On our way home from Thailand, my friend Mel and I had a 9 hour layover in Narita Airport in Japan. After consulting my Japanese manicurist in NYC, I had crafted the perfect single day in Tokyo.
Here’s what the PLAN was:
Take the train from Narita out to Shibuya and walk through Shibuya Crossing
Take the train back to Tokyo Station and walk south to Tsukiji Market
There is a famous sushi place called Daiwa Sushi there that typically has a line out the door - it was featured on No Leftovers on Instagram
Visit the Tsukiji Seafood Market, then walk north to Ginza
From Ginza, there are trains to Asakusa, which is made up of more traditional Japanese architecture
There are a couple of bridges that cross the Sumida River, leading to the Tokyo Skytree - the Skytree is more modern than Tokyo Tower and is becoming a more popular tourist spot
From Tokyo Skytree Station, there are trains (about an hour and a quarter) back to Narita Airport
And here’s what we ACTUALLY did in Tokyo:
We landed in Tokyo ready to tackle our 9 hour layover. However, turn of events, it took us close to 2 hours to make it out of customs. We didn’t want to risk missing our next flight, so we drastically modified our plan.
We stored our luggage and headed to the queue for Narita Express tickets. Based on time, we got round trip tickets to Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station is about one hour from Narita Airport. Once we had our tickets, we grabbed Starbucks coffees and some onigiri 🍙 from the food mart. Seats on the train are assigned because after Tokyo Station, the train splits in two parts with two different final destinations.
We walked the blocks around Tokyo Station, and up to the imperial garden gates. Then we walked south of Tokyo Station to see more of the city. We were afraid to stray too far from the station, so we got ramen from a spot in the ‘ramen row’ of Tokyo Station. It was amazing!
We took the hour train back to the airport and picked up our baggage from the luggage storage counter. We spent our final yen at the various gift shops in the terminal, and prepped for our 11 hour flight home.