1st night in Japan - Yamanishi or Tokyo?

Hello everyone. I will be visiting Japan for 2 weeks with my son in June and July. He will be there a week before me and he will be in Yamanashi the day I arrive. I am scheduled to arrive in Narita at 3 pm. My son would like me to take the train to Yamanashi that day to stay with him, and then the following day we would proceed to Matsumoto. I am thinking it would be better if I stayed in Tokyo the first night and then met up with him in Matsumoto the following day. Is it reasonable to take the train to Yamanashi after arriving mid afternoon at Narita? This is my first trip to Japan, and I am sure I will be very jet lagged. Navigating a five-hour train trip to Yamanashi right after I clear customs seems pointless to me, but I welcome your views, as my son is very eager for me to make the trip out to Yamanashi.

Tokyo! You will probably get to your hotel around 6pm, which is a perfect time to check-in, have a quick shower, head out for dinner and then have a good night's sleep. You could even do a bit of shopping/sightseeing if you are not too tired.

Dear Bill,

I'm sure your son wants to see you as soon as it is possible after your landing in Japan,

BUT I think ( as the OP already said) it would be much better for you (and your health) if you stay your first night in Tokyo.

First: At your landing, you had a long flight in very dry air on your plane which not much of moving around.
Second: The impact of a possible Jetlag could be huge for your body.
So if you stay your first night in Tokyo, you could take a nice Hotel to get a good sleep, a nice shower an a meal. And you can walk a little bit in fresh air in the evening to adjust yourself.

After landing and Check-in at the Hotel, you are in the same time zone as your son, so if your Hotel has WLAN, you could WhatsApp ( or so) with your son.

It's naturaly not the same as see each other directly in person but with a long flight, a long train ride and a exausted and jetlagged mind and body after that, you and your son would not have much time at the first meet together, because all you would want is desperatly go to sleep.

There's a few factors at play there.

How long is your flight? How used are you to flights that long? What is the time difference and how used are you to jet lag and sleep deprivation? How good are you at sleeping in airplanes? In trains?

As others have said, it is a much better idea to spend your first night in Tokyo. It's nearly 5 hours between Narita and Yamanashi, and that's not counting getting out of the plane, customs, luggage, and getting situated as this is your first time in Japan I imagine.

At the same time I could understand if after already spending a whole day or two traveling to get to Japan you don't want to spend another half-day doing that on top of the hassle of getting to a hotel and checking in and out for a single night, and would rather just get it over with. But you probably wouldn't make it to Yamanashi for a good 6-7 hours after landing. And that's a lot of extra travel on top of an already long flight.

Thanks everyone. You all confirmed my own thoughts that it would be much better for me to stay in Tokyo the first night. I will be coming from the US, so a very long flight for me. I could foresee a very pleasant evening in Tokyo.

?get your some to meet you in Tokyo and spend 48 hrs together there to chill out and also for you to get over your jet lag?