Hi everyone! I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but here goes. I'm trying to get from LAX-AKL in business using miles, and the only thing I can get are flights that stop in NRT. I have 1.5 hours in NRT both on the way out and the way back -- is this enough time?

I've read that we'll have to clear security in NRT and we can't just stay airside, so I'm a little worried that this isn't quite enough time...

Thanks!

Assuming your flight arrives on time, all you need to do at NRT is go through transit security, its still airside.

If you arrive on, say, a UA flight (Terminal1) and transfer to Air New Zealand (Terminal 2), you need to take a bus to change terminals. Even so, 90 minutes is do-able. There is no need to clear immigration or customs - just a security check.

I want to go to the BiPlane shop in the central building in Terminal 1. It is located on the 5th floor. I have 6 hours and 50 mins to spend at NRT. I could spend countless hours at that store with breaks to eat Katsu Don!!!!!!!!!!!!

Questions:
Do i leave the secure area? or is it accessible within the airside? Am i allowed to leave the secure area with my connecting boarding pass?

I am coming into NRT from HKG, and connecting to HNL almost 7 hours later.

Yes, you can do this if people from Guatemala (or whatever country's passport you carry) can enter Japan without having to get a visa in advance. But you will pass through immigration and customs on your way in and then security and immigration on your way out. Check as much as you can to your final destination to avoid having a mess at security as doing it this way, the "baggie" rule for liquids will be enforced.

Inbound immigration can take 1 minute or it can take 60 minutes. Inbound customs is usually fast. Outbound immigration is generally only 10 minutes or less. Exceptions are peak Japanese holiday times, when it can be a mess.

Hahahah! Yeah, i'm sure they will let me bring Ramen in a baggie! That would be rather interesting! I wouldn't want 2 lbs of wet ramen with noodles in my lap for a 7 hour flight to HNL.
I'm holding a Canadian passport, so it's ok since i'm a Canadian by birth, living in Guatemala.

I'm just staying at the airport, so it should be ok. I don't speak Japanese so it will be a challenge. I have incredible nightmares of being mistaken for a Sumo because of my size. So i'll stay at NRT for 7 hours! hahaha!

You really shoudln't worry about any of those things - most people who venture out to Narita on a 7 hour transit don't speak any Japanese either. Most of the important signs (the ones you'd need to read to find your way about) are in English or bilingual. It really shouldn't be too much of a problem at all.

And having seen sumo wrestlers in action, and met with them, and stumbled upon them cycling around a neighbourhood, please don't even feel the least bit pre-occupied about being mistaken for one. These guys carry themselves with true dignity, are incredibly supple and amazingly athletic. Occasionally foreign sumo wrestlers (of all different abilities, male and female) visit Japan, from what I've seen they are treated with a little bit of interest (as a very large person might be everywhere) and with respect.

No need at all to carry those nightmares around with you - I'm sure you'll find Japanese srangers to be more polite and considerate than you would the people of almost any other country.

I really invite you to consider going landside for a little while and visiting Narita - the restaurants, ramen shops and tonkatsu joints are better and cheaper than those at Narita airport - the local streets are charming and atmospheric, and the temple and its grounds are quite beautiful.

De verdad, seguro que le trataran mucho mejor de lo que usted piensa. Pierda esas pesadillas!

Since this is the Japan forum, I presume that last sentence must be Japanese. Allow me to respond using the dialect of another region in Japan: Was machst du dere? Oy gevalt!

Richard in SF
Hahahahah! you crack me up! He's saying that "In truth, i'm sure they'll treat you much better than you think. Lose the nightmares!"
Thanks for the advice . . .it was the funniest nightmare i ever had considering i woke up laughing! But scary being kidnapped to a Sumo match! hahahaha!

When you realise how harsh and abrasive the 'clay' floor of a sumo ring is, how much bare flesh is involved, and all that course salt that gets scattered on it. Purification? OF COURSE the place needs purifying. Blood is extremely 'impure', almost taboo, in Shinto and that clay ring gets covered with the stuff. The salt 'disinfects' the ring, but it sure gets into those grazes . And that's without being slapped or slammed into by one of those guys (seemed to me like being hit full on by a high speed dodgem/bumper car).

Having been to a practice session I wouldn't wake up laughing if I were to have a dream like that. I was so pleased I hadn't had any breakfast first, I doubt I could have kept it down. 'Chatting' to the trainees afterwards was a lot of fun, though. Guess that was one benefit of visiting a sumo stable as a single young female, that morning still remains a highlight!

Seriously, AA767Lover, please do reassess your decision about going landside. NRT really isn't that nice a place and Narita town is so pretty!

I have sort of walked on the sumo ring in the Tokyo stadium -- it was covered with a strip of red carpet at the time -- when I was one of the many folks who got to clip Musashimaru's hair at his retirement ceremony. It didn't seem any harder than any other floor.

The sumo training sessions seem really, really tough to me as well, way worse than the matches. For example, in the corner of the practice room there wasa round pole about the same diameter as a telephone pole placed solidly upright in the ground. The exercize was to run at full speed and smash against it with your bare shoulder. Amazing!

OMG.... I'm not worthy. [prostrates self].
I was sorely tempted to buy a scalped ticket to watch that, but my mother was visiting at the time and she had no interest in seeing a "fat man get a haircut."

The dohyo is not as hard as other floors that you may be used to walking on. But it's pretty darn hard (and rough) compared with the floors of other places where people throw each other around - judo and aikido dojos come to mind.

IIRC: When the sumo wrestlers visited London about 17 years ago, the rikishi complained that the Thames mud which was used to build the dohyo had dried significantly harder than the stuff they were used to in Japan. They were concerned that there might be more injuries because of that.

BTW: The dohyo is not constructed entirely from earth. The earth sits on a foundation of beer crates. And before someone asks whether the crates are Asahi, Sapporo, Suntory or Kirin - I don't know.