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Layover guideTokyo · HND · NRT

Staying connected in Tokyo

Free Wi-Fi across all three Haneda terminals, but the SIM counters keep shop hours and Narita's are all landside.

Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
All of Tokyo

Haneda runs HANEDA-FREE-WIFI across all three terminals. You select the network, open a browser and follow the on-screen instructions. It cannot be used inside shops, lounges excepted, and the airport warns it may be difficult to connect in certain areas.

Haneda sells prepaid SIM cards from a vending machine in Terminal 1, open 05:00 to 24:00 on B1F, alongside an unmanned WiFiBOX on the 2F departure level on the same hours. Staffed desks run 05:45 to 23:00 and 07:00 to 22:00 at Terminal 2, and 06:00 to 23:00 and 06:30 to 23:00 in the Terminal 3 arrivals lobby, where there is also a 24-hour unmanned Wi-Fi rental unit in front of the Mobile Center.

At Narita every SIM sales counter and mobile or Wi-Fi rental desk sits in the area before departure passport control, so an arriving crew member reaches them without difficulty and a transiting one does not. Most open 07:00 to 21:00, with some JAL ABC desks from 06:30 and GPA SIM card vending machines running around the clock.

Haneda's vending machines keep the same hours as the counters, so a 03:00 arrival there has HANEDA-FREE-WIFI and nothing else, while Narita's GPA machines are the round-the-clock option. An eSIM bought before you board removes the problem at both.

  1. Haneda Airport Passenger Terminal: wireless LAN · checked 2026-09-03
  2. Haneda Airport Passenger Terminal: cell phones, Wi-Fi rental, SIM cards · checked 2026-09-03
  3. Narita International Airport: cellular phone, Wi-Fi rental, SIM card sales locations · checked 2026-09-03

The rest of Tokyo

The whole guide
Getting out of the airportHaneda has two rail operators and a sub-twenty-minute run into town. Narita's fastest published run is thirty-six minutes, and it is a committed ride whichever train you take.Ride-hailingApps dispatch licensed taxis to marked stands that are not where the taxi rank is, and at Narita the fixed fare is the headline number.Local laws that catch crew outThe medicine in your washbag is the offence most likely to end a Tokyo layover in custody.WeatherA twenty-one degree swing across the year, and an autumn that is wetter than the rainy season.Eating near the crew hotelsCards are widely taken but not universally, so carry cash, and the table manners that would be rude at home are not rude here.What to buyThe tax-free system changes on 1 November 2026 from an exemption at the till to a refund confirmed by Customs at departure.TippingNot expected anywhere you will go, and pushing it is the awkward move rather than the generous one.