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Home » tokyo » My Serpentine But Serene Journey From Tokyo Haneda Airport To Tokyo Bay
tokyoTrains

My Serpentine But Serene Journey From Tokyo Haneda Airport To Tokyo Bay

Matthew Klint Posted onMarch 7, 2024March 7, 2024 26 Comments

a woman walking in a hallway

I took a long and indirect late-night route via train and foot from Tokyo Haneda Airport to my hotel in Tokyo Bay which reminded me of how much I love Japan.

A Late Night Train Journey From Tokyo Haneda Airport And Long Walk To Tokyo Bay

After arriving in Tokyo from Kuala Lumpur, I found myself in great discomfort. My contact dermatitis was at its peak and my first order of business at Haneda Airport was finding a pharmacy so I could get some Benadryl.

Unfortunately, I could not find one after going through passport control and customs. I meandered around a bit, but eventually gave up and went outside to catch a bus to Tokyo Bay. One of my pet peeves anywhere in the world is spending $$$ on taxis and taxis are not cheap in Tokyo. A ride from Haneda to my hotel in Tokyo Bay would have cost about as much as the hotel room itself.

Sadly, it was just after 11:00 pm and I missed the last bus. I was about to step into a taxi, but then I thought I might as well try to take public transport. I hoped that I might find a pharmacy along the way without having to go into central Tokyo. I pulled up the route map and found it wasn’t too bad…so I walked to the Haneda train station.

Surprisingly (I’m not used to taking local trains in Japan), the ticketing machine did not accept credit cards or tap payments. I had to go back inside to exchange USD for JPY and request coins so that I could pay for the ticket.

a machine with a screen and a sign

a blue signs with white text and numbers on them

The station was empty and perfectly clean. I waited 12 minutes for a train, which finally pulled up and was spotless onboard too, with luggage racks in each compartment.

a sign in a building

a sign on a wall
Probably should have just done this…

a group of people sitting on a train

In Hamamatsucho I had to change trains, which included a massive walk through the station to reach the Keiyō Line, where I (thankfully) was able to catch the last train of the night at 12:24 am to Urayasu.

a group of people standing on a platform

a train station with a row of white and blue objects

a line of signs on a tile floor

a woman walking in a hallway

a person walking on a moving escalator

a sign with a digital screen

people on a subway train

Once I arrived, it was a 1.5-mile walk to the hotel. The weather was crisp but the air was fresh and walking in the cool of the night was a nice distraction from the itching.

a large building with a few orange cones

The streets were clean…quiet…and empty. I know I wasn’t in the heart of the city, but I figured I’d be able to find a pharmacy open late. But no, I did not (I got some Benadryl the next day). Everything was closed. But despite the eerie calm, I felt so safe. Heck, I’d let my son walk alone from the station to the hotel if he had to and would not worry.

a street with lights and trees

a tree lined sidewalk with a street light
A man cleaning Burger King windows at 1:00 AM. I love it! Only in Japan. One of the only people I encountered on my 1.5-mile walk.

a tree in a square in front of a building

a sidewalk with trees and buildings at night

a street with buildings and trees at night

I finally reached the hotel and went to sleep. The walk had been refreshing but also prepared me well to go to sleep.

a street with a building and trees

CONCLUSION

While my time is (I hope…) worth a lot more than all the time I spent futzing around various trains in Tokyo, it was actually kind of fun and I enjoyed the 1:00 am walk through the cool quiet streets of Tokyo Bay.

Perhaps there was a far better way to reach where I wanted to go, but I am glad I did it the way I did it…

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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26 Comments

  1. Willem Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 12:47 pm

    You stopped to take pictures en route to trying to catch the last train of the night? Bold move!

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 7, 2024 at 9:57 pm

      With a terrible rash too, lol!

  2. JoeMart Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 1:15 pm

    Try to watch Tokyo Vice and Shogun to continue your Nippon window cultural acquaintance.

  3. bixnix Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 1:24 pm

    On the plus side, your late-night Keiyo ride wasn’t crowded – during rush hour, it can be crushingly full. And you got to ride the monorail before it is taken out of service.

    • Alert Reply
      March 7, 2024 at 2:20 pm

      Ah yes … the monorail and Hamamatsucho … you could have connected to Tokyo Station and found a pharmacy there, and then taken the last Shinkansen to Sapporo .

  4. Island Miler Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 1:25 pm

    I’m not familiar with the Tokyo Monorail – does it not accept Suika or Passmo? If so, you could’ve set that up in Apple Wallet and linked it to one of your credit cards for contactless payments at the gates.

  5. tom Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 1:37 pm

    Rather than get cash at the store, you could have downloaded the Pasmo card (free) which you can load from apple wallet. Use that to pay for transit and in convenience stores.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 7, 2024 at 1:41 pm

      Good to know! Thanks.

  6. Seahawks Nation Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 2:26 pm

    What a contrast with Biden’s America in 2024!

    Japan: no immigration crisis (by design). Safe streets, orderly, normal.

    United States: chaos, crime, drugs, open borders, sexual trafficking, cartels, gangs, defund the police, and zero consequences for criminals due to insane ‘progressive’ policies.

    It’s almost like there is a lesson to be learned here.

    • dee Reply
      March 7, 2024 at 3:32 pm

      soTrue!!!!

    • Aaron Reply
      March 10, 2024 at 2:51 pm

      Eh, that started before Biden, but keep telling yourself that.

  7. Jon Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 2:47 pm

    Any particular reason why you chose the HR Tokyo Bay? Was it mainly a cost consideration?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 7, 2024 at 9:36 pm

      Totally cost.

      Grand Hyatt was over $800.

      Andaz over $1000 (would have loved to try it).

      Park Hyatt over $1000.

      Silly to pay that much when I arrived at midnight. But I made the effort to go here instead of an airport hotel because I needed every night I could to get up to 60 and I thought it would be a useful review.

  8. Alert Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 3:07 pm

    @SeahawksNation … Lesson is : ‘Import the third world , Become the third world’ .

    Japan tries to maintain first world infrastructure , education , etc. … US invites a chance of future collapse .

    • Cr- Reply
      March 9, 2024 at 11:57 pm

      If it weren’t for immigration you wouldn’t be here…

  9. David Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 5:01 pm

    No feces map needed there.

  10. Chi Hsuan Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 7:27 pm

    Looks like Japan has yet to discover the gifts of diversity and cultural enrichment. How unfortunate for them. You haven’t lived until you’ve walked the filthy, dangerous streets of America’s finest cities, stopping to admire the variety of drug paraphernalia and biological fluids adorning every corner.

    • Aaron Reply
      March 10, 2024 at 2:54 pm

      Trolls gotta keep trolling…

  11. Mick Reply
    March 7, 2024 at 9:58 pm

    Nice one. I always try to catch trains when I can. More relaxing than taxis imo and a lot less expensive, especially in japan. Time wise, yes time is money, but you are getting the experience too, as you mention.

    Last year I sprinted to get a ticket to catch a train to Tokyo from narita. I had only 4 hours to spend in Tokyo before heading to narita. Got to the front of the queue and same thing. No card allowed. Ugh. I did my first trip to Tokyo in about 2004 and there were only a few atms in the hole city that accepted cirrus! Finally found a Citibank atm with a long queue to get money out. Strange.

  12. Shameika Reply
    March 8, 2024 at 5:02 am

    I find it insane that in March 2024, literally every person your photographed in Tokyo is still wearing a face diaper. If anything, masking rates have increased since the last time I was there. A depressing commentary on the mental health of the Japanese population.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 8, 2024 at 12:02 pm

      This is from last spring, but I think it’s a safe bet that most Japanese are still wearing masks today based on the even more recent pictures I have seen.

    • Aaron Reply
      March 10, 2024 at 2:57 pm

      Spoiler alert: people in Japan would wear facemasks in public long before 2020.

      Also they seem to be fine with it, it doesn’t seem to trigger them into whiny snowflakes…

      • Larry B Reply
        March 11, 2024 at 11:11 am

        Keep fighting the good fight, Aaron!
        The whiny faction will never stop. Umbrage must be taken at every turn, or they’ll be considered “weak” (without having the self-awareness to realize they’ve already lost that battle!).
        Reading below from the Pleistocene crowd, I wonder how people born in 1940 can remember a time when they could leave a bicycle unlocked anywhere in the 1950’s or more recently. Japan has been noted as being exceptionally polite, exceptionally civilized, for many decades. (The classic story – fake or real – about a wallet being left accidentally, then recovered untouched hours/a day later. Please, dear snowflake, do tell when that occurred in YOUR America!)
        Back to the story, always love reading travel blogger visits to Japan. Hoping to get back within the next several overseas family trips.

  13. Matt Reply
    March 8, 2024 at 8:55 am

    Why did you make a big deal of “getting change” from the currency exchange counter? All ticket machines in Japan accept and give change for bills as large as ¥10,000. I’m shocked you seem to have been in Japan many times yet don’t understand basic facts like this.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      March 8, 2024 at 12:02 pm

      I had to change money. I had no JPY at all.

  14. Bruce Reply
    March 8, 2024 at 10:52 am

    My wife and I are in our 80s. I gladly pay for a taxi to take me right to the hotel. And the taxi service in Japan is great. I echo the comments of those above who are shocked at the comparison between our country and Japan. I noticed on the streets they had high-end bicycles in racks and the bicycles weren’t locked. Try that in our country.

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