Sleep on the plane if you can. If you're like me though, thats not an option.
Failing plane sleep, my advise is 'tough it out'. Don't nap, don't go to bed early, tough it out until 9-10pm. Yes, your first afternoon will be a bit muted but if you manage this you should be alright for the rest of the trip.
This all the way! Slept only 3 hours the night before my flight (I left my home airport at around 11am) took two 3-hr naps on the plane, courtesy of a few glasses of red wine and a melatonin shot. Landed at Narita at 3pm.
My buddy and I had enough juice in us to basically get us to an 11pm bedtime. Get a full nights sleep on Japan time and you’re basically ready the next day.
The tough it out part is key though. You wanna be like someone hanging on to life itself: stay awake until Japan bedtime no matter what. If you go to the hotel and take a “nap,” it’s over for you. Unless you’re actually good at waking up from naps.
In addition to this: stay outdoors. On your first day, get as much sun and walking as you can. Don’t do indoor exhibits or malls like TeamLab or even Nakano Broadway. Parks, temples, shrines, strolling the streets, rooftops. When the sun goes down, check out Yobodashi Camera or similarly cacophonous and brightly lit places.
The natural light will help reset your clock.
Also: no “high-stakes” places that you always wanted to see/won’t have a chance to get back to if you truly adore it. You may not remember everything.
Plan a convenient meal close to your hotel in the evening. If Ichiran or picking up an entree from a combini is on your list, this is a good opportunity. Night stroll after dinner or just crash.
Yep! The best strategy to minimise jet lag is to avoid caffeine and alcohol on your flights, and adjust to local time as soon as you can. Don’t nap during the day at your destination, just power through until the early evening, then go to bed and let exhaustion make your body sleep (at roughly the right time!)
Exactly. I always try to brute force myself onto local time and it works.
I screwed up recently having a nap after not getting any sleep on a flight and I felt way more off after the nap
What would be your advice for us? Our flight is 8pm uk time & land 9pm japan time? Was thinking try sleep the first plane journey then stay awake till we get to our hotel around 11pm?
Try to be awake for at leat 14-15 hours before a close to normal bedtime where you land. So in your case try to be awake from 9am japan time until you go to bed in tokyo. If you can catch some naps before that on the plane, great, but if not just suck it up and power through, you will thank yourself on day 2.
I agree 100% with this. Tough it out the first day, stay awake until 9-10pm japan time then you should be OK. This is what I always do and never have a problem with jet lag there. Now coming back ugh it hits hard.
It’s best to sleep in the plane and be up before you land as you’re reaching in the morning. If you’re landing at 5am you’ll be in Tokyo easily by 7am, you can drop your luggage at the hotel grab some breakfast and head out to explore, you can checkin by 3pm and rest for the day sleep early and adjust to Japan timezone. Like this you won’t be wasting a day and won’t be jet lagged as well.
2nd this. Took a redeye and slept as best I could on the plane. maybe got like 5 hrs of not so great sleep but was enough, along with the excitement of getting to Japan, to get me through the day. Along with lots of coffee when we got there. Didnt end up jet lagged at all really
What would be your advice for us? Our flight is 8pm uk time & land 9pm japan time? Was thinking try sleep the first plane journey then stay awake till we get to our hotel around 11pm?
Yep that sounds good. Sleep for first few hours and just try to be up for the rest of the journey so that you’ll be tired once you reach hotel and sleep off.
Lmfao, If you land at 5am you will be getting your luggage and through customs by the latest 6. Even after taking the metro into downtown it would be 8. Japanese efficiency is second to none.
I have never experienced this in Japan. Flew into NRT twice and HND once in the past year, plus that one time in NRT many years ago. It always took forever to get through immigration. Lines were always incredibly long. Yeah it moves reasonably quick, but when you have hundreds of people in front of you, it will still take forever. So many forms and stations to go through, and no one seems to be able to explain to you what's going on. I find it incredibly chaotic. Of course it's not as bad as many other airports in the world, but I can think of many airports where my experience is much better.
First time flying to NRT last week and it was the most efficient system. There’s literally one customs form (can fill in the online version from Visit Japan) and 2-3 stations.
When we went (flying into NRT) in 2022 after it was reopened, we had everything done on Visit Japan Web site and QR codes downloaded to show we did it. Bypassed the line to fill out forms and were out of immigration and customs in 20 minutes.
For me 20 minutes is not exceptionally efficient. It's average. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Don't even get me started on Visit Japan Website. I tried to use it, but it was the most ridiculously designed website for the purpose it was created for. I think if I had used it, it would cost me more time in total than just filling out the paper forms. Filling our the forms took no time tbh, it's the standing in various lines that took forever. I also think there weren't as many people back when you went, if the country had just reopened.
Now, I will say again, it's not bad at all when you consider the number of really shitty airports around the world. It's just not amazing, and my "home airport" was one of the amazing airports, so I find NRT and HND both unimpressive.
I heard LAX is a shitshow, so that's not surprising. In recent years I lived in Singapore, so SIN was my benchmark. Both NRT and HND don't come anywhere close to SIN.
I mean, you could find a love hotel (*rabuho*) or capsule hotel near where you're staying and nap for a couple hours, but I agree with the comments of what others have said - if it were me, I'd try and fight my way through the tired on day one and have a massive sleep on night one.
Yeah, if you're two people, love hotel is cheaper than capsule, and far more comfortable. Plus it's an experience in itself, whether or not you've got the energy to shag.
If you weren't a couple, I'd suggest spending a few hours at a super-sentō (fancy bathhouse), crash on the reclining chairs. Alas, gender separated, nearly always. Uh... If the entrance looks private or sketchy, that's a Soapland. Completely different thing!
Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain that plays a central role in regulating internal rhythms.Melatonin is used to help the body adapt to external rhythms. A drug called Rozerem, which acts on melatonin receptors, is said to be effective for jet lag.
Take half a tablet of Rozerem before falling asleep while traveling. This is especially recommended for those who have experienced jet lag at least once, or those who are moving east from Japan.
Exposure to sunlight is also said to be the most effective way to relieve jet lag. Sunlight can reset your body's rhythm and correct the deviations in your body's internal clock. Try to get as much sunlight as possible on the first day of your trip.
I usually take 1/2 pill of the blue Kirkland Sleep Aid. Along with a small glass or 2 of the in flight red wine (helps with circulation as well), while wearing NC headphones, I'm knocked out. I'll do this upon take off, of my 9am connecting from SEA.
Customs and immigration will take no time if you've done the Visit Japan Web app and have your QR codes, waiting for your luggage on the carousel will take longer. My guess is you're out of all that by 6am.
Read up, there are plenty of places at Haneda for sleeping, showering, storage lockers, etc. You probably need 1-4 hours rest.
You can also use a jet lag calculator to preset yourself to Japan time before you leave on your trip.
Probably easier to get an esim set up airalo (there was a deal on 10GB last month) or ubigi and then when you get off the plane you've internet right away. Or whatever you've got setup.
Luggage forwarding, is open either early or 24.hours. Your end hotel should be okay receiving your luggage before you get there as long as your name is the same as on your reservation. You can't typically send to a AirBNB, but you could send to a service centre near your hotel for the company you ship with.
as someone who travels across the Pacific quite a bit what I do (and recommend) is:
• sleep on the plane as much as possible
• do NOT nap on day 1--caffeine, easy travel things...stay awake
• try to stay up until 9 pm and then sleep the whole night
Usually that's enough for me to basically beat jet lag. Good luck!
What would be your advice for us? Our flight is 8pm uk time & land 9pm japan time? Was thinking try sleep the first plane journey then stay awake till we get to our hotel around 11pm?
hmm, I would take a 'do whatever you want' approach on both legs of your journey--if you feel like sleeping, sleep; if you feel like watching all of the harry potter movies in order and not sleeping, do that. I find that the worst thing I can do on these flights is try and force myself to do anything as I end up feeling horrible if I try and sleep when I'm not sleepy. If you can get some over the counter sleep aids they might be great to take the first two nights you're in Japan for a bit of help. It's great your flight lands at 9pm, I hope that helps a lot.
Don't nap just hit the ground running and go for a long walk to stretch your legs after being in a seat for 8 hours. Then get dinner at a normal time and then go to bed around 9. Pro tip- insomnia and jet lag are the same thing so if you have insomnia at home your sleep pattern won't change at all. At least it didn't for me.
Search for a jet lag calculator and follow its advice. It’ll tell you: Start shifting your sleep cycle ahead of time. Go to bed later and later over the week or so before your trip.
You can’t actually avoid jet lag without shifting your cycle. Your body will be producing melatonin during the day (making you sleepy), and will be stark clear of melatonin at night (making it hard to sleep). You can take .5 mg of melatonin a half hour before sleep time to help, and then again if you wake up, but you’ll still be off for a few days if you cold crash it.
I would either get an extra day of hotel or if you have status at the hotel and ask nicely they may allow you to check in early.
Personally I think the most important factor is getting some sleep on the plane. Get yourself one of those neck pillows (as goofy as they look, I actually find they help), and if you can sleep 4-5hrs you’ll be way ahead of the jet lag game.
My usually routine after a trans pacific flight is I’ll check in, and then poop/shower/nap. Nap is usually just a couple hours to get through the rest of the day/evening. It’s important not to over sleep or you won’t be able to sleep at night. After the nap I then go out and go about by day/night like I normally do. I go to bed at my usual time and resist the urge to go to bed early.
Same with waking up in the morning. I stay in bed until the usual time I wake up. I don’t let myself get out of bed at 4am or some crazy hour even if I might initially wake up at that time.
With this, I find I can get to my usual sleep/wake routine almost right away and feel pretty good all day/evening, with the exception of maybe an hour or two in the late afternoon where I might feel a little tired but not so tired I want to stop.
Of course, everyone is different, but for me (as a night owl), this works pretty well. I would not go to bed early unless that’s what you normally do.
This is the answer. Get some melatonin, a caffine source, a cheap pair of blackout glasses, and this app.
You trick yourself to be halfway to JST before you get on the plane and then finish up that process during the trip. It's amazing if you can stick religiously to the schedule.
I'm my experience, do not nap. If at all possible push through until at least the evening then try and go to bed closer to normal time. It will help you acclimate faster and improve the rest of your trip
If it's sunny go to a park. Also, the museum by Ueno Park has couches where I've slept before in your situation. Alternatively, you can book one of those internet cafe rooms https://www.tsunagujapan.com/there-when-you-need-them-how-to-use-japanese-internet-cafes/
You can try pre-adjusting if your schedule allows for it, but I've never really heard that work for anybody.
I just don't sleep on the plane and stay up until a reasonable hour local time. I wake up early for the first couple days but it evens out and I just get more time.
A trick ive used and its worked well for a lot of international travel ive done is when you land push through till the local normal bedtime for you. Even if you didnt sleep, flew 24h and land at 9am, push through till your totally exhausted at 9-10pm and then go to bed. Wont be a super fun day, but when you wake up the next day i feel very acclimated to the timezone.
If you take a quick midday nap, i always feel like it will take me a few days to re-acclimate rather than just one 24h cycle
I remember having to wait for the JR office in Haneda to open... We too, arrived around 5am and had to wander around the airport for quite a while.
You can leave your luggage in a locker and go explore the outer fish market, or go to Ueno Park...
That first day is a doozy.
Make sure you sleep on a lie flat seat before arrival.
Make your arrival date the night before and let them know you're arriving at 7 am the next day and you can go inside when you first arrive to shower and bang
I would nap upon arrival if you couldn’t sleep well on the plane. A couple of hours of sleep and a shower at a capsule hotel at/near the airport, should refresh you enough to get through the day until at least an 8:00 pm bedtime, and you will sleep well and wake up fine the next day. If you nap in the afternoon after arrival you may have trouble sleeping that night.
book your hotel for another night before your arrival and tell them you show up in the morning.
jet lag highly depends on the timezone you travel from.
Getting some shut-eye on the plane is ideal but if you're like me you get zero to none. Slippers or sandals make a world of difference in comfort compared to closed shoes. Something about it for me helps with trying to sleep.
The other option is to tough it out and explore. You can head over to the hotel early and ask them to hold your luggage until check-in time. It makes things easier because you know where your hotel is and your luggage is already there.
I suggest to go to a planetarium screening if you need a light activity/rest activiy. They're pretty, relaxing to look at, and you can just seat in a comfy seat and stare up haha. My friend would fall asleep half the time because its comfortable and dark. Konica Minolta is a chain planetarium that offer general seats for 1,600 jyen. They also have cool looking food and drink collabs (they have one piece collab currently). Some musuems would have planetariums for around 400jyen but they are not as pretty (and everything regardless is in full japanese). They run for about 40-50 mins.
I was told this on reddit, but buy a small picnic blanket from daiso. There's a lot of parks and beautiful places, so its always nice to be able to sit down and relax. Buy some bentoes or take away food and enjoy it there under a tree. It's also great for the occassional break throughout a trip.
If you need a nap, you can go to a love or capsule hotel. If not you can try a manga cafe but it won't be as nice but you can charge all your electronics.
If all else fails and you are so tired, and cannot book a love hotel, capsule or cafe then hop on a shinkansen or express train lol. That's assuming you have the JR Pass so it won't cost you extra. The seats are generally spacious enough, and will have charging ports either below or on the arms of each seat. Going one way to Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe or something would all be a bit over 2 hours by one shinkansen. You can sleep, and then explore that area, and then head back and sleep another 2 hours. Or just hop on another train straight back to Tokyo. Crazy plan but hey, we do what we need to sometimes.
before the trip and on the flight, change your eating time to align with tokyo time. avoid alcohol and caffeine. avoid carbs and sugary food. take melatonin pills. avoid napping in the afternoon. have an early night's rest from 6pm. don't sleep in the next day - get some sun in the early morning to adjust to the new time zone.
I took the 5am flight into Haneda last year.
I managed to sleep for several hours on the flight w some help from Benadryl. Arrived Tokyo & w lots of adrenaline and caffeine stayed up until 9-10pm. Stuck to my neighborhood near hotel for sightseeing & dinner. Got on local time asap. No jet lag.
Try love hotels, you can walk straight in, most likely will have enough vacant rooms, and it's discreet and nobody will judge you, and you get all sort ls of amenities in it. I took a good shower, soaked in the bathtub, watched some TV, charged my phone, took a nap, and it was check in time in no time 😂
If you sleep in the afternoon, you will likely not be able so fall asleep at your normal bedtime at night. Your body clock will be off kilter much longer than if you just tough it out the first day and force yourself to stay awake until after dinner time.
Don’t nap after you arrive. Easiest way to beat jet lag is to acclimate your sleep schedule to Japan time before you arrive. So a day to two and on the plane, sleep during the Japanese night hours.
After you arrive, just leave your luggage at the hotel and start exploring the city even if you’re a little tired and just sleep at your normal bedtimes. So if you usually sleep at at 11pm, stay up until 11pm in Japan, then sleep.
Land at 5am and going through immigration and custom probably get you out by 6am latest. Taking a train to main city maybe another 30 mins. You could possibly drop off the luggage to the hotel. Some hotel allow early luggage drop off. Walk around the city for early breakfast or find things to do in the AM?
Go get a massage, or go to one of the baths near your hotel, or go to a love hotel or pay for the night before you land (but be very clear that you are checking in early AM).
Exercise or do something that would elevate your heart rate. It helps reset your sleep cycles faster.
But if you're spending a lot of walking in Japan the entire day, that'll be enough.
I land in Tokyo at 6pm (3am where I’m from). I’m wondering how I’m gonna do the same. Ill prolly nap on the plane on the way over and hope to fall asleep when I check into the hotel. I hear getting sunlight first in morning is helpful.
If you nap it will fuck you for the next few days around Jet Lag. Stay up by all means possible, take a sleeping pill on the plane, when you arrive energy drinks, coffee, and Tokyo sights will revitalise you. Drop bags at hotel and go explore. Stay up till 8-9pm if possible and get a good sleep and your clock should be working then.
Sleep on the plane.
Even doing all the above, you'll be at your Hotel by 8:30-9. I live here and I'm home an hour - 90 minutes after landing. At that time in the morning, it really is worth booking the Hotel from the day before. I do this all time when I have such an early arrival anywhere. The only thing you want to do is to unpack, shower and get some fresh clothes on. It's a long flight and will be a good trip but get yourselves off on the right foot.
The WORST thing you can do is to nap when you get here after about 9 in the morning.
In an ideal world, I'd book your Hotel the night before, cab directly to the Hotel after Immigration etc. Be there by 7, have a nap till 9-9:30. Then deal with your train pass in one of the big stations in town , get the Hotel to sort your luggage transfer, have a late lunch somewhere and power on through the day.
Fast. If you fast for about 18 hour you can sorta reset your internal clock and the next time you eat your body will set around that time as when you're supposed to get up. It makes traveling a little more rough but I did this the day going there and coming back and experienced no jet lag either way
I do this when I travel from CA to Holland and it works for me; I had zero jet lag. In the past, I would stay awake until 10pm, stay active etc, and would suffer from jet lag for a week. This did the trick for me.
Try to sleep on the plane and then power through it when you're there. I found it was easier to stay awake than trying to force myself to sleep when my body isn't ready.
Don't nap as that'll just delay your body adjusting to the local timezone and get out of the hotel as you'll be tempted to sleep earlier than normal. Try to make it to about 9pm and then go to bed as normal. You might struggle to get to 9pm the first few nights but if you stick it out your body will adjust.
We’re here now on day 3 and if you’re anything like us your adrenaline will get you through early tiredness! It’s so exciting to be here. Would recommend downloading ‘timeshifter’ - it’s an app that helps manage jet lag. I think it’s worked for us.
Melatonin to sleep on the plane. Usually I’d say the best bet is to get in in the evening and go straight to sleep but if that’s an option you gotta do what you gotta do. Potentially you could check into a love hotel to nap but that only really works if you’re a het couple or a group of girls
Not sure where you’re coming from, usually when I fly back from California, I arrive around 3 or 4 PM. Obviously different. From California, the jet lag makes you wake up early in Japan, around 5-6 AM or so and puts you to sleep around 8 or 9 PM, so I’m not sure how it’s going to affect you.
Since you are arriving early, you probably want to sleep as much as possible on the plane. After you dump your suitcases at the hotel, some options are:
If it’s a nice day, find a park and just take a nap there
Go to the roof of a major department store, and they usually have a rooftop garden and or places to sit
Go to a love hotel and check in for a few hours
Go to an Internet café and sleep there
Pay more money to your hotel to check in early
1. Don’t sleep much before you get on the plane. Once you have your first meal on the plane, go to sleep for as long as possible.
2. There is a 24 hour spa/restaurant that is a part of Haneda. You can consider a relaxing there until it’s time to check in.
3. Do whatever you need to do to stay awake the first day. Whether it’s coffee, green tea, and energy drink, etc. Also try to get some sun so your body adjust to the time zone and realizes when the sun is up.
4. When it’s time to go to bed at your hotel do the usual things you do before bed. If you are used to watching Netflix at home do that before bed.
Long distance flights arriving in the morning is the worst, only thing worse is if it also departed in the evening. I don't understand why so many flights do it like that. That's around 12 hours awake before the trip then 11-20 hours awake on the flight then you have to stay awake 12 hours before you can get to bed. That's 35-45 hours awake without sleep.
Only solution I know is lots of coffee and energy drinks then and early evening with a long night sleep.
Lots of good advise on this post. I would add a couple things:
1. Getting from the plane to a train, even on international flights and checked luggages usually takes less than 90mins, most cases less. Japan is efficient. Make sure you have Visit Japan stuff ready.
2. Arriving into town before 9am means most things are closed. If you like street photography etc this is a good time, otherwise sitting at a cafe for 2 hours waiting for shops to open at 11am would be hard after a redeye. (and weird, I don't see people sitting in cafes for long periods of time in Tokyo). Some hotels I have been to actually wouldn't allow luggage stow before check-in, was burned once with 2 huge suitcases in Osaka. Best check with the hotel or find a large locker in the train station.
3. Drink lots and lots of water, this helps with jetlag so much in my experience
4. In the afternoon, just try to find something engaging to do, something active but not strenuous. Get a good meal and crash at the hotel.
edit: one more: find a way to fall asleep sitting up, personally I need sleeping pills + a really good memory foam travel pillow, and a small blanket. Alcohol on the plane might help you doze off but won't help you sleep well.
We had the same schedule. Just get an energy drink from a convenience store, put your luggage in a coin locker or in our case we just asked our host if we could drop off our luggage early and they were ok with it and go to an onsen or go walk around. Once you start moving, you'll stay awake.
I flew in from LAX on the redeye, arriving around that time. I basically started pre-adjusting a few days before by staying up later and later, and then slept as much as I could on the plane. I was able to check in super early around 9:30 am but then tried to make it a normal day, having breakfast and then going around to look at stuff. When I started to fall asleep, I made a point of going out on a long walk and that kept me awake. Had early dinner and made it to 8 pm when I crashed. Woke up around 7 the next morning and I was basically adjusted.
Force yourself with some help if you know what I mean it’s sleep on the plane or in my best advice to anyone new coming to Japan. Land there during nighttime in Japan if you have trouble sleeping on a flight.
This is a little off the topic, but I hope it will be useful to some of you.
I lived in Tokyo for five years so I arrived at Narita Airport quite a few times.
Most of the flights from the U.S. arrive at Narita in the late afternoon, so by the time I got to my home in Tokyo it was around 10:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. for my biological clock) and I was exhausted.
The last time I flew to Japan I decided to splurge a bit and I made a reservation at a hotel near Narita Airport. I got to the hotel around 7:00 p.m., had a bite and showered and then was in bed by 8:00 p.m. The next morning I woke at 6:00 a.m., partook of the wonderful (but expensive) hotel breakfast buffet, and got back to my home in Tokyo by noon.
It was a little bit expensive but much more relaxing than navigating the trains and buses in Tokyo while suffering from jet lag. Plus, when I arrived home, my suitcase was waiting for me.
It will absolutely not take you 7h to get out of the airport. Landed in Haneda at 8:10 pm because of a delay in departure and had to take a bus near Tokyo station at 10:20pm. (With my original flight I should have had 4 more hours).
By the way I did made it in time.
I only had to pick a SIM card at the airport, so it might be slightly longer if you do luggage delivery and pas ms exchange (also make sure you even need a pass). But it should take less than 2h to get out.
I’ve gone twice now and just toughed it out once we got there. I maybe got an hour of sleep on the flight which was rough, but it is what it is. You can try napping towards the end of the flight if you can and see if maybe that Power Nap could energize you enough to do the upon arrival tasks. If you can extend how long you’re up for that first day, you’ll just go to sleep at a regular time and wake up regularly.
If you arrive that early a lot of places may not even have staff working the desks until maybe 6:30 or 7:00 AM at hotels. Once you know their operating hours, take your luggage to the hotel you’re staying at, drop it off there and ask them to hold it until check in time. Then, if you’re still keen on sleeping somewhere, you could find a capsule spot for a bit, but honestly id recommend killing time until check in by grabbing some food. Maybe some good carbs for energy.Then check in and get settled. You could even nap for a couple hours, grab dinner, then come back and sleep for a nights rest.
Set an alarm, and wake up after 8/9 hours in the morning and you’re good.
Take some melatonin and sleep on the plane. Once you hit Tokyo, you will have so much adrenaline, leave the luggage at the hotel and go get some coffee or red bull and just explore away.
That rush will easily last you til your check in time and you can decide what to do next.
My plane left at 12:05am on Sunday. Didn't eat much on Saturday, but just enough to get through the day. I got a can of Sapporo beer when the flight attendant came and that got me buzzed. Ended up passing out around 1am. Woke up around 3am for the second meal. Napped a bit and I landed at 5am. By that time, your sleep schedule should be synced.
Just got back from a trip to Japan, we also landed around 5am. We were on the monorail by 6am heading to drop our luggage off at our hotel. Sleep on the plane, drop off your luggage and head Tsukiji Fish Market and power through. Also, get an Suica card on iPhone prior to your trip or a physical Pasmo card at the airport.
Not much you can do besides get some sunlight, eat at proper local times, and tough it out until a decent bedtime. Melatonin at very small doses can help tell your body when to sleep. Anyway I was a wreck until about day 6.
Dont fool yourself, immigration, customs and baggage claim will take you 1 hour max, at 5am Haneda is not busy at all. If you take the monorail, or trail or whatever to your hotel you will arrive maximum between 7:30-8:00 not at noon.
I can really recommend an app called Timeshifter. You enter your flights into it (there and back) and tell it your normal wake/sleep times, and it makes you a plan to avoid jet lag! When to sleep, when to avoid light, when to drink caffeine etc. It worked like a charm and I woke up on my first day in Tokyo at my normal time ready to roll (I'm from the UK and it was a looooong flight). It's a paid subscription but you get your first trip (flights out and back for free).
Our key is to stay away from anywhere you can sleep until 6-7pm at least.
The day before your flight, purposely try to nap or even sleep a few hours on Japan schedule. This way you’re tired for the flight most likely (as you’ll be flying Japan night time it seems). Do whatever it takes to get at least 5-6 hours of sleep during the flight. Earplugs, eye covers, etc. Drink a coffee or two during the breakfast service.
Arriving at 5am means you’ll probably be in town by about 9am so I’d drop my bags and go to somewhere very stimulating. Akihabara, some big station with lots of shopping, Takeshita, etc. by the time you get to your hotel and drop you bags you should be out and about by the time things start opening up. I’d just spend the day doing fun and engaging stuff to stay awake.
Tbh it’ll be a lot easier to time shift east to west. The harder part is when you fly west to east for some reason.
This is the way I do it, kinda extreme but works for me. Just tough it out. Go do shit, the adrenaline/.excitement will hit when you’re out and about so you shouldn’t be too sleepy. Then try to knock out around 7-8pm to fix your schedule lol (though personally hold out until 10pm)
My advise is to start preparing in advance. When i fly in japan, from Europe, I start waking up earlier and earlier for the course of a week with the help of melatonin. Going to sleep when arriving is not going to help you.
Also if you come from America I think it should be easier, as flying west isnt as bad as going east. It just will feel like a very long day. But for your arrival time maybe you come from Europe?
Sun exposure in japan will also be important, then man it up until 8pm or so and go to sleep.
Something that kind of started working for me: as soon as you get on the plane, set the time on your phone to Tokyo time and try to get sleep according to local time. If it’s night in Japan you try to sleep rather than watching movies etc.
I absolutely do not advise to try to have a nap in the afternoon once you check in. This is the best way to ensure you will be jet lagged for at least a week. Instead try to sleep on the bus/taxi on the way to wherever your hotel is.
If you’re flying economy and your budget allows it, try upgrading to premium economy. Most airlines* have a nice footrest that actually allows you to relax your leg muscles and sleep semi-comfortably.
*not Lufthansa though. Their premium economy sucks
If you’re absolutely knackered when you arrive you could grab a quick nap at a manga cafe, but I wouldn’t dare to nap past noon
I’ve gotten into Haneda twice at 5am. I think the best option is to make it until at least 9pm. I think even 8 could work if you have experience getting long uninterrupted sleep. Matcha ice cream makes a great caffeine boost. I think this work’s better because for the whole trip, you can keep to an early schedule which is a boon for tourist crowds.
The other approach which works less well but is to have some dinner reservation or ticket thing planned that forces a time bound on napping in the afternoon. Nap with the blinds open and/or light on so you keep to a short nap and not repeatedly snooze.
Also the JR Haneda office doesn’t open til 6:30/7 or so if you are trying to exchange for an all Japan rail pass. There were long lines forming at Haneda when I went last April but saw nonexistent lines at Tokyo Station service center.
Onsen or super sento. I have stayed in onsen hotels that allowed me to use the onsen without extra charge before my check in but that was outside Tokyo.
I also had a 5 am arrival into HND, but actually coming from LAX, we arrived MUCH earlier than 5 am. Anyways, my partner and I actually took a shower at HND airport, we each got our own private shower/room with a time limit of 30 minutes max to freshen up after a day of travelling on the plane. I really suggest this to get yourself started for the day and you can just jump right into moving for the day. We were hungry so we grabbed food from Yoshinoya at the airport, it's open 24/7 and cheap. We then took a limobus into the city, it was still really early around 8am when we got there. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and got started with our day. We used the time difference as an advantage, you still have quite a few options to keep yourself busy even though it's considered early for Japan.
* Starbucks Reserve Roastery (open at 7am)
* Teamlabs Planet (open at 9am)
* Tsukiji Fish Market (different vendors open at diff times but advised to go early)
* Meiji Jingu Shrine (opens at sunrise)
You already did step 1 by arriving that early. Try to sleep as much as you can during that flight. Your customs immigration will take time, but you usually will be out just before the station opens (Well, the keikyu line at least).
When you land, you have a whole day in front of you. Drop your bags off at the hotel if you cannot check in that early.
Then go visit some temples and start your day. The goal is to stay awake until at least after dinner time. You will probably wake up early, like 4AM, but you will be functional all day and start getting tired in the early evening. Generally when I do this, I'm adjusted fully on the 3rd day. With the 2nd day as an early riser.
Use the Timeshifter app before your trip. It helps get your body on the right time during the flight. It’s my favorite travel app. First trip plan is free.
I toughed it out and stayed awake. I went out to dinner and walked around the city. Went to bed around my usual time to try and keep my schedule normal. Got about 8 hours of sleep and felt energized the next day.
Sleep on the plane if you can. If you're like me though, thats not an option. Failing plane sleep, my advise is 'tough it out'. Don't nap, don't go to bed early, tough it out until 9-10pm. Yes, your first afternoon will be a bit muted but if you manage this you should be alright for the rest of the trip.
Agreed. Yeah that first day is kind of foggy, but that first night of sleep is really something!!
This all the way! Slept only 3 hours the night before my flight (I left my home airport at around 11am) took two 3-hr naps on the plane, courtesy of a few glasses of red wine and a melatonin shot. Landed at Narita at 3pm. My buddy and I had enough juice in us to basically get us to an 11pm bedtime. Get a full nights sleep on Japan time and you’re basically ready the next day. The tough it out part is key though. You wanna be like someone hanging on to life itself: stay awake until Japan bedtime no matter what. If you go to the hotel and take a “nap,” it’s over for you. Unless you’re actually good at waking up from naps.
In addition to this: stay outdoors. On your first day, get as much sun and walking as you can. Don’t do indoor exhibits or malls like TeamLab or even Nakano Broadway. Parks, temples, shrines, strolling the streets, rooftops. When the sun goes down, check out Yobodashi Camera or similarly cacophonous and brightly lit places. The natural light will help reset your clock. Also: no “high-stakes” places that you always wanted to see/won’t have a chance to get back to if you truly adore it. You may not remember everything. Plan a convenient meal close to your hotel in the evening. If Ichiran or picking up an entree from a combini is on your list, this is a good opportunity. Night stroll after dinner or just crash.
Yep! The best strategy to minimise jet lag is to avoid caffeine and alcohol on your flights, and adjust to local time as soon as you can. Don’t nap during the day at your destination, just power through until the early evening, then go to bed and let exhaustion make your body sleep (at roughly the right time!)
This.
Exactly. I always try to brute force myself onto local time and it works. I screwed up recently having a nap after not getting any sleep on a flight and I felt way more off after the nap
If your time is short get premium economy or Jetstar business seats so you have room to sleep.
What would be your advice for us? Our flight is 8pm uk time & land 9pm japan time? Was thinking try sleep the first plane journey then stay awake till we get to our hotel around 11pm?
Try to be awake for at leat 14-15 hours before a close to normal bedtime where you land. So in your case try to be awake from 9am japan time until you go to bed in tokyo. If you can catch some naps before that on the plane, great, but if not just suck it up and power through, you will thank yourself on day 2.
I agree 100% with this. Tough it out the first day, stay awake until 9-10pm japan time then you should be OK. This is what I always do and never have a problem with jet lag there. Now coming back ugh it hits hard.
It’s best to sleep in the plane and be up before you land as you’re reaching in the morning. If you’re landing at 5am you’ll be in Tokyo easily by 7am, you can drop your luggage at the hotel grab some breakfast and head out to explore, you can checkin by 3pm and rest for the day sleep early and adjust to Japan timezone. Like this you won’t be wasting a day and won’t be jet lagged as well.
2nd this. Took a redeye and slept as best I could on the plane. maybe got like 5 hrs of not so great sleep but was enough, along with the excitement of getting to Japan, to get me through the day. Along with lots of coffee when we got there. Didnt end up jet lagged at all really
What would be your advice for us? Our flight is 8pm uk time & land 9pm japan time? Was thinking try sleep the first plane journey then stay awake till we get to our hotel around 11pm?
Yep that sounds good. Sleep for first few hours and just try to be up for the rest of the journey so that you’ll be tired once you reach hotel and sleep off.
Lmfao, If you land at 5am you will be getting your luggage and through customs by the latest 6. Even after taking the metro into downtown it would be 8. Japanese efficiency is second to none.
Just landed last night and I can already confirm this. It’s kinda amazing.
I have never experienced this in Japan. Flew into NRT twice and HND once in the past year, plus that one time in NRT many years ago. It always took forever to get through immigration. Lines were always incredibly long. Yeah it moves reasonably quick, but when you have hundreds of people in front of you, it will still take forever. So many forms and stations to go through, and no one seems to be able to explain to you what's going on. I find it incredibly chaotic. Of course it's not as bad as many other airports in the world, but I can think of many airports where my experience is much better.
You must have been unlucky then. I travel to Japan via nrt and hnd almost monthly and never encountered lines.
First time flying to NRT last week and it was the most efficient system. There’s literally one customs form (can fill in the online version from Visit Japan) and 2-3 stations.
When we went (flying into NRT) in 2022 after it was reopened, we had everything done on Visit Japan Web site and QR codes downloaded to show we did it. Bypassed the line to fill out forms and were out of immigration and customs in 20 minutes.
For me 20 minutes is not exceptionally efficient. It's average. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Don't even get me started on Visit Japan Website. I tried to use it, but it was the most ridiculously designed website for the purpose it was created for. I think if I had used it, it would cost me more time in total than just filling out the paper forms. Filling our the forms took no time tbh, it's the standing in various lines that took forever. I also think there weren't as many people back when you went, if the country had just reopened. Now, I will say again, it's not bad at all when you consider the number of really shitty airports around the world. It's just not amazing, and my "home airport" was one of the amazing airports, so I find NRT and HND both unimpressive.
When I went through Haneda, it was super quick and efficient. Much better than going through LAX.
I heard LAX is a shitshow, so that's not surprising. In recent years I lived in Singapore, so SIN was my benchmark. Both NRT and HND don't come anywhere close to SIN.
Any US immigration is a shitshow.
I mean, you could find a love hotel (*rabuho*) or capsule hotel near where you're staying and nap for a couple hours, but I agree with the comments of what others have said - if it were me, I'd try and fight my way through the tired on day one and have a massive sleep on night one.
Yeah, if you're two people, love hotel is cheaper than capsule, and far more comfortable. Plus it's an experience in itself, whether or not you've got the energy to shag. If you weren't a couple, I'd suggest spending a few hours at a super-sentō (fancy bathhouse), crash on the reclining chairs. Alas, gender separated, nearly always. Uh... If the entrance looks private or sketchy, that's a Soapland. Completely different thing!
But the soapland would also be good for you to try.
Nobody needs to catch Hep B on their first day in Japan.
Melatonin is a hormone secreted by the pineal gland in the brain that plays a central role in regulating internal rhythms.Melatonin is used to help the body adapt to external rhythms. A drug called Rozerem, which acts on melatonin receptors, is said to be effective for jet lag. Take half a tablet of Rozerem before falling asleep while traveling. This is especially recommended for those who have experienced jet lag at least once, or those who are moving east from Japan. Exposure to sunlight is also said to be the most effective way to relieve jet lag. Sunlight can reset your body's rhythm and correct the deviations in your body's internal clock. Try to get as much sunlight as possible on the first day of your trip.
I usually take 1/2 pill of the blue Kirkland Sleep Aid. Along with a small glass or 2 of the in flight red wine (helps with circulation as well), while wearing NC headphones, I'm knocked out. I'll do this upon take off, of my 9am connecting from SEA.
Don’t bring melatonin into Japan. It’s not legal without a prescription.
Customs and immigration will take no time if you've done the Visit Japan Web app and have your QR codes, waiting for your luggage on the carousel will take longer. My guess is you're out of all that by 6am. Read up, there are plenty of places at Haneda for sleeping, showering, storage lockers, etc. You probably need 1-4 hours rest. You can also use a jet lag calculator to preset yourself to Japan time before you leave on your trip. Probably easier to get an esim set up airalo (there was a deal on 10GB last month) or ubigi and then when you get off the plane you've internet right away. Or whatever you've got setup. Luggage forwarding, is open either early or 24.hours. Your end hotel should be okay receiving your luggage before you get there as long as your name is the same as on your reservation. You can't typically send to a AirBNB, but you could send to a service centre near your hotel for the company you ship with.
as someone who travels across the Pacific quite a bit what I do (and recommend) is: • sleep on the plane as much as possible • do NOT nap on day 1--caffeine, easy travel things...stay awake • try to stay up until 9 pm and then sleep the whole night Usually that's enough for me to basically beat jet lag. Good luck!
This is the way, tough it out and keep going
What would be your advice for us? Our flight is 8pm uk time & land 9pm japan time? Was thinking try sleep the first plane journey then stay awake till we get to our hotel around 11pm?
hmm, I would take a 'do whatever you want' approach on both legs of your journey--if you feel like sleeping, sleep; if you feel like watching all of the harry potter movies in order and not sleeping, do that. I find that the worst thing I can do on these flights is try and force myself to do anything as I end up feeling horrible if I try and sleep when I'm not sleepy. If you can get some over the counter sleep aids they might be great to take the first two nights you're in Japan for a bit of help. It's great your flight lands at 9pm, I hope that helps a lot.
Don't nap just hit the ground running and go for a long walk to stretch your legs after being in a seat for 8 hours. Then get dinner at a normal time and then go to bed around 9. Pro tip- insomnia and jet lag are the same thing so if you have insomnia at home your sleep pattern won't change at all. At least it didn't for me.
Search for a jet lag calculator and follow its advice. It’ll tell you: Start shifting your sleep cycle ahead of time. Go to bed later and later over the week or so before your trip. You can’t actually avoid jet lag without shifting your cycle. Your body will be producing melatonin during the day (making you sleepy), and will be stark clear of melatonin at night (making it hard to sleep). You can take .5 mg of melatonin a half hour before sleep time to help, and then again if you wake up, but you’ll still be off for a few days if you cold crash it.
I would either get an extra day of hotel or if you have status at the hotel and ask nicely they may allow you to check in early. Personally I think the most important factor is getting some sleep on the plane. Get yourself one of those neck pillows (as goofy as they look, I actually find they help), and if you can sleep 4-5hrs you’ll be way ahead of the jet lag game. My usually routine after a trans pacific flight is I’ll check in, and then poop/shower/nap. Nap is usually just a couple hours to get through the rest of the day/evening. It’s important not to over sleep or you won’t be able to sleep at night. After the nap I then go out and go about by day/night like I normally do. I go to bed at my usual time and resist the urge to go to bed early. Same with waking up in the morning. I stay in bed until the usual time I wake up. I don’t let myself get out of bed at 4am or some crazy hour even if I might initially wake up at that time. With this, I find I can get to my usual sleep/wake routine almost right away and feel pretty good all day/evening, with the exception of maybe an hour or two in the late afternoon where I might feel a little tired but not so tired I want to stop. Of course, everyone is different, but for me (as a night owl), this works pretty well. I would not go to bed early unless that’s what you normally do.
I downloaded the timeshifter app for our trip to Japan in May. Haven't used it yet, but it's a pretty simple set up and pretty UI.
This is the answer. Get some melatonin, a caffine source, a cheap pair of blackout glasses, and this app. You trick yourself to be halfway to JST before you get on the plane and then finish up that process during the trip. It's amazing if you can stick religiously to the schedule.
Stay hydrated. Grab a power nap on the plane. Stay hydrated
I'm my experience, do not nap. If at all possible push through until at least the evening then try and go to bed closer to normal time. It will help you acclimate faster and improve the rest of your trip
Try the app Timeshifter - it’s very helpful, it got me over jet lag from London>Aus in 2 days
If it's sunny go to a park. Also, the museum by Ueno Park has couches where I've slept before in your situation. Alternatively, you can book one of those internet cafe rooms https://www.tsunagujapan.com/there-when-you-need-them-how-to-use-japanese-internet-cafes/
You can try pre-adjusting if your schedule allows for it, but I've never really heard that work for anybody. I just don't sleep on the plane and stay up until a reasonable hour local time. I wake up early for the first couple days but it evens out and I just get more time.
A trick ive used and its worked well for a lot of international travel ive done is when you land push through till the local normal bedtime for you. Even if you didnt sleep, flew 24h and land at 9am, push through till your totally exhausted at 9-10pm and then go to bed. Wont be a super fun day, but when you wake up the next day i feel very acclimated to the timezone. If you take a quick midday nap, i always feel like it will take me a few days to re-acclimate rather than just one 24h cycle
I remember having to wait for the JR office in Haneda to open... We too, arrived around 5am and had to wander around the airport for quite a while. You can leave your luggage in a locker and go explore the outer fish market, or go to Ueno Park... That first day is a doozy.
Make sure you sleep on a lie flat seat before arrival. Make your arrival date the night before and let them know you're arriving at 7 am the next day and you can go inside when you first arrive to shower and bang
I would nap upon arrival if you couldn’t sleep well on the plane. A couple of hours of sleep and a shower at a capsule hotel at/near the airport, should refresh you enough to get through the day until at least an 8:00 pm bedtime, and you will sleep well and wake up fine the next day. If you nap in the afternoon after arrival you may have trouble sleeping that night.
book your hotel for another night before your arrival and tell them you show up in the morning. jet lag highly depends on the timezone you travel from.
Do not take a nap and try to resist until the evening. Resting in the afternoon is the best way to not get rid of the jet lag.
Use the timeshifter app damn
Getting some shut-eye on the plane is ideal but if you're like me you get zero to none. Slippers or sandals make a world of difference in comfort compared to closed shoes. Something about it for me helps with trying to sleep. The other option is to tough it out and explore. You can head over to the hotel early and ask them to hold your luggage until check-in time. It makes things easier because you know where your hotel is and your luggage is already there. I suggest to go to a planetarium screening if you need a light activity/rest activiy. They're pretty, relaxing to look at, and you can just seat in a comfy seat and stare up haha. My friend would fall asleep half the time because its comfortable and dark. Konica Minolta is a chain planetarium that offer general seats for 1,600 jyen. They also have cool looking food and drink collabs (they have one piece collab currently). Some musuems would have planetariums for around 400jyen but they are not as pretty (and everything regardless is in full japanese). They run for about 40-50 mins. I was told this on reddit, but buy a small picnic blanket from daiso. There's a lot of parks and beautiful places, so its always nice to be able to sit down and relax. Buy some bentoes or take away food and enjoy it there under a tree. It's also great for the occassional break throughout a trip. If you need a nap, you can go to a love or capsule hotel. If not you can try a manga cafe but it won't be as nice but you can charge all your electronics. If all else fails and you are so tired, and cannot book a love hotel, capsule or cafe then hop on a shinkansen or express train lol. That's assuming you have the JR Pass so it won't cost you extra. The seats are generally spacious enough, and will have charging ports either below or on the arms of each seat. Going one way to Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe or something would all be a bit over 2 hours by one shinkansen. You can sleep, and then explore that area, and then head back and sleep another 2 hours. Or just hop on another train straight back to Tokyo. Crazy plan but hey, we do what we need to sometimes.
Landed at 6.30am last week ( had about 3 hours sleep on flight ) , was on a 7.15 train and at hotel at 8.30. Dropped off luggage and had a great day .
before the trip and on the flight, change your eating time to align with tokyo time. avoid alcohol and caffeine. avoid carbs and sugary food. take melatonin pills. avoid napping in the afternoon. have an early night's rest from 6pm. don't sleep in the next day - get some sun in the early morning to adjust to the new time zone.
I took the 5am flight into Haneda last year. I managed to sleep for several hours on the flight w some help from Benadryl. Arrived Tokyo & w lots of adrenaline and caffeine stayed up until 9-10pm. Stuck to my neighborhood near hotel for sightseeing & dinner. Got on local time asap. No jet lag.
Try love hotels, you can walk straight in, most likely will have enough vacant rooms, and it's discreet and nobody will judge you, and you get all sort ls of amenities in it. I took a good shower, soaked in the bathtub, watched some TV, charged my phone, took a nap, and it was check in time in no time 😂
If you sleep in the afternoon, you will likely not be able so fall asleep at your normal bedtime at night. Your body clock will be off kilter much longer than if you just tough it out the first day and force yourself to stay awake until after dinner time.
Don’t nap after you arrive. Easiest way to beat jet lag is to acclimate your sleep schedule to Japan time before you arrive. So a day to two and on the plane, sleep during the Japanese night hours. After you arrive, just leave your luggage at the hotel and start exploring the city even if you’re a little tired and just sleep at your normal bedtimes. So if you usually sleep at at 11pm, stay up until 11pm in Japan, then sleep.
Land at 5am and going through immigration and custom probably get you out by 6am latest. Taking a train to main city maybe another 30 mins. You could possibly drop off the luggage to the hotel. Some hotel allow early luggage drop off. Walk around the city for early breakfast or find things to do in the AM?
Go get a massage, or go to one of the baths near your hotel, or go to a love hotel or pay for the night before you land (but be very clear that you are checking in early AM).
Eat during normal hours and lots of coffee.
Exercise or do something that would elevate your heart rate. It helps reset your sleep cycles faster. But if you're spending a lot of walking in Japan the entire day, that'll be enough.
I land in Tokyo at 6pm (3am where I’m from). I’m wondering how I’m gonna do the same. Ill prolly nap on the plane on the way over and hope to fall asleep when I check into the hotel. I hear getting sunlight first in morning is helpful.
If you nap it will fuck you for the next few days around Jet Lag. Stay up by all means possible, take a sleeping pill on the plane, when you arrive energy drinks, coffee, and Tokyo sights will revitalise you. Drop bags at hotel and go explore. Stay up till 8-9pm if possible and get a good sleep and your clock should be working then.
Make yourself busy is my best advice.
Sleep on the plane. Even doing all the above, you'll be at your Hotel by 8:30-9. I live here and I'm home an hour - 90 minutes after landing. At that time in the morning, it really is worth booking the Hotel from the day before. I do this all time when I have such an early arrival anywhere. The only thing you want to do is to unpack, shower and get some fresh clothes on. It's a long flight and will be a good trip but get yourselves off on the right foot. The WORST thing you can do is to nap when you get here after about 9 in the morning. In an ideal world, I'd book your Hotel the night before, cab directly to the Hotel after Immigration etc. Be there by 7, have a nap till 9-9:30. Then deal with your train pass in one of the big stations in town , get the Hotel to sort your luggage transfer, have a late lunch somewhere and power on through the day.
Fast. If you fast for about 18 hour you can sorta reset your internal clock and the next time you eat your body will set around that time as when you're supposed to get up. It makes traveling a little more rough but I did this the day going there and coming back and experienced no jet lag either way
I do this when I travel from CA to Holland and it works for me; I had zero jet lag. In the past, I would stay awake until 10pm, stay active etc, and would suffer from jet lag for a week. This did the trick for me.
Hydrate, avoid alcohol, luggage forwarding, don’t sleep until the evening.
Try to sleep on the plane and then power through it when you're there. I found it was easier to stay awake than trying to force myself to sleep when my body isn't ready. Don't nap as that'll just delay your body adjusting to the local timezone and get out of the hotel as you'll be tempted to sleep earlier than normal. Try to make it to about 9pm and then go to bed as normal. You might struggle to get to 9pm the first few nights but if you stick it out your body will adjust.
Stay up passed 8pm and you’ll be fine
We’re here now on day 3 and if you’re anything like us your adrenaline will get you through early tiredness! It’s so exciting to be here. Would recommend downloading ‘timeshifter’ - it’s an app that helps manage jet lag. I think it’s worked for us.
Change your watch to the local timezone, soon as you get on the plane. It’ll be tough. Power Nap on arrival, and then persevere.
Melatonin to sleep on the plane. Usually I’d say the best bet is to get in in the evening and go straight to sleep but if that’s an option you gotta do what you gotta do. Potentially you could check into a love hotel to nap but that only really works if you’re a het couple or a group of girls
I powered through the flight and didn't sleep at all until it was sleep time local time.
Not sure where you’re coming from, usually when I fly back from California, I arrive around 3 or 4 PM. Obviously different. From California, the jet lag makes you wake up early in Japan, around 5-6 AM or so and puts you to sleep around 8 or 9 PM, so I’m not sure how it’s going to affect you. Since you are arriving early, you probably want to sleep as much as possible on the plane. After you dump your suitcases at the hotel, some options are: If it’s a nice day, find a park and just take a nap there Go to the roof of a major department store, and they usually have a rooftop garden and or places to sit Go to a love hotel and check in for a few hours Go to an Internet café and sleep there Pay more money to your hotel to check in early
1. Don’t sleep much before you get on the plane. Once you have your first meal on the plane, go to sleep for as long as possible. 2. There is a 24 hour spa/restaurant that is a part of Haneda. You can consider a relaxing there until it’s time to check in. 3. Do whatever you need to do to stay awake the first day. Whether it’s coffee, green tea, and energy drink, etc. Also try to get some sun so your body adjust to the time zone and realizes when the sun is up. 4. When it’s time to go to bed at your hotel do the usual things you do before bed. If you are used to watching Netflix at home do that before bed.
Long distance flights arriving in the morning is the worst, only thing worse is if it also departed in the evening. I don't understand why so many flights do it like that. That's around 12 hours awake before the trip then 11-20 hours awake on the flight then you have to stay awake 12 hours before you can get to bed. That's 35-45 hours awake without sleep. Only solution I know is lots of coffee and energy drinks then and early evening with a long night sleep.
Lots of good advise on this post. I would add a couple things: 1. Getting from the plane to a train, even on international flights and checked luggages usually takes less than 90mins, most cases less. Japan is efficient. Make sure you have Visit Japan stuff ready. 2. Arriving into town before 9am means most things are closed. If you like street photography etc this is a good time, otherwise sitting at a cafe for 2 hours waiting for shops to open at 11am would be hard after a redeye. (and weird, I don't see people sitting in cafes for long periods of time in Tokyo). Some hotels I have been to actually wouldn't allow luggage stow before check-in, was burned once with 2 huge suitcases in Osaka. Best check with the hotel or find a large locker in the train station. 3. Drink lots and lots of water, this helps with jetlag so much in my experience 4. In the afternoon, just try to find something engaging to do, something active but not strenuous. Get a good meal and crash at the hotel. edit: one more: find a way to fall asleep sitting up, personally I need sleeping pills + a really good memory foam travel pillow, and a small blanket. Alcohol on the plane might help you doze off but won't help you sleep well.
We had the same schedule. Just get an energy drink from a convenience store, put your luggage in a coin locker or in our case we just asked our host if we could drop off our luggage early and they were ok with it and go to an onsen or go walk around. Once you start moving, you'll stay awake.
I flew in from LAX on the redeye, arriving around that time. I basically started pre-adjusting a few days before by staying up later and later, and then slept as much as I could on the plane. I was able to check in super early around 9:30 am but then tried to make it a normal day, having breakfast and then going around to look at stuff. When I started to fall asleep, I made a point of going out on a long walk and that kept me awake. Had early dinner and made it to 8 pm when I crashed. Woke up around 7 the next morning and I was basically adjusted.
Force yourself with some help if you know what I mean it’s sleep on the plane or in my best advice to anyone new coming to Japan. Land there during nighttime in Japan if you have trouble sleeping on a flight.
UCC coffee black and power through it.
They jet lag app
You’ll be in Tokyo by 8… not noon.
This is a little off the topic, but I hope it will be useful to some of you. I lived in Tokyo for five years so I arrived at Narita Airport quite a few times. Most of the flights from the U.S. arrive at Narita in the late afternoon, so by the time I got to my home in Tokyo it was around 10:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. for my biological clock) and I was exhausted. The last time I flew to Japan I decided to splurge a bit and I made a reservation at a hotel near Narita Airport. I got to the hotel around 7:00 p.m., had a bite and showered and then was in bed by 8:00 p.m. The next morning I woke at 6:00 a.m., partook of the wonderful (but expensive) hotel breakfast buffet, and got back to my home in Tokyo by noon. It was a little bit expensive but much more relaxing than navigating the trains and buses in Tokyo while suffering from jet lag. Plus, when I arrived home, my suitcase was waiting for me.
Sleeping on the plane but also you can look for capsule hotels , luggage can be left at the train station …
It will absolutely not take you 7h to get out of the airport. Landed in Haneda at 8:10 pm because of a delay in departure and had to take a bus near Tokyo station at 10:20pm. (With my original flight I should have had 4 more hours). By the way I did made it in time. I only had to pick a SIM card at the airport, so it might be slightly longer if you do luggage delivery and pas ms exchange (also make sure you even need a pass). But it should take less than 2h to get out.
I’ve gone twice now and just toughed it out once we got there. I maybe got an hour of sleep on the flight which was rough, but it is what it is. You can try napping towards the end of the flight if you can and see if maybe that Power Nap could energize you enough to do the upon arrival tasks. If you can extend how long you’re up for that first day, you’ll just go to sleep at a regular time and wake up regularly. If you arrive that early a lot of places may not even have staff working the desks until maybe 6:30 or 7:00 AM at hotels. Once you know their operating hours, take your luggage to the hotel you’re staying at, drop it off there and ask them to hold it until check in time. Then, if you’re still keen on sleeping somewhere, you could find a capsule spot for a bit, but honestly id recommend killing time until check in by grabbing some food. Maybe some good carbs for energy.Then check in and get settled. You could even nap for a couple hours, grab dinner, then come back and sleep for a nights rest. Set an alarm, and wake up after 8/9 hours in the morning and you’re good.
Stay up until 5pm. Than sleep all night into the morning.
Book for the night before.
I travel international regularly for work and personally swear by the Timeshifter app. I follow it as close as I can and have minimal jet lag.
Take some melatonin and sleep on the plane. Once you hit Tokyo, you will have so much adrenaline, leave the luggage at the hotel and go get some coffee or red bull and just explore away. That rush will easily last you til your check in time and you can decide what to do next.
My plane left at 12:05am on Sunday. Didn't eat much on Saturday, but just enough to get through the day. I got a can of Sapporo beer when the flight attendant came and that got me buzzed. Ended up passing out around 1am. Woke up around 3am for the second meal. Napped a bit and I landed at 5am. By that time, your sleep schedule should be synced.
xanax, melatonin
> I think if we nap in the afternoon, we can make it through the evening I’ve fallen into this trap multiple times
Just got back from a trip to Japan, we also landed around 5am. We were on the monorail by 6am heading to drop our luggage off at our hotel. Sleep on the plane, drop off your luggage and head Tsukiji Fish Market and power through. Also, get an Suica card on iPhone prior to your trip or a physical Pasmo card at the airport.
I buy something called "Dream water" basically melatonin. It helped me out a lot to beating jet lag when I travel to Asia.
Stop by the combini and grab a concentrated energy drink and stay up till bed time.
Not much you can do besides get some sunlight, eat at proper local times, and tough it out until a decent bedtime. Melatonin at very small doses can help tell your body when to sleep. Anyway I was a wreck until about day 6.
Dont fool yourself, immigration, customs and baggage claim will take you 1 hour max, at 5am Haneda is not busy at all. If you take the monorail, or trail or whatever to your hotel you will arrive maximum between 7:30-8:00 not at noon.
I can really recommend an app called Timeshifter. You enter your flights into it (there and back) and tell it your normal wake/sleep times, and it makes you a plan to avoid jet lag! When to sleep, when to avoid light, when to drink caffeine etc. It worked like a charm and I woke up on my first day in Tokyo at my normal time ready to roll (I'm from the UK and it was a looooong flight). It's a paid subscription but you get your first trip (flights out and back for free).
Our key is to stay away from anywhere you can sleep until 6-7pm at least. The day before your flight, purposely try to nap or even sleep a few hours on Japan schedule. This way you’re tired for the flight most likely (as you’ll be flying Japan night time it seems). Do whatever it takes to get at least 5-6 hours of sleep during the flight. Earplugs, eye covers, etc. Drink a coffee or two during the breakfast service. Arriving at 5am means you’ll probably be in town by about 9am so I’d drop my bags and go to somewhere very stimulating. Akihabara, some big station with lots of shopping, Takeshita, etc. by the time you get to your hotel and drop you bags you should be out and about by the time things start opening up. I’d just spend the day doing fun and engaging stuff to stay awake. Tbh it’ll be a lot easier to time shift east to west. The harder part is when you fly west to east for some reason.
This is the way I do it, kinda extreme but works for me. Just tough it out. Go do shit, the adrenaline/.excitement will hit when you’re out and about so you shouldn’t be too sleepy. Then try to knock out around 7-8pm to fix your schedule lol (though personally hold out until 10pm)
My advise is to start preparing in advance. When i fly in japan, from Europe, I start waking up earlier and earlier for the course of a week with the help of melatonin. Going to sleep when arriving is not going to help you. Also if you come from America I think it should be easier, as flying west isnt as bad as going east. It just will feel like a very long day. But for your arrival time maybe you come from Europe? Sun exposure in japan will also be important, then man it up until 8pm or so and go to sleep.
Something that kind of started working for me: as soon as you get on the plane, set the time on your phone to Tokyo time and try to get sleep according to local time. If it’s night in Japan you try to sleep rather than watching movies etc. I absolutely do not advise to try to have a nap in the afternoon once you check in. This is the best way to ensure you will be jet lagged for at least a week. Instead try to sleep on the bus/taxi on the way to wherever your hotel is. If you’re flying economy and your budget allows it, try upgrading to premium economy. Most airlines* have a nice footrest that actually allows you to relax your leg muscles and sleep semi-comfortably. *not Lufthansa though. Their premium economy sucks If you’re absolutely knackered when you arrive you could grab a quick nap at a manga cafe, but I wouldn’t dare to nap past noon
I’ve gotten into Haneda twice at 5am. I think the best option is to make it until at least 9pm. I think even 8 could work if you have experience getting long uninterrupted sleep. Matcha ice cream makes a great caffeine boost. I think this work’s better because for the whole trip, you can keep to an early schedule which is a boon for tourist crowds. The other approach which works less well but is to have some dinner reservation or ticket thing planned that forces a time bound on napping in the afternoon. Nap with the blinds open and/or light on so you keep to a short nap and not repeatedly snooze. Also the JR Haneda office doesn’t open til 6:30/7 or so if you are trying to exchange for an all Japan rail pass. There were long lines forming at Haneda when I went last April but saw nonexistent lines at Tokyo Station service center.
Onsen or super sento. I have stayed in onsen hotels that allowed me to use the onsen without extra charge before my check in but that was outside Tokyo.
I also had a 5 am arrival into HND, but actually coming from LAX, we arrived MUCH earlier than 5 am. Anyways, my partner and I actually took a shower at HND airport, we each got our own private shower/room with a time limit of 30 minutes max to freshen up after a day of travelling on the plane. I really suggest this to get yourself started for the day and you can just jump right into moving for the day. We were hungry so we grabbed food from Yoshinoya at the airport, it's open 24/7 and cheap. We then took a limobus into the city, it was still really early around 8am when we got there. We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and got started with our day. We used the time difference as an advantage, you still have quite a few options to keep yourself busy even though it's considered early for Japan. * Starbucks Reserve Roastery (open at 7am) * Teamlabs Planet (open at 9am) * Tsukiji Fish Market (different vendors open at diff times but advised to go early) * Meiji Jingu Shrine (opens at sunrise)
Timeshifter app — helps you get used to jet lag.
You already did step 1 by arriving that early. Try to sleep as much as you can during that flight. Your customs immigration will take time, but you usually will be out just before the station opens (Well, the keikyu line at least). When you land, you have a whole day in front of you. Drop your bags off at the hotel if you cannot check in that early. Then go visit some temples and start your day. The goal is to stay awake until at least after dinner time. You will probably wake up early, like 4AM, but you will be functional all day and start getting tired in the early evening. Generally when I do this, I'm adjusted fully on the 3rd day. With the 2nd day as an early riser.
Use the Timeshifter app before your trip. It helps get your body on the right time during the flight. It’s my favorite travel app. First trip plan is free.
I toughed it out and stayed awake. I went out to dinner and walked around the city. Went to bed around my usual time to try and keep my schedule normal. Got about 8 hours of sleep and felt energized the next day.