Which would you recommend as the nicer lounge to used at Haneda airport international terminal: JAL First Class lounge or Cathay?

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...l#post19779346

JAL is always my first/First choice.
Lounge guide gives a fair summary of your options. ^

It's not even close. JAL first class lounge hands down. Plentiful showers, bounty of food and drink including a chef preparing entrees, smoking room if you need it, and the Red Suite lounge within the lounge.

and Japanese curry. Don't forget the curry.

Just massage chairs when I was there in April - no actual human involved. I believe that they may have removed the human massage. But, I agree, it's a nice lounge with good Japanese curry, beer machines (if you're that way inclined for the early morning BA flight) and, a chef making Japanese pancakes (in the morning anyway).

Before it's renovation I also got a free 5.4 richter scale mini-earthquake- all the Europeans stood up wondering what the hell was going on and the the Japanese just carried on as if nothing was happening!

Actually, I very much disagree. I think if you told me I could only ever go to one lounge again at HND I'd pick JL F, but the CX lounge has some definite advantages - the food is more substantial, it has better coffee, the decor is better, it has a manned bar with cocktails, it has more comfortable seating. JL F wins on being quieter, better champagne, slightly better service, shoe shine, self serve alcohol. If I'm there for a while I normally go for food and a cocktail in CX before moving to JL F to relax with a glass of champagne until the flight is called.

For the record, I've probably been through HND International Terminal 10-15 times in the last year so this is judging from many visits.

Yes, massages have been discontinued.

Depends on the time of day. If i want to eat or shower i would go to the JL lounge, but otherwise the recliners along the window in the CX lounge are as good as any spot in any lounge in the world.

On the flipside...from a business perspective cathay wins hands down!

Indeed it does, although has been a long time since I've ventured into one of the JL J lounges. CX is technically operating as a combined J/F lounge depending on the time of day I suppose, given there is normally 1 or sometimes 2 CX flights with F a day.

I prefer the food / cocktails in the Cathay Lounge but the ambiance / wine of the JAL F lounge.

How about you just go to both?

Would second going to both. CX is a nice lounge and the staff working there is top notch. My last visit (December 2017), I got there right before the lounge closed (was on the AA HND - LAX flight) and the head of the CX lounge came over to thank me for visiting and to apologize that I could only stay for 10 minutes because the lounge was closing.

I assured her it wasn't a problem and just wanted some noodles (can't resist Dan Dan noodles from a CX lounge). She offered me something from the bar and I declined and said it was too bad given the price increases that offering Japanese whisky with any age wasn't feasible anymore. She excused herself and came back a couple of minutes later with a glass of Yamazaki 12 that the had hidden in the back (presumably for VIPs -- which I certainly am not).