99% sure you passed through a transfer gate in Tokyo station that requires you to produce two "tickets" (physical or virtual)—one for subway and one for Shinkansen. Always plenty confusing. I have to hold my phone (Suica app) and an EX card (Shinkansen card) together for a dual-NFC tap. I always forget one or the other.

YES! That was it!

For a long time in Japan, the physical cards were limited because of IC inventory shortage. There was a big push to get people to use their phones during this time.

Also, travelers beware: some of the special "Suica" sold at Haneda (and maybe Narita, too?) expires and is completely dead after 30 days, even if it has a balance. I found this out the hard way. Buy a proper Suica at Shinagawa or another non-airport station.

That’s the red “Welcome Suica”. Green or any other IC card at any other location like ICOCA don’t expire functionally ever. The stated time on some cards is 10 years since last use, but they’re practically infinite in that they can be used even after this point.

"The EU Commission has finally proposed a solution: set your privacy preferences in the browser once, and never see another banner."

Browser-based privacy controls were proposed in the late-90s/early-2000's as P3P, and were killed by corporate interests.

https://www.w3.org/P3P/