JR Pass

My friend and I will be arriving in Tokyo from Kyoto, Takayama on 31 October 2007, with our JRpasses. I do not understand previous answers on Tokyo subways concerning the fact that you cannot use your JRP for subways. We arrive with it, so, on which station do we arrive then? Our hotel is in Akasaka.How do we get there then? Buy a seperate ticket.Please help, the hundreds of lines are confusing. Thanks!

Mind if I ask which hotel you will stay in Akasaka? There're several stations nearby.

We will be staying in The Asia Center in Akasaka

I think what you have to understand is that JR lines are inevitably used for long distance travel, such as from Kyoto to Tokyo. However, both JR's and other companies' lines are useful within cities, including Tokyo.

Look at this map of Tokyo's train lines, noting that JR's lines are thin or striped grey lines. Everything else is not JR.

http://www.tokyometro.jp/rosen/rosenzu/pdf/rosen_eng.pdf

You will probably arrive by shinkansen at one of Tokyo's stations, probably TOKYO. It's well marked on that map. From there, you can see that you'll have to say goodbye to JR's wonderful bullet trains, leave their station, and transfer to a metro station. You'll have to take one of the "colored" lines (at least they're colored on the map) to get to your destination (JLady was asking you for your exact train station name, you should know it and be able to locate it on the map). Akasaka is sort of in the middle right by the green area, which represents the Imperial East Gardens (???). And just in case, I made this mistake the first time too, make sure you want to go to Akasaka because Asakusa is another popular tourist destination but is completely different from Akasaka and farther to the east.

From TOKYO METRO's Tokyo station, you shouldn't have to pay more than 160-190 yen to get most places in central Tokyo. And yeah, because the train line is operated not by JR (but by TOKYO METRO), you cannot use your JR Pass (duh).

Thanks for your quick response. I already printed a lovely, clear map that I got from my Travel Book Insight Guides. I understand now that we will transfer to another underground level to reach our destiny in Akasaka.Will ask for another maps at Tokio station. Domo arigato!
Magda