I booked quite a long time in Tokyo (2 months) so around the 27th i couldnt find a hotel anywhere over new year except a capsule hotel. so i looked at flights around the 27th but they came up as $800 return to hong kong on low fare airlines. I resigned to the capsule hotel but i kept looking at flights for january anyway and found hong kong express now on sale and got a return flight with seat choice for £68 return (5 hour flight)
TRIP IN VIDEO FORMAT
https://www.youtube.com/watch'v=ziHuAcSYDQY
I booked the 6am flight so i headed to the airport on the haneda monorail for 490 yen at around 10am and spent the day there.
I hung around the domestic terminal for the night, had my own little vip lounge outside :)
They say you can sleep there and leave your name with security but i found that to be un true. I asked one guard (who summoned a cabin crew member from japan airlines to translate) and he said no you cant sleep here and i asked if there was anywhere else and he said the hotel.
Well anyway around 10pm everyone was lying asleep on 3 seats and security guards walking around the airport and around people as if its normal anyway so obviously you can do it but if you ask then i guess they'd say no but they're not going to wake you up. I ended up sleeping on the floor because it was in an area that was quiet. other areas all had annoying escalator sounds saying watch your step and also in japanese every 5 seconds which was annoying especially when 2 of them are sounding off and then it sticks in your head liek you're going crazy and then while i went through departures the escalators/travelators were still going on and on and there was no escape lol so quite a bad idea. They need tips from hong kong and singapore.
Check in was 3:10am and they did a bow to us but then they were just like any other checkin agent straight to the point not really much warmth. then you have to wait till 4am for the departures to open, i was through security and immigration by 4:03am
Weather was forcast to be severe turb over japan but in my video you see a windy take off and a short severe turb but it stopped as soon as they told cabin crew to take their seats
HK express crew were warm and friendly.
We had a british guy flying but he then ended up being the pilot not flying and we did an autoland.
I normally have an ok time with immigration at hk but the woman just seemed so not interested in smiling
