Haneda Airport International Terminal

I'm back!

So I left Japan last September 9 to go on a holiday in my home country, the Philippines, and I promised I would blog about the Japanese food there. Well, oops. I didn't have time. It's because the reason why I went on a holiday there was actually to meet my very first, newborn son for the very first time. I was actually a week too late already but at least I got to spend time with him on his 2nd and 3rd weeks on earth. And man, if you're a parent, you know what those first few weeks entail. But, it was all good.

So anyways, I do have a few things to blog about, with some related to food in Japan. This first one is all about the Haneda (Tokyo International) Airport International Terminal from where I took off. I have lots of pictures. Check 'em all out below.

After checking in, go up one floor to check out the stores and
restaurants. They have a nice little Japanese theme going
with the store facade designs.

This is the ramen place where me and my wife ate in before
she went back home on her 5th month of pregnancy. I think
this is where you can get the cheapest food at the Haneda
International Terminal. When you enter the arrival area, it's
on the far right.

I had a lot of time to spend so I went to the
viewing balcony and took photos there.

This is much, much larger than the
viewing balcony at Narita.

You can get almost a full view of the tarmac. From this angle,
you can also see the Tokyo Skytree. Maybe not so much
from this photo, though.

There's one plane that's about to
take off right there. (Or just landed?)

From the same place, here you can see the air traffic control
tower, plus more of Haneda's buildings - I think including the
two domestic terminals. Essentially, the International Terminal
is the third terminal, but they don't refer to it as Terminal 3.
On my ticket, it's called Terminal I1 (i.e. first international
terminal) - but then there's no I2. Yet.

Ice cream vending machine! I'm sure there are
similar ones in other countries but it is in
Japan where I first saw one of these. Didn't try
one this time, but this is a must-try!

If you were here at the right time of the day at the right day
of the year, you are supposed to be able to see Mt. Fuji.

So at this time of the year, and this time of the day,
all you're supposed to see from here is the Minato Mirai
(i.e. Downtown Yokohama) area. Haneda is so convenient if
you're staying in Tokyo or even Kanagawa. Unfortunately,
very few airlines use this airport. Cathay Pacific is one of
them and I've found that sometimes they offer the best fares
for trips to/from the west of Japan (e.g. Manila, Hong Kong,
Amsterdam).  Plus, Haneda itself, unlike Narita, is already in
Tokyo. I think people are referring to the Narita airport less and less
as "Tokyo." Officially, it is Haneda that is the Tokyo International
Airport. Narita is about an hour and a half away from Haneda.

Let's turn 90 degrees and look North this time. From this view
we are supposed to be able to see Downtown Tokyo, including
Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Skytree.

But hey, what's up with these grills? Obviously it's for security.
But I don't know if it's by design, but there's this hole that's
large enough for a camera to peek through so that you can get
better, unobstructed shots of Tokyo.

Alas, it is difficult to spot Tokyo Tower from this photo.
In person, though, if you know what it looks like, it's not so
difficult.

I could have used these for I forgot what price,
but I'm quite sure it was expensive (maybe 300 yen
or 500 yen). So yeah, no thanks. 

Can you see the two planes that almost simultaneously just took off?