On our way to the states from Australia we had exactly 24 hours in Narita. We arrived on JAL Business class, the flight was very comfortable and the service excellent. The meals of the european style were adequate, but the Japanese style meals were excellent, great variety of flvours and the presentation excellent. We transferred to the Narita Nikko , a fairly anonymous generic hotel. We had a voucher for a certain value to use at the hotels restaurants, we chose the Chines restaurant and we had a great meal, tasty food and plenty of it ! The rooms were standard but the toilets were a source of great amusement for the three kids. They had never seen an electronic toilet, and two of them (and myself) were totally amazed by the accuracy of the wash function! in fact if they can transfer the technology to the US they will never fear missile attack again !! A good nights sleep!

The next morning we were up early to make sure we had a bit of time in old Narita. The hotel (free) shuttle bus dropped us off at the rail station and on the other side we entered old Narita. Narrow street and initially a lot of traffic. We stopped at a small shop selling fresh cakes which turned out to be filled with bean paste, very sweet warm and quite comforting ! We wandered on heading towards Naritasan Shinshoji Temple. We stopped and took some photos of two guys preparing Unagi, freshwater eel, very precise work with an interesting aroma ! We stopped at a sweet shop where we bought some exquisite jewel like sweets for friends back home, which the staff then wrapped so beautifully it was a shame to open them ! We stopped at a couple of places selling pickles and spices and dried condiments, all available for tasting, and taste we did !

we arrived at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple and wandered around the entrance, some great photo ops around the stone sculptures. We headed up to the main temple just as the priests arrived for a " service", we thought it would be a Buddhist only event but we were very warmly invited in, we sat on the floor and one of the priests gave us a running commentary on what was going on. The ceremony was a slowly building and was very impressive in its power, at the end all of us foreigners were invited to have something blessed, wallets, photos, hand bags etc. It was a really interesting thing to be part of ! It was a very brief exposure to Japan but has whetted our appetitie for a longer stay next year. We flew out to L.A. that afternoon, Narita airport is very efficient but has minimal duty free shopping !

we think a trip into narita town is a very good use of stop over time....we have done it twice....the hardest thing was japanese immigration---the rest was very easy

That was a very nice report. Thank you for posting. Many people on this board ask about layovers in Narita, and this will be a good post to point them to. Very cool that you were able to participate in the temple ceremony.

We actually found the Japanese immigration procedure went very smoothly, sometimes you can be lucky, or maybe travelling with kids helps?

How was luggage transfers handled? Could you check in for the outgoing flight at the hotel or do you have to do that at the airport?

Widya Santoso

For destinations other than north america you could check in at the Hotel. For north america we had to go through the procedure at the airport. We flew business class and I appreciated the very competent procedure. On another note I love the nose cam on the JAL plan!

Thanks Marko. Unfortunately, I'll be utulising the hotel on the way to the US, so I am going to have to spend the whole morning checking luggage and then twiddling my thumbs. I'd prefer to do some travel stuff rather than spend it in the airport.