I’ve been quite busy lately and haven’t been out to spot planes for a long time.

I saw a news piece, Lufthansa becomes Europe’s first Skytrax 5-star airline.

According to Reuters, Lufthansa has passed Skytrax's 5-star certification, becoming Europe's first 5-star airline. To win passenger favor in a fiercely competitive market, Lufthansa has been continuously improving the passenger experience by updating its fleet and retrofitting cabins.

Then there was Lufthansa promoted to 5-star airline, the only one in Europe.

To celebrate receiving the 5-star airline title, Lufthansa also applied a special "5-star" livery to a Boeing 747 and an Airbus A320.

As it happened, this Boeing 747-8 with the “5 Starhansa” livery came to Tokyo, so I went to the airport to shoot it. <img src=https://imgproc.airliners.net/photos/airliners/1/4/0/5007041.jpg?v=v4d2fc9dc502>

The 747 really does have a cooler silhouette.

Also, on another Lufthansa route to Haneda, the equipment was swapped from an A340 to an A350. I snapped a shot of that too. However, A350s are becoming so common now that they’re no longer fresh, whereas the A340 is much rarer.

Today I also caught a flight executing a go-around, a JAL Boeing 777-300, registration JA738J. Even during the go-around, the engine noise wasn’t obvious. Watching it pull up gently and execute a turn, Its flight path basically matched what I saw last time in Go-around Right Before My Eyes Part 2.

19 minutes later, it landed safely. That was quite a detour.

Oh right, I also photographed an A321neo for the first time, which is a small bonus.

First, I went to the International Terminal to photograph the Lufthansa 747 spot in, Then I went to Terminal 2 to shoot its takeoff, And just before dark, I rushed to Terminal 1 to snap some night shots.

However, speaking for myself, I still prefer this kind of shot the most. When the aircraft pulls up from the middle of the runway, The attitude of it fighting to climb right before the photographer’s eyes is the most dynamic, I never get tired of shooting this.

Now, the Garmin D2 Charlie has also become essential gear for airport spotting, for the memories.