By plane
The closest major international airport is Narita.
A tiny number of JR Narita Express trains serve at Omiya Station -- as of this writing, the 17:16 and 18:48 NEX departures from NRT T1 terminate at Omiya, and Omiya has two originating NEX services at 6:21 and 9:09. When it is available the NEX is fairly fast, taking around 110 minutes. At other hours, you can make it to ?miya station by taking the Narita Express to Tokyo and changing to the Tohoku/Joetsu Shinkansen; either route is covered by the Japan Rail Pass or JR East Pass.
JR Kanto Bus runs limousine bus service, the O N Liner, every hour from Narita Airport to and from the Saitama Shintoshin and ?miya train stations. The trip takes about two hours and costs �2750 each way.
The cheapest way to travel from Narita Airport to Omiya is to take a Narita Sky Access commuter train to Shin-Kamagaya station and change to the Tobu Noda Line. This takes about the same amount of time as the bus but only costs �1580.
From Haneda Airport you can take the Keikyu line to Shinagawa station and change to the JR Keihin-Tohoku line for the run to the Saitama area (80-90 minutes to Omiya, �1020). Hourly limousine buses also run to ?miya station (90 minutes, �1500
By train
Saitama's ?miya Station is a major train hub, connecting together the Tohoku Shinkansen and Joetsu Shinkansen lines, as well as the JR Keihin-Tohoku Line, JR Tohoku (Utsunomiya) Line, JR Takasaki Line, JR Saikyo Line, JR Kawagoe Line, JR Shonan-Shinjuku Line and Tobu Noda Line.
� Just about all northbound shinkansen trains from Tokyo and Ueno stop at ?miya station, with the ride from Tokyo taking 25 minutes. A reserved seat costs �2800, and a non-reserved seat, �1580, making the ride quite uneconomical compared to a local train. However, if you have a Japan Rail Pass or JR East Rail Pass, your trip is covered. Departures every 5-15 minutes. (Note: If you do decide
