Japan 2026 - Day 16 / Narita Airport & Flight Home

Yippeeeee!!  Going home!!!

Our flight was at 5:30PM, but we didn't wait.  We had breakfast, packed and hit the road.

The weather was great so we decided to walk to the train station and soak in some last glimpses of the city. This meant we didn't have to load our public transportation cards or bother with metro tickets.  We did really well. We loaded a total of 190 000¥ for the entire trip and left behind a measly 88¥. Perfect!

Getting to the airport was simple with the Narita Express 

These posters all over the platforms made me chuckle. How many poor mixed up tourists made the wrong move here? 

We got to the airport around 10AM and wanted to check our bags in....  but the drop of only opened at 2:40PM! OMG!  I feel so stupid now, but in my defense I am so used to carry-on only that I just don't consider these logistics!!

So, we killed some time with coffee and small snack, but I didn't want to eat too much because I was saving the stomach space for the lounge experience.

There was an observatory at the airport so we hung out there for a while watching planes take off. A lot of aficionados up there will professional cameras.

Next we came across these massage pods which gave me the opportunity to get rid of more unwanted coins

FINAAAAALLYYYYYYY time came to drop off the bags, and then off we went to explore the lounge.

I shoveled it all in, and it was all good except the pasta was very mushy.

The lounge was HUGE and there were 2 food / buffet stations that included a soft serve vanilla ice cream station that Frank fully enjoyed!

By about 330 we made our way to the gate. I was still giddy over our free upgrade to business class and the fact that I was in seat 1A! Will I ever be lucky like this again?

The food was good enough. Let's face it it's still airplane food, but tablecloths and plates and real cutlery with cloth napkins really do make a difference! 

For breakfast, I asked for an omelet and they brought me a chicken something whatever. They don't even rhyme, is my accent that bad? I decided to try it anyway, why not...  sadly I didn't like it. Win some lose some I suppose.

Another benefit of seat 1A is that you are very first off the plane.  From the time we landed, going through customs, waiting for luggage and finally sitting in the cab all took less than 30 minutes

Will I ever be able to fly economy again?  Stay tuned to find out 😉