I arrived from Jakarta at 6:25AM, and my connecting flight to New York was at 11:10AM, so I had a sizable layover.
I cleared transit security in no time and headed to the Japan Airlines First Class Lounge located in the main concourse, only to discover that it actually opens at 7:30AM, so I had about an hour to kill before I could use the lounge.
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita entrance
Admittedly I should have researched in advance (not that it would have changed anything in practice), but I do find it a bit odd that the lounge opens so much later than the first bank of arriving flights.
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita entrance
Narita Airport only seems to “wake up” much later than many airports, as I wandered the terminal for a while and it was mostly deserted. Eventually I just sat down in a public seating area and worked on my laptop — Narita Airport has among the best free Wi-Fi of any airport I’ve been to.
Soon enough 7:30AM rolled around, and I headed to the lounge. The lounge has a large entryway, and upon showing my boarding pass I was admitted to the first class section.
The lounge itself is a good size, though it does tend to get a bit crowded during peak times, given that first class passengers as well as oneworld Emerald members have access to it.
The lounge is more or less in a rectangular shape, with one big room with a few partitions. For the most part the lounge just features comfortable sofa-style chairs, without too much variety in terms of seating options. The seats are comfortable enough, though this is one of the few lounges where I don’t actually care how comfortable the seating arrangements are (as I’ll explain below).
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita seating
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita seating
I apologize for the way my pictures turned out. This lounge doesn’t photograph well (due to the stark contrast between the amount of natural light and dark finishes) and I was tired, which is a bad combo. 😀
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita seating
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita seating
At the far left of the lounge is a small business center with a few workstations.
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita business center
Just past that is a separate room with more workstations, but most importantly, also with two massage chairs.
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita business center
I love Japanese massage chairs — they hurt so good! So as I always do, I settled down in one of them for quite a while.
Japan Airlines First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita massage chairs
At the opposite end of the lounge, near the windows, was the buffet. Closer to the center of the lounge was the drink spread as well as cold/packaged food spread.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
There were croissants, finger sandwiches, snack mix, etc.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita snacks
Then there was also the totally awesome beer machine (I don’t drink beer, but I love the machine), as well as the pretty cool soda machine.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita drinks
There was also a good selection of self serve liquor and wine.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita liquor selection
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita wine selection
Then further back in the lounge was the buffet with fresh food and hot items. It’s certainly a decent food spread, though nothing memorable. There were a variety of cold options including salad, several types of soup, and a few hot, more substantial items.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita buffet
My only complaint about the buffet is that they list the calories for everything, which is a surefire way to spoil an appetite. 😉
In terms of food, the highlight is the noodle bar and sushi bar. In this case I was already full so didn’t eat, but otherwise it’s totally worth a visit.
One of the other awesome things is that the lounge offers complimentary 10 minute spa treatments. You can get either an upper body, foot, or scalp massage.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita massage menu
I booked a treatment, and it was fantastic. While the massage was only 10 minutes, it was done in a partitioned off room with a proper “face down” massage table, as opposed to just a massage chair. I consistently find the pressure of the masseuses in this lounge to be incredible. So while the treatment can be borderline painful, I always feel much better afterwards.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita massage room
After the treatment it was time for a quick shower. The shower rooms themselves are reasonably nice, though the water temperature was a bit variable, unfortunately.
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita shower
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita shower
JAL First Class Lounge Tokyo Narita shower
I spent the rest of my layover catching up on email, and at around 10:30AM headed down to my departure gate, gate 64.
Walking to gate Tokyo Narita
The gates were located one level down from the main concourse, so I took the escalator down there.
Departure gate Tokyo Narita
While boarding hadn’t yet commenced, they were already queuing people up for departure, as is the norm at Narita.
Departure gate Tokyo Narita
At 10:40AM sharp boarding was announced, and I was ready for a nap!
JAL 777 taking me to New York
JAL First Class Lounge Narita bottom line
JAL’s flagship first class lounge is solid. The seating is comfortable enough, the food spread is quite good, I love the noodle/sushi bar, the complimentary 10 minute massages are nice, and who doesn’t love massage chairs?
Is it as nice as some of the best airport lounges in the world, like the Air France First Class Lounge Paris, Lufthansa First Class Terminal Frankfurt, Qantas First Class Lounge Sydney, or Thai Airways First Class Lounge Bangkok? Nope. But for the non “first tier” first class lounges, I think it’s among the better ones out there.
If you’ve been to the JAL First Class Lounge Narita, what was your experience like?
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