Tokyo Layover with a Hotel Room inside the Airport!!

My first flight completed, I find myself in Tokyo for a 10 hour layover.  Since leaving Vienna, luck has been with me.  I scored three empty seats so I was able to lie nearly flat in my row and get a few hours sleep.  This has always been a problem while sitting in a normal seat.  And the plane arrived about an hour late.  Now I’ve only got about 9 hours to kill before my flight to Christchurch.

I’ve booked a “Day Room” right in the airport.  Similar to a hotel, these rooms have a bed and shower so you can rest and freshen up.  But they’re only available during the airports hours, not overnight.

After passing through a security checkpoint, I locate the dayroom between Gate 25 and 26 in Terminal 1.  You really can’t get any closer than that!  About 2 minutes travel time from my plane!  I check in, find that my room has a nice little single bed.  Perfectly clean, but quite an old room. No worries, I’m there to SLEEP.  After a quick shower, I find a remote control for TOILET (if you never been to Japan, you need to know that they have a strange obsession about their toilets.  And many many other things…)

The bed is comfortable and I soon find my alarm is going off.  It’s still about 3 hours before my flight, but I want to explore what the Tokyo airport has to offer!  I’ve only spent a few days in Japan on a previous visit to Sendai (yes, where the tsunami hit.  I was there just a few months prior.)

First stop:  COFFEE.  I wander around the airport and much to my dismay, there isn’t a single decent looking coffee place other than Starbucks.  I order some delicious chicken curry with rice and get a latte from the restaurant.  It’s not bad, but I’m still disappointed.  Then I remember that canned coffee is quite popular.  I find a machine and buy a HOT can of coffee for about 1,100 Yen (about 1 euro).  Mmm, quite yummy!

Caffeinated and belly full, I head towards my gate to board the flight to Christchurch.  On the way, I see an odd looking plane.  The cockpit windows make it look like a spaceship.  It’s the NEW Boeing 787!  (UPDATE:  Just a few days later all these planes were grounded due to faulty batteries.  One caused a fire on the ground in Tokyo.)  What a beautiful plane!

Boeing Dreamliner 787

My luck doesn’t hold out though.  On the last flight, it’s full.  But I meet a very nice father and daughter on their way home.  They tell me a bit about New Zealand.  I can’t wait to get there!!