Sorry, no comprende?
 

That lots of Japanese don't speak much or any english is OK, I don't speak much Japanese but that there are hardly any english speaking people at NRT amazed me! We had about 2 hours waiting for a HKG flight and were trying to find out if CX had a pre-immigraion lounge, after speaking to around 10 agents I gave up.... Check in was closed and we still had to pick up our boarding card, even though we were on paid F tickets even the CX agents had no idea what we wanted..

Although caucasian, I speak passable Japanese, but often thats not enough. In my experience, to the extent any thing, title, facility, store, etc. exists, you typically have to be able to refer to something by exactly the term that they know it as. The corrolary is the way many of the staff have trouble during irregular ops, esp in those airports where they use contract staff rather than employees of the airlines themselves. They can do regular ops "by rote" ok, but any question or request that takes them out of that element they can't usually deal with.

[This message has been edited by unagi1 (edited 07-23-2001).]

There are a few pre-immigration lounges but not for CX. They are run by Diners and a few other credit card companies.

As for English, the education ministry here a few years ago decided to cut down hours alloted for learning English at public schools. So, don't raise your expectations any higher ... http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...forum/wink.gif

I was once virtually forced to go through immigration despite the fact that I was on a transiting flight. And they were more than happy to collect the airport taxes from me when I went to board the plane.

At least they have signs outside toilets stating wheteher it's a Japanese or European style http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...forum/wink.gif.

I enjoyed the Japanese style toilet, even though it turned out to be a disabled toilet I loved all the buttons and lights http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...um/biggrin.gif

I've been through NRT perhaps hundreds of times, and have found that with a bit of perseverance, one can communicate effectively, if not efficiently. Most of the ground staff sincerely try to help. They get as much, if not more, frustrated when spoken language becomes a barrier. That is when I pull out a smile or two, and begin to hand wave, which usually does the trick.

I don't think that is what he was referring to. That is a Japanese-style hi-tech Western toilet. The Japanese-style toilet is the hole-in-the-ground squat type. http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...orum/smile.gif

Thank goodness I didn't bump into any of them, I am a pretty bad tourist http://www.flyertalk.com/airports/ft...um/biggrin.gif

Old-school Japanese-style toilet has become very difficult to find in the wild. Your best bet is some old local government or library building.

Wow, almost 18 years! That has to be a thread-bump record. ;)

Nobody seems to care anymore.

This thread’s not pinin'! It’s passed on! This thread is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet it’s maker! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't posted a comment it'd be pushing up the daisies! It’s metabolic processes are now history! It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! This is an ex-thread!

Regards,
armagebedar
Japan forum moderator