Thanks,CPH! It seems like Narita is easier but either would be okay. That’s very helpful!

As far as I know, all buses at this time are land-side.
https://tokyo-haneda.com/en/access/t...als/index.html

Pre-pandemic I believe there was an airside bus between T2 and T3 but it was suspended when international flights ceased to use T2.

ANA used to have a bus from the arrivals concourse of the domestic terminal running every 10 to 20 minutes. But it is suspended at the moment after a bit more checking. The so called "ANA International Flight Transit Bus". I guess it will eventually return. But yeah, until then, it will be necessary to exit first.

Thank you! I’ll check first on the bus situation at Haneda but, right now, will plan on getting the tickets going through Narita.

Long Layover Haneda | Top 2 things to see Jan 2023 | Restrictions?
 

What date in January?

There are no attractions close in or around Haneda, apart from plane spotting. But you can get to some nice spots pretty quickly. I like the Shiba Rikyu garden, right by Hamamatsucho monorail station. And you could catch a train up to Yurakucho/Ginza, and then go from Higashi Ginza back to Haneda.

If you go to the lounge for breakfast and a shower, note that there is no official route back to the arrivals level, and during the morning arrivals transit security can have very long waits. I might suggest going through immigration, have breakfast somewhere and then head out to explore.

We transited Narita today. Extremely easy, extremely fast. But oh, my, I didn't envy those entering the country. The line was as far down the corridor as I could see. I have no idea where immigration was.

at Changi SIN, ANA counter refused to tag-through (saying the system didn't support it)

landing at HND at 6am, small line at immigration (~10-15 min).
while walking to immigration, there were several NH agents with placards for short-domestic connection (specifically for flights 7;15 or 8am HND-osaka i believe)

re-checked bags to ITM after entering Japan @ int'l terminal - small line for Y, *G had separate line with no wait.
got the (free) subway ticket to HND T2 (the airside bus from Int'l terminal was closed still, preferred subway > landside bus)

Planning on arriving from the US to HND at 3:10pm (DL). Is a 5pm flight to CTS (with NH) cutting it too close?

8 Hour Layover in HND
 

I have an upcoming trip LAX-HND-SGN. Flight arrives in Haneda at 5:30 pm and flight to SGN departs at 1:30 am (all on one ticket).
Is it worth trying to leave the airport and spend some time in Tokyo even though its an evening layover?
If I do decide to leave the airport, would I need to pick up my checked luggage or anything?
In case it makes a difference, I do have one world emerald

I just had a flight at SIN to HND at 6:20 AM connecting to CTS at 8:00 AM. So 1 hour 40 minutes connection time, 10 minutes shorter than yours.

Unfortunately the flight was delayed, so as far as I can tell from discussions at the transfer desk, many people missed their connecting flights. But even without the delay, it was a very tight connection.

Flight was 24 minutes delayed and arrived at 6:44 AM. By the time I cleared immigration, customs, picked up bags and arrived at the transfer desk it was already 7:36 AM. Too late to do anything for the original 8:00 AM connection.

Queue at transfer desk was not long but staff were very slow and took almost 15 minutes per guest to settle their problems. By the time it was my turn it was 8:00 AM and too late for the international desk to domestic transfer even on the new rebooked flight at 9:00 AM.

But NH staff told me was still possible to check in at the domestic counter side (30 minutes before flight time). I don’t know why staff asked me to queue at the transfer desk when they couldn’t do anything anyway. Would have been better if they had just advised people to go straight to the domestic side.

But note that at the domestic airport if you have odd size baggage, you can only use the manual check in counters, so even more queueing.

My tips - plan for delays. Instead of wasting time at the transfer desk, I wish I went straight to the domestic counter to check in there - more staff there and queues were moving faster there.

At immigration, maybe try to join the non-QR code line. It was much shorter but I got herded into the QR code line. But bags came out same time as immigration ended, so even if you saved time on immigration side you might still be waiting for bags.

Welcome to FT and thank you for the detail.

I have almost the same itinerary in June, except I'm flying out of NRT at 17:00 instead of HND.

Since I have to do the "cross town" connection, do I get lounge access at HND for a quick shower?

I'm planning on taking the train to Tokyo Station, leaving luggage there, and then going out on the town for some sushi and shopping and taking the Narita Express to get me to NRT around 14:00 or so.

Anything wrong with that plan at all? (And I posted in the other thread, but I still can't figure out what I'm supposed to do to get a QR code for this itinerary.)

No. There are paid shower facilities in the arrivals area (landside) but they tend to be oversubscribed. Another option is to visit a super sento somewhere in Tokyo.

It works if you're planning to explore places close to Tokyo station (Ginza, Imperial palace, or Nihonbashi for example).
If you have in mind to visit Shinjuku or Shibuya, I'd suggest leaving your bags at Shinagawa instead. You can get there directly from the airport, and the scale and layout of the station is less intimidating than Tokyo. It is also served by Narita Express.

Fill in the forms on the Visit Japan Web website. Enter your transit details in place of an address in Japan.