Narita

The Long Layover Excursion

Given the choice between a 4-hour layover in Tokyo or an overnight flight from Kuala Lumpar with an 11-hour layover, I once again maximized my vacation time with a quick half day stop in Japan! Not a lot of time, but after landing at 7a, stashing my bag at the airport and buying a train ticket, I was off for a day at the temples of Naritasan!

Once again, I fell for the JR lines instead of the cheaper Keisei trains. JR advertised a cheaper ticket price, but as the conductor explained to me by pointing at a tattered laminated paper with the phrase written in 10 or 12 languages, "The train you are traveling on requires a seat reservation for 1000 yen." Great, only 5 times the cost of the train ticket. There went my lunch money.

So I set off, broke, to the Naritasan temples, just 10 minutes or so from the airport. After misreading the map and being laughed at by some Harijuku-style girls (oops, forgot my hair was braided silly!) I wandered lost up the back gates of the temples.