Tokyo/Narita Airport Review

Overall 5.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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Writer

Rainmaker
Atlanta, GA

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Very Gaijin Friendly

Wanderer, a global traveler

Pros

Friendly to English speakers, Shopping available for layovers, Information readily available, friendly people

NOV

2007

When traveling for business, quite often there will be something in place to move things along. For instance, some one will meet you to make sure things go as they should. Traveling independently as a tourist can be a much different experience. With no tour guide or business guide, the uncertainty in everything sky rockets. Things were pretty uncertain when I first visited this airport about 18 years ago. It was the first time I was traveling alone in a country where I had no language skills. I made it through alright then, but this airport is an entirely different place to visit and a different experience now. On that earlier occasion I just moved along in the direction people seemed to be motioning and pulled out the things I thought they would want to see, like passport, boarding pass or luggage claim tags. If the first thing I tried didn't seem to please I'd try again with something different. I was blindly going through the motions with no idea what would happen next and hoping that it all worked out. I don't really know how it is that I found the person I was meeting in the airport. It just happened, luckily.

Today, this airport is a lot more user friendly to those of us who have difficulty hanging on to a language so different from their own. In many respects, my experience this time round was not so different from that in a western airport. While not everyone speaks English fluently, it is easier to get an answer to your question, whether someone actually speaks the answer to you, or whether they pull out a laminated card with the answer to your question printed on it. The level of understanding is very good and usually the answer you get will actually be an answer to the question that you asked. Never underestimate how valuable that is! As with many other places in Japan, when you ask for directions, the person will watch for a minute to see if you are going where they told you to and, come up to help you along if you misunderstood. That is also pretty valuable, as it is easy for a non-native speaker to confuse "on your left" with "turn left" and that does after all make quite a big difference.

There is ample shopping with everything you might want or need, from clothing to souvenirs, from things you left out of your suitcase to high end duty free. Ockers for short-term storage if you are looking to park you bags and take the train to a shrine or temple. There are many restaurants as well. The prices are not too shocking either. Souvenir prices are, for the most part, comparable to those in the tourist spots, that is until after you make it to your gate. I did notice that prices in the stores at the gates were considerably higher. That makes the airport a reasonable place to pick up some of the last minute items that you didn't find earlier.

There is a nice guide book that you can get at the information station. The information is also in an online guide: https://www.narita-airport.jp/en/index.html. It can be really helpful to use this to orient yourself beforehand, especially if you will spend an hour or three in the airport, or if this is a first time trip.

Tokyo/Narita Airport is recommended by Rainmaker

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Comments about Rainmaker’s Review

fanihiman wrote on Feb 10, 2008 at 9:26PM

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Thanks for a great review! I've been through Narita Airport a few times during my travels--and each time my experience was better. Here are two times that I went through Narita: http://www.squidoo.com/niseko and http://www.squidoo.com/narita
I've been through very many airports--and as airports go, Narita is one of the best, the friendliest, and the most enjoyable to have a layover between flights. Thanks again for your great review!