Despite all the travels that Ms. Buddha and I do to Japan, we haven’t actually flown out of Narita (Tokyo’s main airport) that often. The main reason for this is because from Hong Kong, you have direct access to majority of the other cities in Japan so there was never much reason to transit through Narita – so given the opportunity, I was keen to try out the different lounges.
On the day of the flight, weather was horrendous which meant even more time to enjoy the lounges.
Cathay Pacific Business Class Lounge
Because we were flying Cathay, we had access to their dedicated lounge at the airport, the lounge itself is not far from the immigration area and you take a lift up – can’t really miss it though given the large Cathay sign.
The lounge itself is not that big with a “food” counter splitting the seating areas – the weather was getting worse and because of this, a fair amount of flights were delayed – making the lounge a bit more packed.
If you’re looking for food options though, unfortunately, given that this is Cathay’s satellite lounges, there’s not much to choose from, there are cup noodles and instant soups for those who want something warm.
Japan Airline Sakura Business Class Lounge
After watching a couple of episodes of Big Bang Theory, Ms. Buddha and I got bored and wanted to see what else there was to do, this was also because our flight had been delayed indefinitely. We decided to wander over to the Japan Airline’s lounge – since that they are part of OneWorld and we were in Business Class, we can enter.
The lounge was much bigger and much less crowded than the Cathay lounge, and we were kind of beating ourselves up for not coming here sooner when we were hungry. The food counter was much more substantial along with proper hot options.
The food looked quite good and given the miserable weather, I wanted MORE food – one of their specialties is Japanese curry – and because the flight has now been delayed to a point where I know I definitely won’t be having dinner on the flight – curry I ate (along with a couple glasses of self-made highball).
My conclusion, if you were flying out of Narita and you have access to the Sakura lounge, go straight to that one instead of Cathay – the Cathay lounge is comfortable but food wise, it’s a little weak.
Buddha Explores 