Spots To Visit During Tokyo Airport Layover

Q. My husband and I will have a five-hour layover at the Narita Airport, serving Tokyo. Is there an excursion we could take to make some worthwhile use of our time?

A. There are at least two sites near Narita that could add a lot of interest to your visit: a well-known temple called Shinshoji, and the National Museum of Japanese History.

The Shinsho Temple, of the Buddhist Shingon sect, is dedidated to Fudo, the god of fire and is known familiarly as O-Fudo-san. It was founded in 939 and moved to its present site in 1705.

To get there from the Narita Airport Station take either the JR line to JR Narita Station or the Keisei line to Keisei Narita Station, both about a 10-minute trip. The round-trip fare on either route is about $5.

The temple, a 20-minute walk from either station, attracts 12 million worshipers a year. Kabuki fans know it as the ancestral temple of Ichikawa Danjuro, the most illustrious of the major acting families in the kabuki tradition.

Give yourself at least an hour to look around.

The National Museum of Japanese History is in Sakura, (011) 81-434-86-0123, and is open every day but Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

This huge, modern museum, which stands on a rise that was once the site of Sakura Castle, has four display rooms containing lavishly detailed models of palaces, towns and rural landscapes illustrating major historical periods. The collection totals 70,000 pieces.

From Narita Airport it is 24 minutes by train to the Keisei Sakura Station ($10 round trip) and a 15-minute walk from the station to the museum. If you prefer to take a bus rather than walk, take one from the No. 1 bus depot outside the Keisei station. Take it to the Kokoritsu Hakubutsukan bus stop, about a five-minute walk from the museum. The one-way fare is about $2.

Narita Airport has a room with 10 showers and a lounge where passengers can refresh themselves, as well as a children’s playroom.

For brochures on many aspects of Narita, both the airport and the town and including the museum and the temple, contact the Japan National Tourist Organization, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Suite 1250, New York, NY 10020, (212) 757-5641.

Q. Are there any agencies that would know about homes for rent on Captiva Island, off the Gulf Coast of Florida.

A. Real estate agents and the island’s own chamber of commerce are useful resources.

In general, prices for a three-bedroom or four-bedroom house on Captiva in high season, from Dec. 1 to Easter, will run from $5,000 to $8,000 a week. Low-season rates, from May 1 to December, will be about $2,000 to $4,000 a week. A two-bedroom, two-bath condo in the high season goes for about $1,200 to $1,800 a week and from $700 to $1,200 a week in the low.

But that’s just the range.

A $2.4 million, six-bedroom house on an acre on Captiva with a pool and its own dock goes for $8,000 a week in the high season and $5,000 a week in the low season.

Captiva, the much more affluent of the two islands, tends to have larger homes and yet they are generally available on a weekly basis. Condominiums and other homes on Sanibel can usually only be rented for a miminum of a month.

The following should be able to help:

Captiva Island Chamber of Commerce, 1159 Causeway Road, Sanibel Island, Fla. 33957; (941) 472-1080.

Century 21, Sandcastle Realty, 1554 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel Island, Fla. 33957; (800) 226-0210.

Grande Island Real Estate, 1630 Periwinkle Way, Suite C, Sanibel Island, Fla. 33957; (800) 551-7788.

Prudential Florida Realty Rental Division, 695 Tarpon Bay Road, Suite 1, Sanibel Island, Fla. 33957; (800) 633-0042.

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