ANA and JAL offer daily free tours to their maintenance center in Haneda airport, Tokyo.
For a foreigner, ANA offers the best package since there is an online registration system, very easy to use.
http://www.ana.co.jp/cp/kengaku/


Not enjoy reading ? Go to the flickr album.


Use a translator and try to register 1-2 months in advance because available space get booked quickly from all kinds of groups (schools, tourists, …).
I registered in Japanese but I also wrote my name in English in the notes section and they replied in English, with an English registration form and English directions. So, maybe you can e-mail them instead of using the online tool. Alternatevely you can call them (also JAL) but I am not sure if you can find a person to talk in English.


The tour is in Japanese. 100% 日本語. You will not hear a single English word, be warned.


How to get there: Read the instructions they will send to you. It's very easy. Just remember to take the local monorail, not the express.


The tour takes about 100 minutes.
The first part is a big presentation about various things regarding aviation. It is "elementary-level" with good power-point so you will probably understand the basics if you don't speak Japanese. Then there is a pop-quiz that everybody wins (eventually) and some basic souvenirs (mobile-hanging things). On the presentation room there are some parts from various planes (plastic from a window, carbon from body , …). Not something really exciting for us FTers.

Afterwards, we got separated into 4 groups of about 20-25 people and off we went to the hangar (with our lovely blue hats). I would like to note here that this hangar was a live working hangar. Not a touristic playground. The group guide was very strict about being close together but let us all click-away while explaining some basic info (in Japanese – I told you already ! ).
After we entered the hangar… a huge disappointment… empty hangar!!!
So much planning, so much persuading (to my wife), so much dreaming (about 787 in the hangar) and now this. Anyway … I did enjoy the structure, the bits and pieces and tried not to cry about my bad luck.











I was praying for this 747 to be pushed in while we were there but it never happened.
We got to the ground floor and saw some other interesting things like spare tires and jacks.







We continued forward to the adjacent hangar space…wait…what is this?




...NER + NG + 787-8 , is this it ?






ok, ok… let's play it cool… Look ma, it's a 777 (JA743) !




Please see the flickr album for more photos of this beautiful 777… yea, I know, who cares.


787 porn:















After they almost dragged me (and another guy) out of the hangar, we went out, surrender our cute blue hats and browsed a small combini inside the building which apart from snacks (in low prices) had some souvenirs (in high prices).

Oh ! and a badass robot:



Optimus blue prime? (help please)



Do you think this was an interesting tour? If yes, don't hesitate to take your girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband with you because my wife (totally clueless about planes) loved it equally.


Want more photos ? Flickr is here to save the day !