Los Angeles → Tokyo Haneda (LAX–HND): the date line, the airport choice and the arrival kit

Book ANA’s NH105 out of Los Angeles and your boarding pass says you leave just after midnight on a Friday. You land at Haneda at 05:00 on Saturday, having been in the air for about twelve hours. The rest of the “missing” day is the International Date Line, and it’s the first of several things on this route that look stranger on paper than they are in practice.

Some numbers to set the scene. LAX and Haneda are 8,812 km (5,476 mi) apart on a great circle, from our airport coordinates. Our LAX–HND route page estimates about 11h at a flat 800 km/h; real westbound schedules are longer because they fly against the prevailing winds. NH105 is scheduled at 12h10 and JAL’s afternoon JL15 at 11h45. Coming home with the jet stream behind you, ANA’s NH106 is scheduled at just 10h15.

The day you lose (and get back)

Tokyo is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles while California is on daylight time, and 17 hours ahead once US clocks go back on 1 November. Japan doesn’t use daylight saving. On top of that, your flight crosses the International Date Line somewhere over the Pacific: crossing it westbound advances the date by one, crossing it eastbound takes it back.

Practical consequences:

• Hotel check-in dates. Book Tokyo from the date on your arrival, not your departure. An NH105 traveller who books from Friday pays for a night they spend over the Pacific. For a 05:00 landing, many people book the night before anyway so there’s a room to collapse in.
• Visa-exempt day counts start on the date you land in Japan.
• Travel insurance and car rental dates often get typed from the departure date; check them.

Our explainer on why time zone maths trips travellers up goes deeper on flights that “arrive before they leave”.

Haneda or Narita: 15 km or 60 km

Tokyo has two international airports, and fares to them are often close. Five airlines fly LAX–Haneda non-stop at the time of writing — ANA, JAL, American, Delta and United, about seven departures a day between them, according to FlightsFrom’s schedule data. (Our route page shows a historical OpenFlights list, which predates some of these.) Narita has its own LAX services.

	Haneda (HND)	Narita (NRT)
Distance to the centre	about 15 km south of Tokyo Station	about 60 km east of central Tokyo
Rail into town	Keikyu line or Tokyo Monorail	Keisei Skyliner or JR Narita Express
Night operations	Terminal 3 and Terminal 2’s international area open 24 hours	Curfew from midnight to 6 a.m.
Best for	Almost everyone staying in Tokyo	Cheaper fares, or if you’re heading to Chiba

The rule of thumb: if the Narita fare saves you less than the cost and time of the longer transfer, take Haneda. Check your terminal, too. Most international flights use Haneda Terminal 3, but some of ANA’s international flights use Terminal 2, and NH105 is one of them: it arrives at Terminal 2, while JAL’s JL15 uses Terminal 3. Our Haneda airport page has the layout.

To compare the five Haneda carriers against Narita options for your dates, KAYAK Partner shows both airports in one search if you search for “Tokyo (all airports)”.

Paperwork, in the order you should do it

1. Check your visa-free stay. Japan’s foreign ministry lists the US among the countries whose citizens get 90 days visa-free for tourism. If you’re travelling on another passport, check the same page; a few nationalities get shorter stays.
2. Ignore anyone selling “JESTA”. Japan’s planned electronic travel authorisation is expected around fiscal 2028, and no launch date has been announced. There’s nothing to apply for today.
3. Fill in Visit Japan Web a few days before. The Digital Agency’s Visit Japan Web lets you complete immigration and customs details online and generates QR codes for arrival. It’s optional; paper forms are still handed out on the plane. At a busy Haneda arrival the QR route is usually quicker. It’s free, so don’t pay a third-party site to do it for you.
4. Note the departure tax. Japan’s International Tourist Tax rose from 1,000 to 3,000 yen per departure on 1 July 2026. It’s normally included in your ticket price, so you won’t pay it at the airport.

The arrival kit: card, phone, cash, plug

IC card. A rechargeable IC card gets you through rail gates and pays at convenience stores and vending machines. For visitors, JR East’s Welcome Suica needs no deposit, and there are Welcome Suica machines at Haneda Terminal 3’s Tokyo Monorail station. iPhone (iOS) users can use the Welcome Suica Mobile app instead. One warning from Tokyo Cheapo’s guide: a standard Suica created straight in Apple Wallet can’t be refunded to a foreign card, so don’t load it up heavily.

Phone. Have data working before you clear customs; you’ll want maps for the train change. Airalo Partner sells Japan eSIMs you can install in Los Angeles and switch on at the gate.

Cash. Cards work far more widely than they did, but small restaurants, shrines and some rural businesses are still cash-only. Seven Bank ATMs (mostly in 7-Eleven stores) accept cards issued overseas, with on-screen guidance in English and other languages; Japan Post Bank ATMs are another common option. Our currency page has today’s USD–JPY rate.

Tipping. Don’t. JNTO is clear that tipping isn’t customary in Japan.

Plugs. Japan uses Type A and B plugs, so US plugs fit, but the mains is 100 V rather than 120 V. Phone and laptop chargers don’t care. Some US hair tools run noticeably weaker.

Your first three hours at Haneda

• Immigration and customs. Have your Visit Japan Web QR codes open on your phone, or your paper forms filled in.
• Into town by rail. The Keikyu line runs toward Shinagawa and the Tokyo Monorail toward Hamamatsucho, both connecting to the JR Yamanote loop; Haneda’s own route search gives current times and fares for your terminal. Rail is the default.
• If you land at 05:00. You’re in the city by breakfast with no room until mid-afternoon. Leave bags at your hotel, walk somewhere outdoors, and save the museums for a day you can keep your eyes open.
• If you land in the evening (JL15 arrives around 17:25), eat near the hotel and go to bed at a normal Tokyo bedtime.

Sleeping through a 16-hour shift

A 16-hour westward shift is, for your body clock, roughly the same as an 8-hour eastward one: either way, your rhythm ends up a third of a day out of step. The CDC Yellow Book notes that people typically adjust by about an hour a day eastward and 1.5 hours a day westward, so expect most of the first week to be a little off.

What helps: sleep on the plane only during what will be Tokyo’s night; on the day you arrive, get outside in daylight and keep the first night’s bedtime no earlier than 21:00; keep caffeine to the morning. Coming home, the eastbound flight is shorter, and Los Angeles arrivals in the evening let you go straight to bed.

For everything else about a first Japan trip — rail passes, power frequencies, tax-free shopping — see our Japan first-trip primer and our Japan country page.