8 hours in Tokyo? [(HND) What to do?]

[diningdecadence]

land into HND at 1405 (domestic), and depart 2220 (international)

enough time/ worth going into Tokyo itself?

Never been before and will most likely be solo touring after the QFs at RWC.

 

[AisleSeat]

If you had to be back at the international terminal at say 8pm, that would give you around 4-5 hours in Tokyo (travel times 30mins-1hour each way)

 

[Spongbob]

Enough time to track down a few Godzilla statues.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

land into HND at 1405 (domestic), and depart 2220 (international)

enough time/ worth going into Tokyo itself?

Never been before and will most likely be solo touring after the QFs at RWC.

The hard part, I think, will be working out where you are going to spend your 4-5 hours! Tokyo is absolutely enormous... even with my Japanese friend showing the way it can take an hour to go from one side to the other by public transport. So you'd need to do your research and find one thing to see, and then a nice little authentic food place. And get a suica card (Otherwise trying to work out which fares on which routes can be very hard.)

 

[Himeno]

8 hour connection via HND gives more time then a NRT connection.
Will you need to recheck for the international flight?

You'd have about 5 hours available once accounting for transport to/from HND and airport formalities. I'd stick to places in the SE and E of the city (Ōsaki and anticlockwise to Ueno on the Yamanote loop train line would be about the limit).

It can be worth it, but it depends what you are interested in. Trying to get to somewhere like Shinjuku or Shibya aren't going to be worth it with the time the transport each way will take. Places like Sky Tree, Minato (area around Tokyo Tower), Odaiba, Akihabara or Tokyo station might be worth it.

 

[RooFlyer]

At HND There is usually a nice man or lady to operate the ticket machine for you and help to get to where you want to go.

Imperial palace gardens are beautiful and very close to Tokyo Station. The Ginza district is also close - cruise the department store food halls and admire, then eat the art!

Tokyo Station itself a bit of a wonder - the maze inside and the lovely Palace side.

4-5 hours perfect strolling around.

Here is the part of my TR when I did just that.

Twice around the world in 40 days

 

[MEL_Traveller]

At HND There is usually a nice man or lady to operate the ticket machine for you and help to get to where you want to go.

Hmm I had a nice lady help me at NRT one time. She bought me a ticket but it didn't allow connections on the Yamanote line! I found out the hard way when the barrier wouldn't open. I'd been sold a ticket that would only allow the connection by tube, a journey which was going to take three or four times longer.

It was boiling hot. I had bags. i must have looked like i was bout to cry. Or make a scene. The ticket office at the connecting station upgraded my ticket, for free!

 

[leadman]

I've done the Tokyo run from both HND and NRT airports a number of times, HND being the easiest. With the monorail at the terminal, easy to get it into Hamamatsucho/Daimon and its quiet frequent. Once there even at those stations there are some great little restaurants and you can do some walking through the local streets. From here its 3 stops on the JNR will take you into Tokyo station and you can walk around there, one way across to the Palace or the other side of the station to Ginza.

As a big user of public transport, Tokyo can be the hardest if you haven't studied up and a mistake can consume a lot of travel time. To understand the different train lines/companies, including the fantastic private lines is almost an art in itself. The other point is if you get into Tokyo and it does go "bum up" and time becomes critical, its easy to grab a taxi back to HND.

HND to Tokyo with the time you have fine, but you wouldn't do it from NRT as even using the Keisei Express to get to Uedo is just under an hour each way.

 

[Himeno]

At HND There is usually a nice man or lady to operate the ticket machine for you and help to get to where you want to go.

When I was at HND last Nov, I was at the train station ticket machines topping up my Suica when a pair of tourists (german?) came up to the next machine all confused trying to work out what ticket to get. They said that they had "been told to get a Suica", but being a non JR station, the machines didn't sell Suica's. I leaned over, confirmed they wanted a Suica and 2 seconds later, had the screen open to get them new Pasmo cards. "Get those, they are the same as Suica".

Years ago, before Suica or Pasmo were widespread, and I was stuck with getting paper tickets each time (or daily tickets for either JR or metro), the english setting on the machines wasn't working. I went to the gate line holding the train map looking confused. One of the station staff came over, I pointed to where I wanted to go on the map, said machines not working with English. The staff member asked for cash and went over to a ticket machine and got a ticket for me.

The first time I was in Tokyo, I'd gotten the cheap commuter train from NRT and was at the transfer station. Standing on the platform looking at my map trying to work out where to go. The train driver leaned out of the cab window, looked at my map and told me how to make the connection.

 

[IMOA]

I’d still head for Shibuya, its got the biggest concentration of sights which are very ‘japanese’ and its only 30 minutes and one change of train from Haneda (I would generally suggest Keikyu into shinagawa and yamanote to shibuya) .If you run out of hings to see its only another 5 minutes on the train to Harajuku where you can do the park and Meiji shrine and a bit of people watching (more foreigners than Japanese in Takeshita these days though).

I would agree to get a pasmo or suica, makes all your transfers easy and you’ll likely need no more than about Y2000. There’s a Y500 deposit which you can get returned if you want by handing it in at the airport but since they don’t expire I’d suggest you kee[ it for the next time you fly through.

 

[Quickstatus]

How long is a piece of string question:
How much cash should i carry for a week in Tokyo?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How long is a piece of string question:
How much cash should i carry for a week in Tokyo?

$50 in your pocket on arrival just in case of an emergency and you need to use a money changer. Otherwise use citibank debit to withdraw money at airport ATM on arrival (Y20000 maybe). Top up using cash mashines at 7/11 as required.

 

[IMOA]

Depends where you go, I don’t like to have less than 10,000 in my pocket and when I was living there I’d always have more than that. Know where you’re going, there’s still a lot of restaurants which will be 50,000+ for two who won’t take a card and certainly an enormous number of izakaya where you’ll spend 5-10/head with a few drinks which are cash only. I take out 50,000 at a time and replenish when it gets close to 10,000 but I do enjoy going out in Tokyo.

 

[offshore171]

How long is a piece of string question:
How much cash should i carry for a week in Tokyo?

In addition to the other responses, a great tip is to stick put some extra credit on your Suica card and use that for various small purchases instead of cash.

You can tap and pay with Suica at convenience stores, taxis, vending machine and many shops. The benefit is that it will save you from ending up with copious amounts of loose change.