflex you build in one city works against you in the other, and the operators would rather you did neither. Saitama Prefecture, just north of Tokyo, made standing still a duty under an ordinance in force since 1 October 2021. Rubbish is the other. In the Japan Tourism Agency’s most recent survey of departing visitors, a shortage of bins was again the most cited difficulty of the trip, at 17.2 per cent, down from 21.9 per cent a year earlier and ahead of communicating with staff at 15.4 per cent. Carry a small bag and treat convenience stores and station platforms as your disposal points.

At a glance