New Haneda Airport complex welcomes travelers with roof-top onsen, tastes of traditional Japan

A roof-top onsen with views to Mt. Fuji and Japan’s largest airport hotel are among the features of a new complex at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport built to leave travelers with a new and lasting impression of Japan.

The multipurpose complex Haneda Airport Garden, which is directly connected to the airport’s international terminal, serves travelers an early taste of Japan, or a reminder of what they’re leaving behind, through around 80 shops and restaurants bringing together a vibrant selection of traditional crafts, experiences, and flavors from across the country.  

Along with two hotel brands, a bus terminal offering travelers connections to regional Japan without even having to step outside, and facilities for business travelers, developers Sumitomo Realty Group say they have gone all-out to make Haneda Airport Garden a facility to respond to the diverse needs of Haneda Airport as a 24-hour international hub airport. 

Originally scheduled to open in April 2020, the coronavirus pandemic saw the grand opening of Haneda Airport Garden postponed for nearly three years. With Japan significantly loosening its border controls in the fall of 2022 and overseas visitors to the country topping one million in December, the facility was finally able to open its doors fully at the end of January this year.

“I think that our values have changed in the last two or three years in terms of travel and people moving around. After corona we realized that people would not come and visit unless we create something that’s attractive for them,” said Naoyuki Murata, senior director of the developer’s Haneda operation department. 

“Our theme is to show people a new side of Japan that we hope will make people want to come back again. Now we’re excited about the prospect of welcoming many foreign visitors over the next few months,” he said. 

A centerpiece of Haneda Airport Garden is the giant Hotel Villa Fontaine Premier & Grand Haneda Airport, a combination of two brands which between them house 1,717 rooms, making it the largest airport hotel in Japan.

The 1,557 rooms of the more budget-friendly Villa Fontaine Grand include Japanese-Western twins with beds sat on tatami flooring and attractive cherry blossom art on the walls. The Grand also houses family rooms and wheelchair-friendly universal rooms. Automated check-in is available in a number of languages from machines in the hotel lobby.  

The adjoining Villa Fontaine Premier represents the first luxury brand hotel for the group, and the first luxury hotel in the Haneda area, according to Murata. 

Among the six types of room here is a suite room which offers the kind of luxury that comes at the kind of price requiring discrete negotiation.

Even at the other end of the spectrum though, drawing back the curtains in one of the Premier’s lower-priced deluxe class rooms reveals sweeping views of the Tama River and Mt. Fuji in the distance, weather permitting. 

Spa “Izumi Tenku no Yu Haneda Airport” is arguably the most unique of the Haneda Airport Garden facilities - where else can you soak in an onsen while watching airplanes take flight against a backdrop of the Tokyo skyline and Mt. Fuji?  

The natural hot spring onsen, available to all Haneda Airport Garden visitors, has both indoor and outdoor baths using water drawn from some 1,500 meters underground. The water is known as bijin no yu, or “beauty hot water.” Mildly alkaline, it is said to be beneficial for people with poor blood circulation or dry skin.

Haneda Airport and Haneda Airport Garden is and will be, for many travelers, their first and last impression of Japan, and the number of travelers arriving on these shores expecting to be impressed only looks set to increase. 

From over one million in December 2022, the number of overseas visitors to Japan had already increased to more than 1.8 million by March this year, according to data from the Japan National Tourism Organization.  

With the Japanese government having announced its target of 60 million annual overseas tourists to Japan by 2030, Haneda Airport Garden appears well placed to leave a positive impression on many of them. 

Haneda Airport Garden highlights

Luxury hotel splurge

(Deluxe class room at the Hotel Villa Fontaine Premier Haneda Airport, Haneda Airport Garden.)

While the Hotel Villa Fontaine Grand Haneda Airport is not short of comfort and style, the Premier really ups the ante. 

Deluxe class king rooms at the Premier come with waterfall showers, custom-made Simmons beds, original bathroom products, and classy touches like glass sound speakers and Keurig coffee makers.

Open up the curtains and lounge back on the large sofa to enjoy the Tama River view and Mt. Fuji. 

Soak up the Tokyo cityscape and Mt. Fuji views

 (Spa “Izumi Tenku no Yu Haneda Airport," Haneda Airport Garden.)

They say the waters at the natural hot spring onsen and spa “Izumi Tenku no Yu Haneda Airport” are good for poor blood circulation or dry skin, perhaps making a soak in one of the baths here suitable preparation for, or recovery from, sitting in an airplane for hours. 

It’s not just the onsen waters though. Haneda Airport Garden’s spa has hot stones and dry saunas, its own restaurant, and services that include massages and an “akasuri” body-scrub treatment. Or you could simply kick back and bask in a post-soak stupor on one of the comfy loungers.  

The Haneda area may be an international travel hub but it's local rules at the onsen which means taking off all your kit and scrubbing down before you have a soak. If you’re shy at the prospect of getting naked in public, take confidence in the fact that your fellow bathers will likely be distracted by the sight of planes taking flight, the sprawling Tokyo cityscape, and perhaps an appearance from Mt. Fuji.  

Towels are provided. Check in at the counter and pay at one of the machines when you leave. Don’t forget to take off your shoes at the spa entrance and place them in a locker. 

Traditional craft souvenirs along the Japan Promenade

(Folding fan from Hakuchikudo, a store on Japan Promenade shopping street, Haneda Airport Garden.)

The long Japan Promenade shopping street stretches out from the main entrance of Haneda Airport Garden bringing good old Japanese culture to present day travelers and shoppers.  

Stores along the promenade include the only shop in Tokyo from Kyoto folding-fan maker Hakuchikudo. Fan designs here range from the traditional to the modern. 

The traditional umbrellas at Fukui Yougasa are perhaps the polar opposite to the cheap plastic jobs you can find at Japan’s convenience stores and left behind on the nation’s trains. In fact, so traditional are the umbrellas here that Fukui Yougasa is the supplier of umbrellas to Eiheiji temple in Fukui Prefecture - the head temple of a school of Zen Buddhism in Japan. 

For the umbrella novice, some of Fukui Yougasa’s umbrellas might appear as works of art. They are, however, incredibly functional, strong, and light, and come at the kind of prices which mean you’ll be sure never to leave them behind on the train.

Japanese Tea Kimikura is the flagship store of Murayama Tea Products. As well as offering a range of traditional tea ware, when you order a matcha latte here you get to see it prepared in a way that is something akin to the style of a tea ceremony. 

Access

Haneda Airport Garden, including the spa, onsen and Hotel Villa Fontaine Premier & Grand Haneda Airport, can be enjoyed by both domestic and international travelers using Haneda Airport, as well as those visitors who aren’t catching flights.

People arriving by train from central Tokyo can access the complex via Haneda Airport Terminal 3 station which is served by the Keikyu Line and Tokyo Monorail.