Please help with selecting the appropriate rail pass to buy. We will arrive at 8 am at Narita airport and plan to take the Narita Express to Tokyo station then cab to our hotel, the Conrad in the Shiodome area. We will be in Tokyo for 5 nights/6 days and plan to make 1 day trip, maybe to see Mt Fuji if weather conditions cooperate, Yokohama or Narra ( still deciding on this one ).

Which railpass should we buy? I read about the Suica + N'ex card for overseas visitors, it looks like a good value for the kind of travel we plan to do in the greater Tokyo area plus the trip from Airport to downtown Tokyo upon arrival. Which rail pass would you suggest? Also, it seems like there is a limo bus that leaves NRT airport to downtown Tokyo. is this a better option for 2 people traveling light?

Thanks for your input!

Getting to the Conrad: The two realistic choices are the airport limo bus and the Narita Express + taxi (about a $10-12 cab ride). I'd take whichever one was leaving first. There's a limo bus to the Conrad at 8:45, but if you miss that one, the next isn't until 1:50pm. If you do take the Narita Express, then you should take advantage of the NEx/Suica deal. You'll want to get the Suica card regardless -- not that the card itself saves any money, but it's enormously more convenient to have the card and use it for all your local travel instead of buying individual tickets for each little trip.

A day trip to Nara would be a l-o-n-g trip, and an expensive one. Are you sure you don't mean Nikko? Yokohama is much closer to Tokyo (just a half-hour away on local train), though I'm not sure what the attractions there would be.

Thanks Don. Our ANA flight arrives at 8 am. Between clearing customs and immigration, I'm not sure we can make it to the 8:45 am limo bus. Re: the Suica + NEx deal, it seems like the one way NEx is thrown in almost free along with the Suica initial load of ¥2000 + ¥500 deposit.

Don, you're right, I meant Nikko. We are still in the early planning stage of our 6 days in Tokyo. Definitely would like to make at least one day trip outside Tokyo. We're scratching off Yokohama. Mt Fuji area looks interesting and doable as a day trip, the deal breaker will be the weather in the last week of November when we will be in Tokyo. We would like to see some nice scenery in the train and wouldn't mind the experience of riding a Shinkansen.

Tsukiji market and a sushi breakfast in the inner market area are also high in our list, with the possibility
for shopping for some unique and unusual kitchen utensil or gadget that I didn't know I needed, in the backstreets of the market. The pre dawn fish auction is interesting but I'm not sure if they still let visitors and tourists in, such as the first 120 who show up early. Don, is Tsukiji fish market within walking distance from the Conrad? It looks close from the map.

I tried to post this under Japan, I'm not sure what happened but it only got as far as under Asia. Your suggestions and input are appreciated.

Staying at the Conrad, a great way to spend the better part of a day would be this: Just behind the Conrad are the Hamarikyu Gardens, which is one of several excellent gardens in Tokyo. Explore the gardens, then take the Sumida River cruise (its one of those boats like the bateaux-mouches in Paris) up to Asakusa. At Asakusa, be sure to check out the Sensoji temple and the whole neighborhood -- there's one street where you'll find nothing but shops specializing in kitchen knives. If you've got the energy, make your way over to Ueno, the Ueno Garden, and the Ameyoko shopping street. At that point, it's easy to make your way back to the Shiodome area by the Yamanote Line.

flyme - are you familiar with this site:
japan-guide.com
It can be helpful planning your trip.
You might consider a day trip doing the Hakone Round course:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html
Kamakura is also a nice day trip from Tokyo:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2166.html
Info for Nikko:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3800.html

It's not clear that you need a rail pass... it depends on where you decide to go. As you become clearer about this we can be helpful on the rail pass question.

I will be spending two and a half weeks in Japan and it turns out it would cost me more to use the rail pass than to buy the individual tickets.

Thanks to all of you for your input. Mara, thanks for the link, I will narrow down the places we plan to visit and will post a more specific list on here. Don, thanks for the great suggestion, exactly what I'm looking for. By the time we arrive at the Conrad, I'm guesstimating somewhere between 10-11, it might be too early to check in to our hotel, that will depend on Conrad if they will allow us an early check in. I like the river cruise idea, the gardens and some shopping to while the time away while not over exerting on our first day in Tokyo.

Please keep your suggestions coming.

If you mean to use the SUICA card as a rail pass, that's fine; if you're thinking of a JR pass, I don't see the point with your itinerary.

And check out both Tobu and JR offerings for Nikko. The Tobu line will be closer to your hotel, in all likelihood. http://www.tobu.co.jp/foreign/

Ok, it looks like the day trip will be to Mt Fuji/Hakone area. I also saw some all days tours from Tokyo. We lilke independent travel but in this case where language maybe a minor inconvenience because we don't speak Japanese, other than sushi, sashimi and Japanese food words, are we better off joining an organized tour? If so, which tour companies will you recommend?

Thanks.

You should be able to do the Hakone Round Course easily on your own....I don't do organized tours myself in Japan except once in Shikoku when I did a day tour to an area that is very difficult to cover with public transit.

The link I gave you explains your options to do it independently.
Here is another part of j-g.com with more specific info:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2358_008.html

I saw a JTB one day tour to that area that costs 11,000 JPY - the Hakone Pass including round trip train from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo is 5000 JPY.