東京国際空港

Tôkyô Kokusai Kûkô is the official name of the airport more commonly called Haneda, code HND. It is built on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay near the city of Kawasaki and adjacent to the mouth of the Tama River. Until the opening of New Tokyo International Airport in Narita, it handled all of Tokyo's air traffic. Since then, all of the international flights migrated to Narita, culminating with China Airlines' move in 2002: however, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines returned in 2003 with nonstop flights to Gimpo Airport in Seoul.

In terms of passengers, Haneda is the sixth-busiest airport in the world, and the second-busiest outside the United States (after Heathrow)—it handles 300 aircraft a day and 54 million passengers a year.

The six-story domestic terminal, called "Big Bird," was opened in 1993 and is used by Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, and Japan Air System, and has a shopping mall called the Galleria on its top four floors. The international terminal, in sharp contrast, is a little two-story building across the access road from the Big Bird, barely large enough to accommodate a 747 load of passengers.

Haneda has three runways: two parallel northwest/southeast runways (34/16) and an intersecting northeast/southwest runway (04/22) in case of crosswind on the main runways. Generally, winds come from the north in the winter and the south in the summer, so aircraft tend to take off toward Tokyo Bay in the summer and toward the city in the winter.

Two railway lines serve the airport, the Keihin Kyuko Railway and the Tokyo Monorail. While the monorail might look cooler, it is also more expensive: taking the Keihin to Kamata and transferring for Shinagawa is about ¥400, while taking the monorail to Shinagawa is about ¥500. Since 2000 or so, the Keisei Railway has run direct express trains to Narita, using the Keikyu line and the Asakusa subway line.

For lucky bastards with radio scanners, here are some frequencies:

ATIS 128.8
Control tower 118.1
Approach control 119.1
Departure control 126.0

Official web site: http://www.tokyo-airport-bldg.co.jp/
Unofficial kickass fan site: http://www2f.biglobe.ne.jp/~masaho/index.htm