Anyone Been to Narita Airport?
 

I will be traveling to Guam in feb. and one of my layovers is in TOKYO JAPAN!!! but i have no idea

1. How to act
2. what the heck to do when i get off the plane

its a 5 hour layover so i want pleanty of time to take pictures and get a bunch of trinkets for friends... so is there anything i need to know.. since this is my first time traveling outside the us.. i got everything like passport and shots getting done but i have no idea what i do when i get to the airport in tokyo... (did i mention i am living out a dream...)
:pandahurray:
:pompoms:

If I am not mistaken, if Japan is not one of your destinations you will be restricted to a small area for changing planes and forbidden to go outside that area and you will not be allowed to leave the airport. Since I have never flown through Japan I do not know if you can buy any trinkets or things like that, but probably you can. My destination has always been Japan.

yeah since its 5 hours i dont think i will have the need but anythin else....

thanx... i hope i will be able to look around tho... i promised some pictures and a couple trinkets... but i hear that guam is like a cross between japan and hawaii... but still getting something in the japanese airport would still be cool... i wish i could just stay there but my boyfriend wants me in guam after he gets off his sub..

Good luck to you ivory_bird and I hope you get to take some good pics and buy some trinkets. Either way I think it will be a great experience for you. If you have a window seat you can take some neat pics of the closness of the houses and the farmlands as you are landing in Narita. I wish you the best.

when i flew to narita i remember having to get a train to tokyo central - it took about an hour; narita isnt actually near the centre of tokyo im afraid; but you should beable to pick up some souvineers in the terminals - theyre pretty big :)

good luck!

Narita isn't even in Tokyo unfortunately. It is in Narita which is two hours away on the cheap trains and maybe an hour by car or express train. I know that when people get off of the plane and have connecting flights, they go in a different direction than those actually going into the country. What is down that hall, I don't know. My roommate when I lived in China had a layover when he came over and had dinner at Narita so there will probably be some shops there. I reccomend getting a big bowl of ramen and drinking a few beers, this will make five hours fly by quite quickly.

Narita
 

There are some shops at Narita even if you are confined to the layover area. I recall at least an electronics store, a book store, and a CD shop. By the way, if you are tired, you can even rent a tiny room with a bed for a nap. I did that once. It really hits the spot. It'll make the second leg of your journey much easier. Good luck!

just a couple questions

whats the legal drinking age in japan... i think its 16 but not sure

how much does a nap cost

where can i exchange my money

and

is everything really pricey

Tokyo airport
 

Hey,
I went to Japan last year for 10 days and it was a dream come true! As far as the airport goes, people are extremely considerate and helpful in spite of the language barrier. There are Sushi places to eat and enough stores to keep you busy during your lay-over. When we were there I tried to tip someone for his help and he refused it and said "I should not pay him for being considerate". Man, I knew I wasn't home! Enjoy your trip.

Gillyguy

you'll be stuck in transit lounge for most of the time. There are few shops, depends on which terminal you are at 1 or 2. There's food and some souvenir shopts

Survivors guide for Narita airport
 

After two vacations ( 2005 & 2006 ) to Japan,
this is what you have to know when entering this country,
before entering Japan, make sure you pick up your Japanese money at your local airport . before leaving, this way , you don't have to wait doing that at Narita,
for me . it was a 13 1/2 airline flights from New York to Tokyo, try to leave in the morning, this way . you can come in by the afternoon,
upon landing, on my first trip, we actually landed on an open runway, due to heavy traffic, we were picked up by three buses , which sped us to terminal two, once inside the terminal, we had to walk to the other terminal, Visa a long walk away, in order to get too terminal one and entering japan & connecting flights,
on my second trip . I took my time walking down as long walk way to the other terminal, I think the only reason they do this is to see who gets off these flights from foreign countries, that explains the many little cameras on this very long walk way,
finally , you get too . the entering room where you have to fill out some paperwork, then get out of line, which made me feel like I was at Bank or the post office, presenting my passport, with the paperwork, you go into the next room and pick up your suitcase, this room is much larger, and leads to the actual terminal, you present your passport to the guards at the gate,
on both tirps, I never had to open my bag, I just had to say that I did not have any drug on me, to the gate guards, and walk right in,
once U get pass this gate, U R Now in Japan.
form here U can take any trian to tokyo, your best bet is to Express it , ( it much faster).
that it,

When I went to Japan last year, there wasn't a one-way to Nagoya, so I had to stop at Narita Airport, then transfer from there to Nagoya. I had only two hours in between flights which was a NIGHTMARE. It wouldn't have been so terrible had I not had to wait 1+ hours just waiting for my luggage to arrive (my luggage couldn't go one-way either, so I had to get my luggage, go to check in, give them my luggage again so it could be taken to Nagoya). Plus, I'd gone to the Vancouver airport at 7am (even though my flight was at 10am---they said to go a couple of hours early, so I did), and arrived at Narita at around midnight (Vancouver time). I couldn't sleep at all in the airplane (I couldn't help but think someone would steal my wallet if I let my guard down XD). So, on top of the waiting time, I was seriously sleep deprived.

I managed to read the huge map they had at Narita airport describing where everything is wrong, so I went a floor too high. BUT when I tried to go down, the elevator that was nearest to me that went down was under repair, so I had to frantically go and find another elevator (which was way on the otherside of the floor!). When I DID find it, it was an elevator that went straight to the first floor, without stopping on second. So I had to go to the first floor, find an elevator that went to SECOND floor. Then I managed to screw up the direction again, I went to the right side when I was supposed to go left. By this time, it was getting dangerously close to the flight time.

When I arrived at the metal-detector place, a woman who worked at Narita was already calling out my name trying to look for me -_-" When I got into the bus that took us to the airplane, everyone was looking at me as if I was just a big bother.

Moral of this story is? At least 3 hours in between connecting flights!

The drinking age is 20 here but i've never seen any one get carded except for some stores and a few high end clubs.

mainly cuz they dont want lil kids running around in the clubs.

umm if you only have 5 hours.

its gona take around 1 and 1/2 hours by skyliner to get any where and back

so already your looking around 3-4 hours traveling time pending on traffic. you'll never get enuf time to snap pictures.

Narita has the basic shops which sell random "japanese items" usualy made in china..

to actualy get to see tokyo your gona have to take a trip here. trust me its worth it =)

how much does a nap cost?

you can exchange money when you leave customs gate and its right across from where you buy bus/train tickets. You'll see big signs for $$ exchange.

and yes the majority of things in Tokyo is expensive.

I went through Narita Airport when I was going to Australia (I was going to see my long lost uncle) the plane had stopped there so it could refresh its supplies, clean up, and acquire more fuel, in the mean time I was talking to some really cute Japanese girls (Go me) :D When I went to the toilet there it was............ absolutely fascinating, I mean I only went to pee and I just saw these toilets in the ground it was an absolutely phenomenon experience, I just stared and observed it for like 10 minutes in the end my mum thought I'd got stuck or something. But otherwise the airport was really good all the people were really nice (and had some cute Japanese girls) XD.

Narita airport is like every other major hub airport, only with Japanese people running around. Like everyone else said, Narita is hella far away from Tokyo, so you won't be able to see anything and you'll be stuck in the airport. They have tons of overpriced things you could buy. Everything in Japan is more expensive. It's ridiculous.