I stumbled upon a promotional poster from a travel agency, advertising a boat tour to view Tokyo International Airport (Haneda) from the sea, specifically within Tokyo Bay. I had never experienced photographing aircraft from this angle before, so I signed up immediately.

On the day of the event, we gathered at the International Terminal. There were about 30 participants in total. It looked like most were aviation enthusiasts; half of them were carrying DSLRs with telephoto lenses—everyone came well-prepared. We walked west from the airport for 15 minutes to reach the boarding point. I didn’t realize there was such a pier tucked away in the Tama River.

The weather forecast for the day called for cloudy skies turning sunny. I was looking forward to capturing aircraft taking off and landing against blue skies and white clouds at close range. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate. The conditions deteriorated in the afternoon; the cloud layer grew thicker, and visibility was poor, so I stopped expecting to capture any vibrant, colorful shots.

The boat departed from the pier and headed south to the threshold of Runway 05. Since the wind was from the south that day, we first watched aircraft taking off from 16R. Being out on the sea is indeed closer than Ukishima Park. It allows for a tighter close-up of the nose and lets you capture the "belly" shots of aircraft just after takeoff from directly underneath.

Looking back at the airport Tower and Terminal 1, the gloomy sky was really uncooperative. Take note of the RVR (Runway Visual Range) transmissometer and the wind speed measuring equipment (anemometer). I had photographed these before during my trip on ANA flight NH1259 from Tokyo Haneda to Shanghai Hongqiao, but seeing them from the sea this time made for an interesting comparison.

The boat then made a half-circle in Tokyo Bay and headed north towards Runway 22 to watch aircraft landing. Since we were positioned directly under the final approach path, I was very satisfied with this shooting location.

The boat could navigate freely on the sea, weaving right under the approach lights, allowing for close-ups of the lighting system structures.

Finally, we photographed aircraft taking off from Runway 16L. Actually, this was the scenario I was looking forward to the most. When the weather is good, Mount Fuji serves as the backdrop. If you add blue skies and white clouds, or perhaps the evening glow at sunset, just how charming would those photos be!

Unfortunately, the visibility was only a few kilometers that day. Not to mention Mount Fuji 100 kilometers away, we couldn’t even see the buildings in downtown Tokyo nearby. It couldn’t be helped.

On a side note, on the return trip, we saw the Korean Air aircraft (HL7534) that had suffered an engine fire and aborted takeoff at Tokyo Haneda Airport. I actually wrote about this incident just a few days ago. I plan to book another tour in the winter next time. The weather is really just a matter of luck.