Train Directions from Tokyo Narita Airport to Kashiwanoha-Campus Station
Step 1: Find the “Railways” area in the airport
On the plane, you’ll get two forms, one for immigration and one for customs. When you
get off the plane you’ll first pass through a “quarantine” checkpoint (laugh as you hear themultilingual recording encouraging you to tell an official if you don’t feel well), then throughimmigration (they’ll take oneof the forms), and then to
the baggage pick-up area.
Once you get your bags,you’ll pass through acustoms checkpoint (they’ll“Railways”
take the second form), andBaggage Claimthen you’ll be in Japan! It’s
amazing that for what must
be a big airport, it doesn’tfeel like a giant place.
You’re looking for an
escalator and staircase thattakes you down one floor.
It’s basically right in front of
you as you exit baggage
claim, and it looks like thisphoto.
Step 2: Find the Narita Sky Access “Access Express” (Hokuso Line)
When you get downstairs you’ll see thatthe entrance to the train platforms are all
towards the same direction (straightahead in this photo to the right). There
are two train lines: JR Lines on the rightand Keisei/Sky Access Lines on the left.
You want the Keisei “Narita Sky Access /Access Express” on the Hokuso Line.
Yes, this is confusing. Every train in
Japan is either called “rapid” or “express”
or some other confusing variant, so you
have to be careful. In the photo below,
you can see threeversions.
Note the AccessExpress train you want
is a Keisei line train,
and so the ticket boothand entrance is on theleft side. You don’twant JR Linetrains which areon the right side.
This photo showsthe Keisei ticket
booth, and just to
the right of it, theentrance to theKeisei lineplatforms. Thepeople at thebooth speak
English, so you
can ask for
confirmation ofthe right platform.
Step 3: Buy aPASMO card
You can ask theKeisei ticket booth to sell you a ticket on the Sky Access train, with final destination
Kashiwanoha-Campus (or at least Minami-Nagareyama). But, it’s better and very easy tobuy an electronic “PASMO” card at one of the machines next to the ticket booth. ThePASMO (or equivalently Suica) card will gain you access to any train, subway, or bus inTokyo. You charge the card with cash at these machines and then you swipe the card
when you enter and exit the transit system. You don’t even have to take it out of yourwallet. It’s beautiful.
First, find a
PASMO/ticketmachine (there aresome on either sideof the ticket booth).
The screen is
pictured to theright. Notice and“touch” the bottomleft button that says
“English”
Next, touch thebutton that says
PASMO and you’ll
get the screen
pictured to theright. You want tochoose the topbutton “PASMO” tobuy a Pasmo card

“English”

for ¥500.
Later in your visit, you
might choose the“CHARGE” button to add
more money to yourexisting card.

The next screen gives
you the option of“Nameless Card” or“Named Card.” You want
“Nameless Card.”

Then you get to choose
how much cash you wantto add to the card. The¥500 “deposit” will be
deducted from this. You’ll
want at least ¥5000(which is like $50),
because the trip toKashiwa alone issomething like ¥2200 andas you travel aroundTokyo, you’ll be surprised
how quickly the balanceon your card drops. Afteryou touch the amount
you’re going to charge
the card with, you’ll needto insert the correct
number of bills, and thena brand new PASMO
card will pop out. Each
person needs their own
card and then you’reready to go.

Step 4: Enter the Keisei line and find your platform
Armed with yournew PASMO
card, you canhead off throughthe entrance ofthe Keisei line.
You’ll see thesegates with acard reader
positioned on
How tothe right-handkeepside. All you
unemployment low
have to do isswipe yourDisplay
PASMO cardover the reader,you’ll hear ahappy little
beep, theCardbalance on yourReader
card will display
on a screen,and off you go. I
keep myPASMO card in
my wallet and just take my wallet out of my pocket and kind of slap it onto the reader. You
can go through basically without breaking stride. If you screw up, the gates (whichnormally stay open) will close on you and the machine will make a nasty noise. Oh andsometimes the reader says “Suica.” Suica and PASMO are interchangeable.
The train platforms are ahead of you
and are well signed. You’ll wantplatform 1 “for Hokuso Line, Nippori,Ueno, Oshiage, Toei Asakusa & Keikyu
Line.” Often (but not always) the “SkyAccess” train you want has adestination of Haneda Airport, the othermajor Tokyo airport.

Step 4: Your route
You will be taking a total of three different trains. Here’s how the route breaks down:
OriginTransfer atLine

Time

Narita-Airport

Higashi-Matsudo (after roughly 6stops)

Narita Sky Access (AccessExpress / Hokuso Line)37 minHigashi-Matsudo

Minami-Nagareyama (3rd stop)

JR Musashino Line(towards Shim-Matsudo,Minami-Urawa &Fuchuhonmachi

10 minMinami-Nagareyama(Station #10)

Kashiwanoha-Campus(Station #13, 3rd stop on “localservice” / 2nd stop on “semi-rapid.” Do
not take “rapid service”)

Tsukuba Express(towards Tsukuba orMoriya)

7-9 min

There are signs in English in every station and announcements in English on each train
except the JR Musashino Line. The English signs on the station platforms of theMusashino Line can be hard to find while on the train. Minami-Nagareyama is written inHiragana (usually vertically on posts) as follows: みなみながれやま.
If you have internet access you can get theexact times of the trains and transfers fromthis website, just put in Narita-Airport andKashiwanoha-Campus for your origin anddestination, as well as the time you expect
to leave.
For the JR Musashino Line at HigashiMatsudo, you’ll have a platform choice tomake. You want platform one towards
Shim-Matsudo, Minami-Urawa &Fuchuhonmachi. To confirm, there are signs with all the stations listed and the direction oftravel indicated at the base of the stairs. Once you board the Musashino line at HigashiMatsudo, you’ll go 3 stops and get off at Minami-Nagareyama (みなみながれやま).
When you exit the Musashino Line at the MinamiNagareyama station, you’ll actually exit the train system
entirely at street level, maybe even see some blue sky.
The entrance to the Tsukuba Express train station at
Minami-Nagareyama (pictured to the right) is directly infront of you, about 10 meters. You can take any Tsukuba
express train in the direction of Tsukuba or Moriya except
for the “Rapid Service” -- these are rare but they will notstop at Kashiwanoha-Campus.
Your final destination is No. 13, Kashiwanoha-Campus
station. Check out the IPMU webpage to see how to get from the station to IPMU.