Flying To Japan - Nagoya International Airport
April 15th, 2008 by Mike
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Just over a year ago I traveled to Japan. It was my 5th visit to the country and in a few days I will be making my 6th! Not sure why, but man… do I love Japan! This probably has to do with the fact that my 2 best friends live there. Funny thing is that neither of them are Japanese. Go figure! One is from Australia and the other is from England! Both have lived in Japan for well over a decade now and each have married wonderful Japanese women. If you’re a reader of mine you’ll have probably guessed by now that one of them is Nick, and the other is Keith. You may have also noticed that Keith and Nick are the top two commentators on MichaelMcKinlay.com!
I’ve flown to Nagoya before but that was before the new airport was built. Perhaps I should replace the word ‘built’ with the word ‘created’ because the new airport actually sits on a man made island. Yep, space is so limited in Japan that when they need land, they make it! Another interesting thing is that the land reclaimed for the airport was built in such a way so that it could accommodate the ocean’s natural current. Fancy!
It also sounds like they are going to be adding a new 4000 metre runway in the future. Next time I fly over it, (which just happens to be in a few days) I’ll take some photos from the air.
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The airport opened in 2005 and while it’s not the biggest airport I’ve ever been in, it’s got to be the cleanest. Everything is just so shiny! The main area kind of looks like a food court in a shopping mall and when I was there last year they even had performances going on. Too bad I didn’t take any photos. It was kind of weird in a way because the performances made you feel like you were in a performing arts venue rather than on a man made island on the ocean!
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Like I said, everything was incredibly clean. Even the bathrooms are spotless!
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You can’t really see it but not much further behind that plane is the ocean! Craziness!
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Possibly related:
-Seattle’s SEATAC Airport
-In Japan
-Touring Around Nagoya Japan
-One More Week Till Japan(well… 8 days)
-Moving to Japan
Posted: April 15th, 2008 under Crazy Japan, Mike's Travels.
Comments: 14
That airport, which gets incredibly windy, is responsible for the disastrous start to our honeymoon. Our flight was delayed, so we missed our connecting flight in Seoul, got detoured to Paris, then finally made it to London… without our luggage… on Christmas Eve.
I hope it sinks!
complain, complain, complain….. geeze Nick get over it!!!
I mean, come on… you got to go to Paris, the city of love for free!!! That’s so awesome.. I wished my home airport had high winds…
I got to sit in Charles De Gaulle airport for an hour. Hardly the city of love!
Mike, I was just looking again at your Google Earth picture (which is really cool by the way) and noticed you’ve labeled the neighboring city as Nagoya, but it’s actually Tokoname. Boot up Google Earth again and go a bit further north. Nagoya is that whopping great block of gray concrete that fills your monitor.
Yeah I know Nick, I only meant the arrow as a pointer in the direction of Nagoya… I could have zoomed out more but then I would have lost the detail of the airport..
I’m going to call your bluff on that one!
Never flew into Nagoya, but have flown into Kansai Int’l. The steep-descent drop-in approach
actually caused a few screams. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
Hi Billy, and welcome to MichaelMcKinlay.com! Hope you’ll keep on coming back.
I’ve never flown in to Kansai but mmm sounds like it might be more exciting than the rides at Universal Studios Japan! I will have to try it sometime!
This airport look nice.
It was!
“I hope it sinks” haa haa haa that is funny Nick and do not worry because it already has sunk a touch!! The Engineers were shocked to find this out and just one day your wish may come true!!
It is however a very nice and clean airport and easy to get around unlike Narita which can be a mouse trap at times when trying to make a connecting flight!!
I heard that the man-made island on which Kansai airport sits also started to sink, so they had to knock down a third mountain and stick that underneath to prop it up. That extra mountain sent the project way over budget. (Disclaimer: This may be all rumor - I never checked the facts for myself, but it makes a good story).
Whether rumour or not that would make a good setting for a mystery book, Nick.
I’m becoming more and more impressed with Japan and maybe someday will visit there. I can see why Michael is enthralled with it.
Helogozaimasu hahahah
I have been living in Nagoya for……(thinking) dang 8 years now (thinks its been too long) i think its been that long b/c i really like it here. comped with osaka and tokyo Nagoya not as fast paced but not too slow. the foods good and the people……well are cool once you get to know them. not as open as the other buig citys but very cool
hope you can take the time to check it out
shoots