My Luggage Already Lined Up After Narita Immigration
I took this photo at the baggage claim area of Narita Airport Terminal 1, Tokyo, Japan on April 1, 2026 at around 8:30 AM.
The immigration queue at Narita took quite a while that morning. From lining up until finally getting the entry sticker in my passport, the whole process took around 45 minutes. Even though it was still a morning arrival, the queue was already pretty long. The process itself was smooth though. I noticed that at first not all immigration counters were open yet, but as the line kept getting longer, more counters gradually started opening. Good thing I already went to the toilet before lining up, because honestly I couldn’t hold it any longer for that amount of time 😂
If you’ve already completed Visit Japan Web before your flight, you don’t need to take additional forms and fill everything out again after landing. You can just head straight to the immigration queue.
Once I finished immigration, I immediately headed to the baggage claim area for Singapore Airlines flight SQ638. At that point I was already feeling a bit nervous 😂 Between the long immigration queue and my emergency toilet stop earlier after landing, it took quite a while before I finally reached the baggage claim area. What happened to my luggage? Was it still going around and around on the conveyor belt, or had someone already moved it somewhere else?
By the time I arrived at the baggage claim area, I was surprised that the conveyor belt was no longer running, and all the luggage had already been removed and lined up neatly beside it. I also saw several staff members standing nearby watching over the area, but honestly I felt awkward about whether I should ask them where my luggage was or just search for it myself.
So my eyes started scanning the rows of luggage one by one, and aha, there was my suitcase over there 😂 Only then did I walk over and pick it up. I also noticed a few other passengers walking around searching for their luggage too.
I’ve seen people mention this on social media before, but at that moment I genuinely forgot and didn’t even think my luggage would already be lined up neatly like this. But seeing it in person after a long immigration queue was a small but genuinely pleasant surprise. Somehow it gave me a sense of relief seeing that my bag was already there, safe and sound, quietly waiting for me.
