Tokyo Narita Airport comfort

Tokyo Narita airport:  A jumble of travelers' belongings and precious air mattresses.

A jumble of travelers’ belongings and precious air mattresses.

Tokyo Narita airport: Delayed travelers whose flights had been cancelled could not even check in.
Delayed travelers whose flights had been cancelled could not even check in.

The weather was terrible when we visited Japan last month. There was a whole inch of snow on the ground, and slushy puddles to slog through. It seemed Tokyo was unused to clearing streets and sidewalks. (I’d rather have slush than what I experienced on my March 2011 visit to Tokyo: the earthquake and tsunami.) Our drive to the airport, usually an hour, took three and a half due to closed and clogged roads.

But no problem: flights at Tokyo Narita had been delayed or cancelled. The airport was crowded with huddled travelers, their luggage piled neatly or jumbled. Our flight, too, was delayed, but only by a few hours.

Tokyo Narita airport comfort

We spent the time in a sushi restaurant where we had a mediocre meal and good wifi. Others were not so lucky, but luckier than delayed travelers elsewhere. Tokyo Narita Airport had kindly distributed lengths of air mattress, similar to bubble-wrap. People were sleeping on them, propped against pillows of the stuff, and covered by it. Creative families built tidy fortresses with floors and walls of air.

What a way to make a miserable situation a little more bearable.

Tokyo Narita airport: Bubble-wrap fortress: more comfort than the digital aquarium in the background.
Bubble-wrap fortress: more comfort than the digital aquarium in the background.
Not Tokyo Narita airport
Lunch at the fabulous Aoki Sushi restaurant in Tokyo. Not the airport joint.

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3 Comments

  1. Cuenca… that’s one place I haven’t been!

    Agree about Miami International. I like your definition!

  2. Airports can be an adventure all their own, which you have proven here. The bubble wrap tent: what a concept!

    One of my favorite big airports is Miami Int’l, which I call “A shopping mall with parking for cars and airplanes.”

    Oh, how I miss good sushi here in Cuenca. But we have a new (only open a week) restaurant that is part of a great chain out of Guayaquil, so I’m hopeful.

    Glad you made it home safely.


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