Tokyo moves 14,264,798 residents across 2,194.05 km² without a single unified transport company. The network is fast, punctual and almost entirely legible once you understand one thing: the map in the station hall prints several public and private operators side by side, and the paper ticket in your hand is valid on only one of them.
That is the whole learning curve. This guide answers how the system works, not what to book; our Tokyo overview of what to book and what to wander into covers the sights, and the 4,170 experiences we track here (median €92) appear below only where they explain something about distance.
Do you need a Suica or PASMO card to get around Tokyo?
Yes — one IC card, the prepaid contactless card tapped against the gate reader, replaces every ticket machine in the city. Suica is issued by JR East and PASMO by Tokyo's private railway and bus operators, but the two are functionally interchangeable: either works on JR trains, both subway networks, private lines and city buses.
The card is also money — convenience stores, vending machines and station lockers accept the same tap. You tap in at the kaisatsu, the ticket gate, and tap out at the far end; the system reads the distance and deducts the fare. Riding between Tokyo Metro and Toei on an IC card also applies a transfer discount that a paper ticket does not give you.
The tourist editions — Welcome Suica and Tourist PASMO — need no deposit, expire 28 days after first use and do not refund the unspent balance. The mobile version lives in a phone wallet and tops up by card. Availability of the plain unregistered card has changed more than once; both issuers publish current conditions at jreast.co.jp and pasmo.co.jp.
Why do JR, Tokyo Metro and Toei sell separate tickets?
Because they are three different companies. JR East runs the above-ground network, including the Yamanote loop that circles central Tokyo. Tokyo Metro operates 9 subway lines and around 180 stations. Toei — the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation, whose name means metropolitan-operated — runs 4 more: Asakusa, Mita, Shinjuku and Oedo.
Together the two subway operators account for 13 lines and more than 280 stations, drawn on one map in one style. A paper ticket from Tokyo Metro will not carry you onto a Toei train, and neither works on JR East: you exit the gate, buy again, enter again. That is the most common first-day mistake here, and the IC card is why most visitors never notice it.
A station name is not a station. Several Tokyo interchanges share a name across operators without sharing a concourse. Follow the line colour and the station code — the letter-and-number pair on every sign, such as G09 on the Ginza Line — rather than the name alone. Platforms and transfer corridors are numbered precisely because names are ambiguous and numbers are not.
For a subway-heavy stay, Tokyo Metro and Toei jointly sell the Tokyo Subway Ticket, valid for 24, 48 or 72 hours at ¥1,000, ¥1,500 and ¥2,000 and covering both networks — but not JR. Conditions are published at tokyometro.jp and kotsu.metro.tokyo.jp.
How do you get from Narita Airport into central Tokyo?
Narita International Airport sits roughly 60 kilometres east of the city, in Chiba Prefecture, and two named express trains compete for the run. Both take about an hour, and they land you in different halves of the city — the only question that matters.
The Narita Express, branded N'EX and operated by JR East, reaches Tokyo Station in 53 minutes at its fastest and continues without a change to Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Yokohama, roughly 75 to 84 minutes out. Departures run about every 30 minutes at peak and hourly midday.
The Keisei Skyliner is faster on the shorter route: 36 minutes to Nippori and 41 minutes to Keisei-Ueno, on the north side of the loop. Its price is built the Japanese way — a base fare plus a separate reserved Liner ticket for the seat — and keisei.co.jp publishes the two together at around ¥2,470. The same company's Access Express uses the same tracks without a reserved seat and costs materially less for about twenty minutes more. Buses lose to traffic; for travel beyond the metropolis, our Japan country page gathers the destinations these lines reach.
How do you get from Haneda Airport into central Tokyo?
Haneda Airport is inside the city — in Ota ward, about 15 kilometres out — and needs no special ticket. Two ordinary commuter lines serve it, both accepting a plain IC tap, and both reach the loop within twenty minutes.
The Tokyo Monorail runs to Hamamatsucho in as little as 13 minutes, where you change to the Yamanote line. The Keikyu Airport Line reaches Shinagawa in a comparable time and, more usefully, through-runs onto the Toei Asakusa subway, so a traveller staying in Nihonbashi or Asakusa rides from terminal to hotel without a transfer gate. Narita sells a named product with a reserved seat; at Haneda you book nothing and simply tap in.
When is rush hour in Tokyo, and when does the last train run?
First trains start around 05:00 and last trains leave between roughly 23:30 and 00:30 depending on the line, with outer sections finishing earliest. No line in Tokyo runs through the night. The morning peak builds from the first service to about 09:30, again varying by line.
During that window many operators run women-only cars — a carriage marked in pink on the platform floor and on the door, reserved for women, young children and primary-school pupils. Tokyo Metro documents the hours line by line at tokyometro.jp, since they are not uniform. The rule visitors are rarely told: do not move with a suitcase between about 07:30 and 09:00, when boarding with luggage is genuinely difficult.
Tokyo's transport is not complicated — it is unfamiliar. One card removes the tickets, one rule removes the panic: the last train is real, and the city has no night service to rescue you.
Iracema Melo, on a first week in Tokyo
What do you do in Tokyo when the last train has gone?
You take a taxi, and you should know the meter before raising your hand. Inside Tokyo's 23 wards the fare is built from a flag-fall of about ¥500 covering the first 1.096 km, then roughly ¥100 for every further 255 metres, with a 20% surcharge between 22:00 and 05:00.
Run that arithmetic and a six-kilometre crossing of the centre lands near ¥3,000 once the surcharge applies — expensive against a few hundred yen by train, but not the catastrophe visitors fear. Doors open automatically, IC and credit cards are standard, and a dropped map pin removes the only real friction. Capsule hotels, manga cafés and 24-hour bathhouses cluster around the nightlife stations precisely because the last train exists.
Is the Japan Rail Pass worth it if you only stay in Tokyo?
No. The Japan Rail Pass is valid on JR lines only — inside the city, the Yamanote loop and the other JR surface routes. It does not cover Tokyo Metro, Toei, Keisei or Keikyu, which is most of the network a visitor actually rides.
The arithmetic settles it. A 7-day ordinary pass costs ¥50,000, recovered only by long intercity Shinkansen legs. For a day of unlimited JR travel inside the 23 wards, JR East sells the Tokunai Pass at ¥760; for the subways, the Tokyo Subway Ticket starts at ¥1,000. The pass turns rational only once the itinerary leaves the metropolis for Kyoto or Osaka.
What the Tokyo tour catalogue reveals about distance and time
The catalogue we track is not a transport guide, but priced against the clock it says something about how far things are. The two products in the Tokyo top ten that include a vehicle are the Mount Fuji and Hakone day trip at €136.55 for 11 hours and the 1-Day Tokyo Bus Tour at €108.10 for 9 hours — €12.41 and €12.01 per hour respectively.
Those rates are effectively identical, and one of them crosses a prefecture boundary to a mountain while the other never leaves the city. Distance is not what you pay for; the guided seat and the driver's day are. Against the Tokunai Pass at ¥760 for unlimited JR travel across the 23 wards, the guided bus day costs roughly a hundred times a self-driven one on the same rails.
Two further readings come from the shape of the catalogue. Not one of the ten most-reviewed Tokyo experiences is an airport transfer — the express trains are good enough that the transfer market barely registers where demand is measured. And every top-ten product that stays inside one ward — the Shinjuku food tour at €64.18, the Tsukiji market walk at €83.21, the sushi class at €39.94 — includes no transport at all: operators assume rail, and the meeting point is a named station exit. Since 92% of the catalogue cancels free, a long transport day that depends on weather stays reversible.
Narita and Haneda compared: option, time and ticket type
Times below are the fastest published by each operator. The ticket column is the point: two of these five need a named product, three need only the card in your pocket.
| Airport | Option | Fastest time | Ticket type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Narita | Narita Express (N'EX) to Tokyo Station | 53 min | Reserved limited express, named ticket |
| Narita | Keisei Skyliner to Nippori | 36 min | Base fare + reserved Liner ticket |
| Narita | Keisei Access Express to Ueno or Asakusa | about 60 min | Ordinary fare, IC card accepted |
| Haneda | Tokyo Monorail to Hamamatsucho | 13 min | Ordinary fare, IC card accepted |
| Haneda | Keikyu Line to Shinagawa, through to Toei Asakusa | about 13 min | Ordinary fare, IC card accepted |
How far can you walk in Tokyo, and is cycling realistic?
Tokyo is walkable in pieces and not as a whole. Inside a ward — Asakusa, Shibuya, Yanaka, the Imperial Palace perimeter — walking is the correct mode. Between wards the distances are metropolitan: stations on the Yamanote loop sit roughly one to three kilometres apart, and the gaps hold traffic rather than sights.
Two habits help. Underground concourses at Shinjuku and Tokyo Station run for hundreds of dry metres and often beat the surface; and addresses here are block-based, not street-based, so a map pin beats a written address. Cycling is genuine but bounded — docked share schemes cover the central wards and suit the flat Sumida riverside paths, while bicycles left outside designated bays are impounded, and since 2023 a helmet is an effort obligation for every cyclist in Japan.
How do you move through Tokyo stations with a suitcase?
Deliberately, and preferably not at all. Every major station has step-free routes signposted in English, but at interchanges the size of Shinjuku the lift sits at one end of a platform you entered at the other.
The local solution is to separate yourself from the bag. Coin lockers of several sizes sit inside almost every station and accept IC cards, and luggage-forwarding counters at both airports send a suitcase to a hotel or on to the next city. Meeting the suitcase at reception is standard practice, not a luxury.
- IC card
- The prepaid contactless card — Suica from JR East, PASMO from the private railways and buses — tapped at the gate on entry and exit, and accepted as payment in shops and vending machines.
- JR East
- East Japan Railway Company, operator of Tokyo's above-ground network: the Yamanote loop, the Chuo and Keihin-Tohoku lines and the Narita Express. The only operator the Japan Rail Pass covers inside the city.
- Toei
- The subway and bus network of the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation — the Asakusa, Mita, Shinjuku and Oedo lines. Publicly run, and a separate fare system from Tokyo Metro.
- kaisatsu
- The ticket gate. You tap in on entry and out on exit, and the distance travelled sets the fare. The wider aisle is the step-free, luggage-friendly one.
- densha
- Train, in everyday Japanese — the default word for surface railway and subway alike, used on signs and by staff for anything that runs on rails.
Frequently asked questions
Suica or PASMO — which card should a visitor to Tokyo buy?
Either. Suica is issued by JR East and PASMO by Tokyo's private railway and bus operators, but they are functionally interchangeable: both work on JR, Tokyo Metro, Toei, private lines, buses and in shops. Take whichever the counter is selling, or add the mobile version to a phone wallet before arriving.
Does the Japan Rail Pass work on the Tokyo subway?
No. It covers JR lines only — inside Tokyo, the Yamanote loop and other JR surface routes. Tokyo Metro, Toei, Keisei and Keikyu are separate companies and charge separately. At ¥50,000 for seven ordinary days, the pass does not pay for itself on a city-only stay.
Narita Express or Keisei Skyliner from Narita Airport?
Choose by destination. The Narita Express reaches Tokyo Station in 53 minutes and runs on to Shinagawa, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Yokohama with no change. The Keisei Skyliner is faster to the north of the loop — 36 minutes to Nippori, 41 to Keisei-Ueno — for a base fare plus a reserved Liner ticket totalling around ¥2,470.
What time does the last train leave in Tokyo?
Between roughly 23:30 and 00:30, depending on line and direction, with first trains from around 05:00. No Tokyo line runs a night service. If you miss it, the options are a metered taxi carrying a 20% surcharge between 22:00 and 05:00, a capsule hotel or manga café near the station, or waiting for the first train.
Do Tokyo taxis take cards, and how much is a short ride?
Yes — IC cards and credit cards are standard and app dispatch works in English. Inside the 23 wards the meter starts near ¥500 for the first 1.096 km and adds about ¥100 per 255 metres, so a six-kilometre crossing lands near ¥3,000 once the late-night surcharge applies. Doors open and close automatically.
Is Tokyo's transport accessible with luggage or a wheelchair?
Step-free routes and elevators exist at every major station and are signposted in English, but at interchanges the size of Shinjuku they add ten minutes to a transfer. Coin lockers accept IC cards, and luggage-forwarding counters at both airports send suitcases to hotels — which is why residents rarely carry a bag through rush hour.
