Coming from the train into downtown Narita indeed there was a cacophony of color and noise, with McDonalds pre-eminent and packed. I wandered around and for the first time realized how foreign the place was - in my Euopean travels, with 4 years high school Latin and French, at least I can make some sense of street names and storefronts. In Narita I could have been looking at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs for all the good it did me. The billboard language is a strange mix of Japanese characters with Roman letters and Arabic numerals such as “#@%^~ SONY 4 @#&”.

Just off the central area the streets got plain and quiet and I looked for a restuarant - not McD. I am sure there were plenty there, the aromas were enticing but there was no obvious signs that I could read and the windows were covered in blinds. For all I knew it could have been a family sitting down to a meal in their home with the kitchen smells escaping. So I moved on, eventually settling for a noodle house where I could point to the picture on the menu and get something recognizable. Not what I had in mind - I was looking forward to something more akin to “Each piece of food and its accoutrement is painstakingly placed around the plate or small dish with visual balance and color harmony in mind.” What I settled for was a large bowl of noodle soup.

Moving on on my tour, I passed a small cemetery and walked through. The cemetery was as cluttered as the town centre in its own way - every few feet another vertical, small obelisk marking someone’s resting place - “they must all be buried standing up” was my first thought. But it was quiet and well-tended and a relaxing place.

An interesting excursion, and one I would recommend if you only have a short time passing through the airport. But perhaps you would do better to read about the place a bit first instead of just wandering around lost like I did.. Check out http://www.city.narita.chiba.jp/english/