Hey guys, I recently purchased a ticket to Japan in the beginning of November due to a family emergency and I have a *15 hour layover* in Narita which I land in at 4:30pm, and eventually have to go to Haneda the next day at 6:20am to eventually go to Itami where I’ll be picked up by a family member. I just have a couple of questions for anyone who experienced anything similar as to
* How to get to Narita to Haneda (From what I’ve read I’m not allowed to use any public transportation for the first two weeks)
* Where to stay during those 16 hours (I know I’m not allowed to stay in any hotels and I’m not definitely not allowed to loiter in the lobby, or am I?)
I appreciate anyone taking the time to give me some insight into how I can approach this as I’m quite nervous and only doing this for a family emergency. For some context, I do have a Japanese passport and will be tested 72 hours before my trip.
Thank you in advance for anyone with any advice!
9 comments
You won’t be allowed to take domestic flight before you completed 14 days quarantine, as that is considered a public transport. Your options are:
– Change the flight to Kansai airport (if possible)
– Have your family driving to Narita to pick you up.
– Pay for hire driver to drive you to Osaka (~250,000JPY IIRC)
– Complete your 14 days quarantine in hotel in Narita area.
Wow this is a massive oversight. Unfortunately you cannot make your flight from Haneda. I would adjust that immediately. You’ll need to quarantine for 2 weeks and not use any public transit. Your connecting flight is considered public transit. You’ll need to either wait out the two weeks in Tokyo OR have your family drive from Hyogo to get you. You cannot take trains or busses and taxi is too much.
You can quarantine at a hotel but it’s best to ask them beforehand as not all hotels accept quarantine. Private transport can be arranged to the hotel and some hotels have a quarantine shuttle service.
This oversight will be really expensive… I think your only option is to take a taxi between the airports which is over $250 dollars and could be as much as 40,000 yen.
Your best bet might be to change your flight to land at Kansai (KIX), if a flight still exists, and have a family member pick you up from the airport. Not quite so bad from Hyogo.
Could be a hassle getting your tickets changed with AC but you may as well call and ask.
There is a capsule hotel in terminal 2 of Narita, called Nine Hours- can you spend the night there? It doesn’t solve the transportation issue though.
Miss the connecting flight to Haneda, have family pick you up in Narita and drive to your destination for the requisite 14 day quarantine. It’s almost a 7 hour drive but you’ll get there faster than waiting for the connecting flight that you won’t be allowed on anyways. You can also Google “Narita to Haneda COVID” and there’s a link to the Narita airport site that lays out your options for transfers between international airlines. https://www.narita-airport.jp/en/connect
You can’t take *public* transport from the airport because of Covid protocols, but you can hire a driver, whether a taxi or something else.
I have not used a private transfer service but I know many exist. If you google “private Tokyo airport transfer” you will find many that will give you a firm quote based on your time/luggage, which might be better than taking a $250-450 gamble on a taxi.
If you *do* take a taxi, go to Haneda before nightfall, because Tokyo taxis have big surcharges at night.
If I were in your shoes I would look into a direct international flight to Osaka. Unfortunately there aren’t many of those at the moment. Your best bet from Canada may be Emirates Toronto>Dubai>Kansai.
A one-way car rental from Narita to Osaka may also work if you are able to drive in Japan.
Personally if I were in your shoes, I’d call both the Narita and Haneda airport customer service and ask them how most flyers deal with this situation. Everyday this flight occurs so it’s not like they’ve encountered exceptions to this. “Public transportation” has various meanings, I’m sure you could just use one of the private coaches that does transfers multiple times a day. I don’t see why you couldn’t just hang out at either airport until the time is right.