Today we'd like to introduce the next guest blog in our new mini series: Remembering 2010 Travels. Our second guest blogger is David Parker Brown and he is the founder and owner of the blog AirlineReporter.com, which is based in Seattle, WA. David shares his passion for the airline industry and aviation in a conversational and informational way with his readers. You can catch his blog at AirlineReporter.com or syndicated on the Seattle PI.
Many travelers feel the airport is an undesired necessity of travel. However, not all airports are created equally. In October 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan to check out their new international terminal. What I discovered was amazing. Haneda has traditionally been the domestic airport for Tokyo, while Narita has handled the majority of international flights. Recently this has been changing as Haneda has been increasing the amount of international flights they handle and opened a new international terminal to meet the expected growth.
The new international terminal was designed to become part of your journey, not just a place to catch your flight. If you arrive from the United States, to the new international terminal, it might not be so obvious why this terminal is different. Once off the plane, you will be presented with quite a few high-end shops in the terminal. I do not know many people who take a ten hour flight, to drop $10,000.00 on a Cartier watch. There must be people that do so, since there are plenty of expensive shops and products in the gate area.
Once you make it past security, the adventure really begins. You feel like you have walked onto an old style Japanese street with plenty more food and shopping options. Unlike seeing the high-end stores on the airport side of security, the shops on the city-side are geared more towards the average consumer. You can find places like an authentic sushi restaurant (with fish moving on a conveyer belt) to a huge Hello Kitty store (I managed to avoid that store thank you). If you had some time to burn, you could even check out their planetarium or get a quick meal in the planetarium’s café. If those do not meet your fancy, do not worry… there are five floors of food, shopping and airport goodness to check out.
Being an airline nerd, (I see that title as a compliment) one of my favorite parts of the terminal was the huge viewing platform. Actually, all three terminals at Haneda allow passengers to go to the rooftop and view the airplanes coming and going. I only wish that more American airports allowed passengers to do have viewpoints like that. Even for non airline nerds, I think it is a great way to connect passengers to the travel experience, instead of being in a building, walking down the jetway and just viewing the doorway of the airplane.
If you fly into Haneda or really any other airport, make sure to take the time to look around. Do not always assume the airport is a necessary evil. Think of it as a part of your adventure; you might be surprised with what you find.
Many travelers feel the airport is an undesired necessity of travel. However, not all airports are created equally. In October 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan to check out their new international terminal. What I discovered was amazing. Haneda has traditionally been the domestic airport for Tokyo, while Narita has handled the majority of international flights. Recently this has been changing as Haneda has been increasing the amount of international flights they handle and opened a new international terminal to meet the expected growth.The new international terminal was designed to become part of your journey, not just a place to catch your flight. If you arrive from the United States, to the new international terminal, it might not be so obvious why this terminal is different. Once off the plane, you will be presented with quite a few high-end shops in the terminal. I do not know many people who take a ten hour flight, to drop $10,000.00 on a Cartier watch. There must be people that do so, since there are plenty of expensive shops and products in the gate area.
Once you make it past security, the adventure really begins. You feel like you have walked onto an old style Japanese street with plenty more food and shopping options. Unlike seeing the high-end stores on the airport side of security, the shops on the city-side are geared more towards the average consumer. You can find places like an authentic sushi restaurant (with fish moving on a conveyer belt) to a huge Hello Kitty store (I managed to avoid that store thank you). If you had some time to burn, you could even check out their planetarium or get a quick meal in the planetarium’s café. If those do not meet your fancy, do not worry… there are five floors of food, shopping and airport goodness to check out.
Being an airline nerd, (I see that title as a compliment) one of my favorite parts of the terminal was the huge viewing platform. Actually, all three terminals at Haneda allow passengers to go to the rooftop and view the airplanes coming and going. I only wish that more American airports allowed passengers to do have viewpoints like that. Even for non airline nerds, I think it is a great way to connect passengers to the travel experience, instead of being in a building, walking down the jetway and just viewing the doorway of the airplane.
If you fly into Haneda or really any other airport, make sure to take the time to look around. Do not always assume the airport is a necessary evil. Think of it as a part of your adventure; you might be surprised with what you find.
Have you visited any airport terminals that have taken your breath away? What is your favorite aspect of the airport experience?
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