Originally Posted by
sgosline
I have been browsing this thread to get some ideas for our upcoming flight. We arrive in NRT 9:35 am and depart at 4:55 pm. We have never been outside of the airport in Japan. I am thinking we would have enough time to visit Narita. We are obviously a little nervous about it, not knowing the area or the language. We do have use of the United lounge (I don't think the Polaris lounge is open yet) but sitting there for 6 hours does not sound appealing. I am going to try and talk my husband into taking train to Narita for a couple of hours. So, I have a list of what we need to do- go to arrivals, not transit, get currency exchanged (how much for lunch and possibly a few souvenirs?), put carry on bags in locker?, get train passes. For a 4:05 pm boarding time what time should we leave Narita?
Visiting Narita and visiting Tokyo are very different. I think visiting Narita town is a fine idea - there is an interesting walking street (right near the train station) with shops, restaurants and a temple that could take up a few hours. If you do that go into the tourist office about halfway down the road - there is an interesting little museum in the back that is worth it (and free). I think there is a bus from the airport for around 200 yen - but you'd need to check.
Also there is a big shopping center called AEON and a circle bus that goes to many hotels, and I think the train station where the walking street is located as well as the shopping center- costs 100 or 200 yen. The shopping center has a LOT of restaurants (and a food court as well). There is a big Daiso 100 yen shop there - if that is of interest - some pretty cool stuff and it changes often.
The interesting thing about the circle bus is that you get to see some of the areas that are residential along the way.
That said if you've been to NRT you know there are lots of shopping and eating opportunities right in the airport (more outside the secure area IIRC)
One thing that surprised me was how cash oriented the society is - not so much in malls, etc. but in general you can't pay for transit with cc only cash and ATM machines are not as ubiquitous as they are other places - they are most often located INSIDE a 7-11 or Family store not on the street as they are most other places.