Tldr: no more suica at the airport, pasmo at keisei info desk only, lines can be long. Plus side is you get a cute Sanrio card as a souvenir. Story of my experience 2 days ago.
Just got to Japan a couple of days ago and terminal 2/3 at NRT was an absolute zoo. We’re staying in nippori so bought keisei tickets in advance, it’s a direct shot. I highly recommend staying near where the airport train takes you (any station along the Skyliner or n’ex). Having to figure out how to transfer trains after a 12 hr flight is not my idea of a fun time. The plan was to land, get a suica for my husband (I still have a valid one), pick up the keisei Skyliner tickets we pre purchased online, and leave. Esim already done, I’ve been here before, thought we were good.
The lines! It took us half an hour to find the sign saying they no longer sold new suica cards. The confused masses of ppl did not help. The keisei info desk was the only one selling an IC card (pasmo passport, ¥1500 cash only) so we waited 35 min in line because they were understaffed, and confused tourists take time. I get it. I could’ve gone to an electronic kiosk which had the same # of ppl lined up but going faster. I’m part of the problem here ’cause we need an IC card. We’re not staying at a major station and plan to be taking a local bus in the morning. By the time we left the line, it was twice as long as when we got in it. So I guess the lesson here is try to at least walk fast, split up, and beat the ppl from your flight if you can. Tbf I also think our flight arrived concurrently with two other international flights, so my experience could be the exception.
We exited customs/airport around 4pm, that was super smooth sailing, and barely made the 5:45 train out. 1.5 hours to be in one line and pick up a 7-11 onigiri was not the end of the world but more than this pregnant lady was feeling for.
As a side note – I felt like a subject matter expert as 2-3 confused families overheard me explaining the bookings to husband, and asked me their questions. Lady, I can relay the info from the 3 YouTube videos I watched, but I got no idea how you’re going to get to this -name of random place-.
by GrinningCatBus