A strange 4 hours in an empty Narita
Twilight Zone: Narita edition
From my Singapore arrival to Emirates departures, this was one of the strangest connection experiences ever. Since Japan is still closed to the world, Narita has become a virtual ghost town with only a handful of flights. Yet all the lights are on and there are way more workers than passengers. Since my Singapore flight arrived in Terminal 3, I had to take a shuttle bus to Terminal 2 where Emirates operates.
Apparently, SQ LAX wanted to make damn sure that they got rid of me at Narita. As I walked off the plane, there was a large sign board with my name and an agent standing next to it. She gave me directions to Gate 28A and the bus gate. On my 10 minute walk from Gate 35 to the bus gates and 28A, I only saw a handful of passengers.
When I got to Gate 28A, there was a single bus gate agent, who pointed me to the waiting bus. 30 seconds later, a bus driver came on board and we departed for Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
Whoa, color and sensory overload much??
Once in Terminal 3, I got my exercise going right following the Transit Counter sign, only to find out that I should have just turned left. The nice agent at the JAL Transit desk told me that they don't print Emirates boarding pass, and to just go the Emirates gate. I knew that the Emirates Lounge was not open, but decided to take the elevator up to check it out.
Seriously? I guess this sounded like a good excuse to use a couple of years ago. And certainly better than telling the truth... we only have one flight a day and so few passengers that no we are not going to spend any money on staffing and operating our lounge.
And next door. Good luck on ever seeing this one open anytime soon, if ever.
I arrived at Emirates Gate 73 some 3 hours before boarding. Although just prior to getting there, a pleasant Emirates agent walked towards me stopped me and asked "are you connecting from Los Angeles?" SQ LAX really wanted to get rid of me as they had contacted Emimates to be on the lookout for some crazy gaijen. She escorted me down the elevator to the gate area and did the doc check thing and issued my boarding passes and First Class baggage tags.
In the meantime, fortunately there were work stations counters where I could do some work while I passed the time.
I used to lav a couple of time only to discover that Japanese Covid rules prevent you from drying your hands after washing them. No paper towels of course, but also no hand dryer... "to prevent the infection fo Covid-19, the hand dryer is out of service". Fortunately, there was still toilet paper in the stalls.
As departure time approached, agents arrived and set up... behind a hermetically sealed counter. LOL.
My Instagram video of my visit to and transit thru Narita.