This is where I arrived to start my three years in Japan in September 1996. The airport had only the originak runway (the one in the lower partof the photo) then. the second, parallel runway had been slated to be built for nearly 20 years but delayed by farmers in the area who din't want to sell their land. At times the protests against airport expansion reached the point of people flying tethered balloons in the path of landing aircraft ... Japan is an "interesting" country to do large construction projects.

In addition to taking many flights in and out of Narita I had the opportunity to work "inside" Narita a number of times. My organization had a contracted "greeting" facility for US forces entering Japan in Terminal 1 which we had to move several times die to construction and it was a learning experience to see what goes on behind the normally closed doors to make an airport of this size actually operate.