Recent on the ground report from Narita over the weekend. I had a 3 1/2 hour transit before boarding a Singapore flight to LAX. First, my mid afternoon 2/3 full-Asiana coming into NRT was mostly full of Japanese nationals (makes sense) and transit passengers (only around a dozen of us) were allowed to deplane first. Going through security was a breeze and only took 5-7 minutes. Afterwards I found myself in T1 which was extremely crowded with other transit passengers (numerous flights were departing between 4-6 pm).

T1 conditions:
1. Air conditioning extremely weak that day to the point of barely noticeable. Although it felt cooler than the outside, the whole place simultaneously had a stuffy feel to it, especially with so many bodies around you.
2. Many shops and restaurants still closed, and even open ones close early by 5 pm. Duty free shops, a few convenience stores, Ippudo ramen (popular chain), and some random traditional Japanese handicrafts souvenir shops were all that were open. Food section duty free and Ippudo were extremely popular with long lines (since these people can't enter Japan they were taking full advantage loading up on macha cake rolls, mochi, candy, and the like.) and no room to navigate within the aisles. Barely any customers at the cosmetics, alcohol, and tobacco sections though.
3. I don't know why but it seemed easily like a 1/4 of the transit passengers were visibly and audibly sick. Near constant coughing, sniffling, and people blowing their noses. Maskless kids coughing up a lung angling their necks out like some artillery cannon, I felt so disgusted. My sympathies to the poor employees that have to work inside this place.

Fifty minutes before scheduled departure my SQ flight from Singapore pulled up to the gate. Around 10 min passed with no one deplaning. Then I watched as a nearly full flight deplaned and was taken to clear security, only to show up immediately back at the same gate for reboarding. I don't know if that's a blessing or curse. After their 7 hours in the air maybe it felt good to stretch their legs, but they had to do all that only to get immediately back in line to reboard the same plane, no time to shop. Although departure was 1/2 hour late, reboarding was very speedy and we caught up in the air, even landing at LAX 10 mins earlier.

This wasn't plan A on my itinerary but was part of a replacement flight as my original JAL flight into Haneda was cancelled last month.