Late night arrival in Narita on a Sunday

I arrive into Narita Terminal 1 at 9:10pm next Sunday, 1st July.

I need to check in to my hotel (Hotel Gracery Shinjuku) before midnight.

I have a JR Pass but don't have to activate it on the 1st, I could activate it only the next day.

I have no idea how long it would take to exchange the voucher for the pass at Narita, to be honest... I'd rather do it that night if time allows.

Arriving at 9:10pm, I doubt I'll be able to make it to the last NEX train at 9:44pm (after getting my checked in luggage and passing customs).

What is the next best option, in your opinion?

Personally, I believe I might also miss the Keisei Skyliner 58 at 21:50pm, but will probably make the Keisei Skyliner 60 at 10:30pm. This has me arriving at Shinjuku JR station (after a transfer) at around 23:41pm.

It leaves me 19 minutes to make it to my hotel, which is apparently a 10 minute walk away, in the middle of the night, with luggage. I understand Shinjuku is a very big station and can be confusing on your first time.

Should I brave the walk from the station? Take a taxi from the station?

Or is there a better option?

Thank you.

Best Answer

Here is the tricky part: Shinjuku is the largest transportation hub in the world (train or otherwise) and the station itself has more than 200 exits. It's fairly well organized, but it's still easy to get lost because of its sheer size, being there for the first time and/or no reading/speaking Japanese

The good news is that according to Google Maps your hotel is only an 11 minute walk from the center of the station, which makes it entirely walkable. It looks you need to get off at exit B10 or B13 (see for example https://www.tokyometro.jp/lang_en/station/shinjuku/map/index.html).

Most of the walking in the station is underground, i.e. it's reasonably fast since there are no traffic lights and roads to cross. Since it's a Sunday night, it shouldn't be super crowded.

Taxi isn't easy either since you need to deal with getting a taxi, explaining the driver where you need to go, and figuring out how to pay. Ride sharing has only limited availability in Japan, so this may not help much. Taxis are also subject to traffic and even once you are in one, you may not move much faster than walking speed.

My personal preference would be to just walk it, provided you don't have big luggage and you can familiarize yourself with the station and the route upfront.