We dropped off a friend during Golden Week 2022 at Momotaro Okayama Airport which has a great viewing platform for hanging out and watching the (not too frequent) planes come and go. There are also more benches here than the rest of Japan combined (possibly not scientific fact) along with the ubiquitous vending machines but this time with ice cream and brewed to order coffee.
Usually there is direct service to Taipei, various points in Korea, and maybe even Hong Kong but right now it’s domestic only, maybe only to Haneda (the Tokyo airport that is actually close to Tokyo). Usually there are more points and I should figure this out but the short version is: we went to the airport, we watched planes, and Ichiro loved ALL OF IT.
Since it was “Golden Week” and specifically the day were you fly giant carp windsock kites for “Boy’s Day”, the ground crew took out large versions to display for the departing passengers and did full arm waves for at least 10 minutes.
(Because I haven’t done any research…) I find it amusing and odd that both the JAL and the ANA flights to/from Haneda leave/arrive within five minutes of each other. I look forward to departing and arriving from here in the future rather than just dropping off, picking up.
