Children sit on their fathers' shoulders to get the best view of the planes. Everyone takes their time when looking at the large passenger planes that land every 60 seconds at Haneda Airport, Tokyo's oldest and most modern airport.
Haneda was opened in 1931, but was overshadowed in 1978 by the larger airport, Narita.
Authorities have invested in the airport and built a new terminal, an extra landing strip plus a lot of high-tech infrastructure to return Haneda to the league of international airports.
Haneda's is officially named, Tokyo International Airport, but for many years the planes landing and taking off only served national destinations. Yet, Haneda is still one of the largest airports in Japan and in 2003, 63 million passengers used it.
In the world league table of airports, Haneda is the fifth largest as regards passenger numbers and if the operating authority has its way, this number will rise soon.
A second terminal was opened in 2004. All Nippon Airways (ANA) alone has invested 650 million dollars in the five-storey, 180,000 square metre project.
The terminal has 15 gates to serve passengers. Large planes with space for up to 569 passengers usually serve national destinations, so customers are sometimes put on board with the help of three air bridges on either side of the plane.
'A Boeing 747 is empty of all passengers after 15 minutes,' says Rob Henderson, spokesman for ANA.
After a jumbo jet lands, it takes about an hour before it has been refuelled and the next batch of passengers has boarded.
The airport is located beside the Bay of Tokyo. Terminal 2 is made of glass and steel and its design resembles the shape of the bay. Inside, sand beige and blue-green, the colours of the sea, dominate.
The journey from Haneda to downtown Tokyo takes between 20 and 30 minutes with the monorail or the underground train.
Terminal 2 is also an example of how mobile phone technology is playing a greater role in our lives.
Henderson holds his mobile phone, which contains a piece of technology called an Edy Chip, towards a drinks dispenser and removes a beverage. Later, his mobile phone bill will list the drink.
But more important than paying for drinks with a mobile phone is the ability to buy plane tickets without cash.
At Haneda, passengers can order a ticket online via the internet and the airline will send a barcode by SMS to the customer. The passenger just has to hold the phone under one of 52 scanning devices at the airport and they are checked in.
According to ANA, passengers will need just eight seconds to check-in compared to the usual two minutes for passengers who check- in at the gate. Already 70 per cent of passengers at Haneda use these electronic tickets.
Presently, the only international destination served from Haneda is Gimpo near Seoul in South Korea. But that number of destinations is set to increase from 2009 onwards when a third landing strip is due to open with a length of three kilometres.
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