Saturday, January 2, 2027 · We skip central Tokyo (an hour each way) and spend the layover in Narita town instead — temple, old-town street, sushi — 10 minutes from the airport.
🚌 Bad-weather / crowd escape hatch: Aeon Mall Narita — ~10 min by bus from Keisei Narita station (or shuttle from T2): supermarket snack haul, Daiso, Uniqlo, warm food court, open on Jan 2 with New Year fukubukuro lucky bags.
| 8:10 AM | Land at Narita Terminal 2. Visit Japan Web QR codes ready. |
| by 9:20 | Through immigration & customs. Cabin bags into B1F coin lockers by the station gates. Pull ¥10,000–15,000 cash from the 7-Eleven ATM — street stalls, lockers and temple charms are cash-only today. |
| ~9:40 | Keisei MAIN Line train (blue signs) from Narita Airport Terminal 2·3 station — 1 stop, ~7 min, ¥260 paper ticket. ⚠️ Do not board the orange Sky Access line or the Skyliner — they skip Narita town entirely. |
| ~10:15 | Stroll Omotesando toward the temple. No queue-ticket errand for lunch — we're eating conveyor-belt sushi today. (Optional eel detour: if anyone wants Kawatoyo's famous unagi, pull its numbered ticket now and eat after the temple.) |
| 10:30–12:00 | Naritasan Shinsho-ji (founded 940 AD). Great Main Hall, the O-Goma fire ritual (~11 AM sitting — free, drumming, sacred fire), three-storied pagoda, park. Police run crowd control in waves today; if the central prayer line is 60+ minutes deep, enjoy the grounds instead of queueing in it. |
| 12:00–1:30 | Lunch: Kaitenzushi Kankichi — conveyor-belt sushi on Omotesando. Aim to sit down a little before the noon hatsumode rush; if the wait explodes, Edokko (sit-down) or the street-food stalls are the backups. |
| 1:30–2:30 | Souvenir stroll back up Omotesando: rice crackers, chestnut yokan, snacks. ⚠️ Nothing liquid over 100 ml — checked bags are unreachable, and town-bought sake/soy sauce/jellies get confiscated at security. Buy liquids airside later instead. |
| ~2:30 | Train back — and double-check the destination board: you get off at Narita Airport Terminal 2·3, one stop before “Narita Airport” (Terminal 1). |
| by 3:15 | Collect bags, tuck purchases into cabin bags (≤10 kg total per person on JAL — carry-on + personal item combined), clear security & exit immigration. |
| 3:15–5:00 | Airside buffer: T2 duty-free (this is where liquid souvenirs are safe to buy), coffee, relax at the gate. |
| 5:40 PM | ✈️ JAL departs for San Francisco. Vipul & Vibha: same rhythm — just anchor your return train to your own Vancouver flight, aiming to be back at the airport ~3 hours before it. |
Long-established Edo-mae sushi on Omotesando, loved by locals and temple visitors alike; two locations on the street (the Sando main store is the original). Opens ~11:00–11:30 AM. Jan 2 note: get on the list early — see the 10:15 AM queue-ticket move above.
This is the lunch plan: conveyor-belt sushi on Omotesando (opened 2024) with multilingual phone ordering — fun for Ishita and zero menu stress. A 6-piece set with miso soup runs about ¥1,000. Aim to sit a little before the noon rush.
Narita's legendary grilled-eel house in Nakamachi — chefs fillet eels live in the front window. It runs on numbered paper tickets (seiriken): pull yours around 10:15 AM, temple first, eat when your number comes up. This is the town's signature dish.
Another century-old unagi restaurant right on Omotesando, a few doors from Kawatoyo — same charcoal-grilled eel over rice, usually the shorter line, plus tempura and set meals if someone wants variety.
Honest Jan 2 caveat: Toyosu fish market is still on its New Year break, so some small sushi bars close or run limited menus today — one more reason the Omotesando names above (which open for the hatsumode crowds) are the plan. Surugaya, the other famous eel house, lost its main building to a fire in July 2026 and currently serves from a small annex near the temple's Traffic Safety Prayer Hall — fine if you stumble on it, don't plan around it.
Plan put together by Ricky's Muse · facts double-checked with Argon (Gemini) on Oct 30, 2026 · passport status confirmed by Ricky on Oct 31, 2026 · lunch pick: conveyor-belt sushi at Kankichi · restaurant hours and the Surugaya annex status can change.