The smartest thing Japan has ever done (Haneda Airport)

So, I am one of the few that has actually used the international terminal Haneda (coming in from San Francisco) and I must say, as anyone can imagine, it completely changes the dynamic of a trip. Like Narita, us assholes that reside here have our own lane that nobody else is in. So you can whisk through.... then wait ages on luggage. This I found a bit worrying, as the plane was not far from the terminal at all, but it still took 30 minutes.

My flight arrived at 22:30 which is odd for a US flight. They usually leave late morning or mid day, and arrive in the middle of the afternoon. I assume this is due to Narita being located in the asshole of Japan. So, not only are you way, way closer to town, you can arrive at an hour where you're comfortable going home and sleeping.

There were still expresses running on the monorail, so I got one of those that made no stops between Haneda airport and Hamamatsucho. Yamanote from there to Harajuku and a quick cab to my house. Total transportation home was 40 minutes (if you include the wait for the first train) and ran about 680 yen for the train and 710 yen for the cab. Compared w/ Narita which would be 90 minutes to Shinjuku at 3200 yen (?) (4600 if you ride in the I ride in the green cars like me due to my lanky size) and another 15 minutes + 1500 yen or so for a cab. That's assuming you have no wait for the Narita express, even though only one per hour goes by Shinjuku (one per 30 minutes goes to Tokyo station).

The shocking thing was at that hour, there was 1 flight from Honolulu and a whopping 4 from Gimpo. Seems our Korean friends got their heads out of their asses too. (Korea has a mirrored debacle of Haneda->Narita with Gimpo->Incheon).

 

Well it's good news if you are going to central Tokyo and are on one of the few flights that goes to Haneda.

Although there have been changes at Narita, for a start there is a new Keisei skyliner line from the Airport to Ueno which does slash 10 to 20 minutes off the journey as well as the Cityliner and Evening liner which takes a little longer but is still about an hour and is much cheaper.

As for queues, I tend to get flights that get to Nartia first thing in the morning and generally there are basically no queues anyway. Get through about the same time as the most of the Japanese in the queues next to the foreign ones...

As for costs, it seems that you can get a flight from San Francisco to Narita at a cheaper cost then to Haneda so any savings you make on travel seem to be eaten up with the higher airfare.

Still hopefully more airlines will arrive at Haneda.

 

I don't think the issues is the airlines. The only two I ever take (to the states) are onboard (American and JAL) and quite a few other big names. However, there are way more Asian flights compared to North American (and only 2 European on the roster if I'm not mistaken).

The Keisei Liner to me is useless. Ueno is 4 extra local train stops from Tokyo station in the wrong direction. Tokyo station I can live with as I can jump on the Chuo line which is a straight shot to Shinjuku. Cabs aren't terribly unaffordable. Ueno would probably knock it out of that range. The new train coming which boasts a 38 minute trip to Narita is even more useless, going to Nippori (unless I want to go bang a Korean hooker before going home).

It's a step in the right direction... Japan needs something that says, "we know what we're doing". It's just probably too late to make a great impact on their ailing economy.

 

Haneda [x-----------l-----------] Narita

Because for haneda I have almost a limousine bus to my front door @820 yens.

 

There is indeed the added cost in the flight though. Not sure if it will be a continuing thing, but for starters, Virgin Atlantic doesn't seem to offer flights from Haneda. So, that's a bummer for you English. For a flight to London, the difference (through Orbitz) is about $200 between direct from Narita on Virgin Atlantic, or 1-stop on Air France (50 minute layover). The upside is the Air France flight takes off at 1:30 AM and arrives in London at 8AM local time. Some would argue that is worth the extra dough as you waste less work days than you would w/ Narita's shitty time restrictions.

 

This is great, but I think I will still land at Narita, if I have a choice. I, too, depart from SFO. What really sucks is that San Jose airport used to have direct flights to Narita, but they canceled those. It was much easier using SJC than SFO. Ah well, I'll be back in March and hopefully I can choose between Narita or Haneda. According to my current issue of BaySpo, both are available. When I lived in Tokyo (West Gotanda), this would have been great, but that doesn't matter to me anymore since I just take a connecting flight to either Sendai or Komatsu. I guess I am a day late and a buck short.

If either airport had　affordable long term parking, I would so be on that. I love driving. I did that a couple of times. Drive to Chiba from Sendai and I left my car in a tsukigime lot that my friend's uncle owned. That lot is now a MINISTOP.

 

Im in Shinjuku and want to have little flights to Korea.
I am hoping Haneda has better deals!

 

You can get that flight from Narita? I thought it was international only.

I've heard Narita's is 1000 yen a day. Very cheap all things considered. Of course the tolls to get to Sendai will butt fuck you, but that's another story.

Haneda->Gimpo is probably a bit more expensive but you will literally save two hours in travel. Probably more as those airports are so small you can show up about an hour early instead of two.

 

Nope, Narita also does domestic flights.




I don't take the kousoku douro,I take ippandou. I love driving Route 4 or Route 6 all the way up if I am not in a hurry. There are so many cool game shops on the way up as well.

 

I think cars are the devil.

 

Dito, but it sure sounds like fun

 

That may be so, but when you are gunning down the rainbow bridge at over 210km/h on a Saturday night, it is so orgasmic. Especially if there is someone tailing you and you have just enough room left on the tach to keep him there, it makes it all the while better. The same thing goes when I am in the mountains of Miyagi Prefecture on 2AM on a Sunday morning. Nothing but you, your hashiriya friends, and the touge. The only thing to ruin your day up there is a guardrail or a cat's eye. The mawari-san doesn't even bother to go up there.



The cat's eyes are the real devil.

 

I've thought Japanese tachos don't go over the 180? So did you break your needle?

 

Two words: ECU REFLASH

All you have to do is hook up a laptop to your car's computer and remove the speed governor, or if you have an older car, just remove the chip and replace it with a re-mapped one. This is common among performance enthusiasts.Then, install an aftermarket speedometer. I have an HKS boost controller that doubles as a tach and speedo. My GPS also showed speed, and when you are going that fast, you don't really want to look down.

 

afraid of 200km/h *snicker* - we do that on a daily basis on the few remaining pieces of unrestricted Autobahn that are left. The only thing preventing us from going so fast are roadworks & traffic.

But on a sunday morning, when the roads are clear, I like to take out my trusty brick and floor it ^^
At 260 I lifted my head up from the GPS too, too busy concentrating on the wobbles in the road, but the car wanted to pull even further. Old Volvos - some of them are full of surprises (and make you feel like a giggling 9 year old playing outrun in the arcades)

 

I'm not sure of the exact length, but I don't remember the train from Narita to Asakusabashi taking an unreasonable amount of time when I flew into Narita airport. Far better than last year, when I arrived at Heathrow Terminal 4 at midnight on a Sunday, so not only were there no tubes running into central London (which I had anticipated), but there was no shuttle running between Terminal 4 and the public transport hub at Terminals 1,2 & 3, so I had to spend £20 on a cab just to get from one terminal to another. Needless to say, I was both mildly surprised and pissed off that the busiest international airport in the world would stop their shuttle before all arriving flights had landed.

 

Heathrow express was not working? As that is a free way to travel between terminals, ditto bus 555. I remember a few years back getting to Heathrow terminal 5 at around 1am and still managed to get to Terminal 1,2,3 on the bus.

 

Japan is technically the same way. I've flown into Haneda a few times (not internationally) and just barely made the fucking last train, and I think missed it once. Haneda is still far enough for most people that the taxi cab (especially at that hour when the rates increase 20%) will be somewhat stiff. I live central, and it would cost me 10,000 yen.

So, it's a 24 hour hub, but you might be fucked depending on where you're going.