Sumo or other on overnight layover
 

Hi all,

I'm on a JAL layover arriving Saturday Jan 21 at 3pm (from ORD) and leaving Sunday at 10AM (to DEL). I know JAL will give me an overnight room at Narita. I notice that there is a Sumo tournament on. Tickets are sold out, but I see there are resalers. Looks like the tournament ends at 6pm or so, which means I might make the last hour at best, if I RUN our of the airport. I see it's a little over an hour by train, with two connections, and... it's my first time in Japan.

So I'm almost ready to give up on the Sumo idea, but wonder if any think it's doable. This is my first time in Japan, and who knows if I'll be able to work Sumo into my plans when I take an actual trip here. I figure I can manage one Japanese thing to do in my short layover; this seemed like a cool idea.

If that's not the thing to do, what would all suggest? I'm inclined to take the Narita hotel for easy, baggage (have to check something for this trip), etc. That means into Tokyo for the evening after dropping off baggage. I thought I might stop by the Naritasan temple in the early AM before my flight out.

I am afraid there is virtually no chance for sumo on that day. It is the last Saturday of the tournament, which is always a tough ticket. Advance tickets are sold out. A few will be available at the box office on the day-of but they will sell out in the morning. The last hour of the day is when the big names fight and nobody misses that. You will not get in so there is little reason to kill yourself getting there. Your best bet to see sumo is to get to a hotel room and watch the live broadcast on TV.

I figured as much. I'd be willing to pay, but only if I could have enough time there for it to be worth it - maybe if the flight has a crazy tailwind...

That said, what do I do instead in January for one night? I'm not a drinker nor a partyer...

Given your schedule, there is little to do but walk around in the town of Narita a bit. Unfortunately, the big temple near the center of town (Shinshoji) closes at 4PM, but here are some suggestions for other things to do:

https://www.nrtk.jp/lang/en/sightsee...naritasan.html

To do any of these activities, however, you should probably book a hotel in the town itself, since the hotels where JAL sends layover passengers are located out in the middle of suburban nowhere. You may simply want to take JAL's offer of a room, have an early dinner in the hotel, and watch sumo live on TV.

Since you're not a nightlife person, your only option for Tokyo would be to go to one of the commercial centers, such as Shibuya or Shinjuku, and people-watch. The museums would be closed by the time you arrived in town.

My fav is to take the Keisei train to Ueno. A great market awaits, good food, safe, and stress-free.

JAL may not provide a free room. Rooms at Ueno are not expensive.

Train fare US$9-22 each way. (slow train or fast train. I take both)

The problem is that arriving at 3pm, you're really too late to go to most of the normal sights. The national museum of Japanese history, a short ride from Narita on the Keisei Line to Keisei Sakura station, closes at 4:30 pm, for example.

And there is no realistic way to reach the sumo stadium with enough time left to enjoy a reasonable number of matches, ticket issues or not.

The Ameyoko market near Ueno, suggested above, is moderately interesting, but even it tends to start to shut down in the late afternoon. If you take anything but the fastest train, it's an hour each way. Even with the fastest train, it's 40 minutes.

Enjoy your Narita hotel!

Do you need your baggage for your overnight? I would check it all the way through. Should be possible to find a bar or an Izakaya in Narita with Sumo on TV. Have a beer and some snacks with the locals, while watching the final matches.

Sadly its a 3 week trip with warm, cold, and professional complnents - so need to check a bag given the amount of variety I need, and I did plan to leave it with them. Still, I'll have a carry on to deal with somehow containing my clothes for the night, electronics etc.

I'm a little confused about opening hours. It seems some of th eurban parks have closing times listed, generally around sunset, which puts them out of my range. It also appears that SensoJi may be lit up nicely. Is it possible to see it at night, even if I cant go inside? That, plus some good dinner, might make a NEX roundtrip worth it. I do see that the train back to Narita at night may be a challenge as NEX stops running a bit early, but other lines are possible later.

Do folks think I could pull off a visit to the Narita san temple in the morning before an 1130 flight?

If you want to see Senso-ji, I'd suggest taking the Keisei Skyliner rather than the N'Ex. From Ueno, Asakusa is only two stops on the subway.

If your hotel is in Narita city (NOT at or near NRT,) you could easily get in a quick visit to the temple. Just get out early and get back to the hotel in time to check out, get your bags and grab the train back to NRT by 9:30-10:00 am or so.

If you decide to see Senso-ji instead, I'd suggest a hotel in either Ueno or Asakusa. In that case, you should just train directly back to NRT and skip Narita-san.

JAL put me in the Narita Excel Tokyu, which doesn't look near... anything. There seems to be a bus walking distance, but in the middle of a layover my first time in Japan, I'd probably cab it.

Google maps is also suggesting the Narita Skyaccess, which seems to run direct to Akasuka station. Thats a short walk away; is the walk bad enough to warrant the change at Ueno (or Nippori as google suggests for the skliner?)

The walk from the Toei Asakusa station where the Skyaccess will take you is less than 10 mins walk from the temple. Easily walkable. So both Skyaccess and Skyliner are fine. I would just take whichever leaves first.

Skyaccess is a commuter train (bench seats) and cheaper than the Skyliner, which offers luggage racks, forward facing seats etc.
http://www.keisei.co.jp/keisei/tetud...cess/index.php