I booked a Toyota Rent a Car to get myself to Narita airport. Toyota is usually pricier than the other rental companies, but once you factor in being able to drop the car off at Narita, it works out cheaper and easier.

Toyota Rent a Car, Narita branch

The weather that day was fantastic. I finished the drive without any trouble and arrived at the Toyota Rent a Car branch by Narita airport, but the location is confusing enough that I ended up doing a full loop.. you have to turn into a small side road, and it is not easy to find the first time.

The shuttle bus to Narita airport

Nicely shielded with plastic sheeting.

Narita airport

The sky really was one for the record books.

Departures at Narita airport

Hmm.. this is a first for me..

Inside

It really did look like a ghost town.

The shopping arcade inside

Quite a few places were closed..

A restaurant

Only a handful of restaurants were open. The one other place still trading was MUJI, so I picked up a few odds and ends there.

Tomita was closed too..

There used to be all sorts of fun things here, but with everything shut there is not much to do..

A restaurant like this..

Apparently they sell Yamazaki.

McDonald’s

This one is open, at least.

The duty-free area

The duty-free shops really have been wiped out. Only one restaurant, a Matsumoto Kiyoshi and a convenience store were open, and the convenience store’s bento boxes had already sold out.

Ippudo was closed too..

A restaurant that is open

The restroom

The restroom was so big and so beautiful that there was no way I could leave without a photo.

Suntory and Cheeza

I had just driven a car for the first time in ages (a few years, probably..) with my nerves on edge the whole way, so there was no way I was skipping the beer. Ahh~

Inside the cabin

The runway

The sky

Finally heading home.

A view of Narita

A view of Narita

The vegetarian oriental meal on the way over

This was satisfying too. There is a vegetarian documentary on Netflix called The Game Changers, and once you watch it you cannot help taking an interest in plant-based eating. So while I am at it, I am going to try eating mostly vegetarian from now on.

Clouds

Arriving in Korea in the evening, there were no buses into the city, only dedicated taxis laid on for arrivals. Regular taxis will not pick you up at all. The fare is fixed, too. To Gangnam it was 85,000 won, I think.

The next morning I got up and had a PCR test at the public health center, and a day later the result came back negative. Then I put in two solid weeks of quarantine at home. The money and the time it takes just to go abroad once and come back are no joke.

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