00:00:03 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to Terminal 2 International. This is a new part of the Terminal 2 Haneda Airport that I'd never departed from before. Usually, internationals from Terminal 3. There's our bird, the ANA flight NH110 going towards New York JFK. You can see the pilot already in there. They're loading up the luggage, the food, all the services. We're going to have a pretty good flight, I think.

00:00:34 John Daub: How you doing everybody? I thought I would spend maybe about 10 minutes taking you around the terminal. If you have to depart from Terminal 2 internationally, it's quite different. Here's where we are. So this is Narita Airport, the furthest Tokyo International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, about an hour and 20 minutes to get into the city from there. Haneda is much closer to Tokyo. Right there, boom. And this is Terminal 2 International, that white dome. It's pretty close to Shinagawa. There's three terminals here: one, two, and three. Three being the international one, which is separated over there.

00:01:23 John Daub: I guess because there's just more international flights than domestic now. Haneda used to be exclusively domestic 20 years ago. Now it's become much more international-centric. You can see on the left side there, that's the entrance to get into the international, so there's passport control and check-in and all that other stuff. And I am actually right there on this side. These are the flights going internationally for ANA.

00:01:53 John Daub: Yeah, so let me take you around here. There's actually not a lot here, and this is the biggest disappointment. When I said we weren't going to depart from Terminal 3, I remembered all the shops and all the good stuff is at Terminal 3, including the replica of Nihonbashi (Japan Bridge) and the restaurant alley, all the good ramen shops and things like that. There wasn't anything at check-in. There's stuff in Terminal 2, but it's separated between the domestic and the international.

00:02:33 John Daub: There are some shops here. This one has the Hokkaido Marché Koibito (Hokkaido Lover cookies). I guess some of you who have been up to Sapporo probably know these cookies, and they have these here, including some drinks. So I might buy a box to take back home. That's kind of neat. There's the Koibito right there. How much are the cookies? 12 for 960, 18 for 1440. Maybe I'll get one. Oh, they have the Tokyo Bananas. So there are some Japan gifts here, which is kind of cool. These are pretty good senbei (rice crackers). Oh, here's dorayaki (sweet red bean pancake). Yokan (sweet jellied pastry). There is a kids' area. It's very small.

00:03:53 John Daub: You know what? I haven't gotten any of the new yen notes yet. I know that they're circulating already. I'm not going to get a chance to show that to you until I come back. But yeah, I haven't gotten any of them. It's not too much of a priority, but I know that a lot of the machines and the vendors are having trouble with it. So maybe it's better that I'm not actually using them. It just causes trouble right now. People don't know what to do with it. I guess it was expected. This ice cream looks really good. You guys think I should get one? What do you think? Let's get one for Leo.

00:04:40 John Daub: Konnichiwa. Nashiwai Koibito White (White Chocolate Lover). Itadakimasu (let's eat). Ah, hai. We can take this back to Leo. Hai. Itadakimasu. Ah, spoon. Hai. Can I get two? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Alright. Ramsey Silent for all the times you were never here, brother. If you are here now. This one's got two antennas sticking out of it. Look at that. Alright.

00:05:57 John Daub: There is a cafe on the other side, and it was closed. I guess if you're leaving before 11 o'clock, a lot of things are not open here. Now I'm taking you over to the food court. You can see how it is quite spacious. It looks stylish, but it's still not the same as Terminal 3, which I just love. They changed the terminal last night, which is a little odd. But look at that robot. Alright, let's go see Leo and then I'll show you some of the restaurants quickly.

00:06:39 John Daub: Can I meet you? This is the white chocolate. Sweet gyoza (dumplings). Oh, really? Mama. Bon appétit. Let's see what I can find here. It's 500 yen. That's like $3.50. Let's see what the menus are like. It's not a very big food court. So this one has like a ramen and udon. The prices for airport food is pretty reasonable. This is sweet beef and egg seasoning. You can see the ajitama (marinated egg). This one has tempura on here. So that's about $10 for that. Maybe last week with the exchange rate. For airport food, this is very reasonable. This is cold and hot udon. That's the difference here. Udon is typically much cheaper, but it's still pretty cheap here. Cafeteria style. Let's go to the other place.

00:08:03 John Daub: I've never heard of these chains. This one you would order by digital menu here and then pay by credit card there. How cool is this? So this is a sushi standing bar. You can see they're making it. 2800 yen for that sashimi. That's about $17 for the sashimi plate. That's pretty good. Not bad if you want to get a sushi fix before you leave here. Let's see what else they got. I have to be honest, that's kind of pricey. But it looks like it's really fine fare. And whenever they're wearing chef hats, that's a good thing. Wow. Something for the road. Hey, Ramsey Silent, thank you. Hello. At Country Boy 1995, what are some cities you would recommend in Japan to visit? Wow.

00:09:52 John Daub: So here's the menu. They have a special udon. It's this shop here that I showed you before. Let's walk on over to the other side. So this is Ginza Noodles. So the menu is up here. So this is basically ramen. This is much pricier, but it does look good. It's not that much pricier than in the city. Maybe a couple hundred yen more, really. This one, a lot of people have been going here. This is a Chinese gyoza restaurant. It's a good place. Oh, that gyoza looks really good. Did you see that one?

00:11:01 John Daub: Here's Schmaltz. Actually, Peter von Gomm and I focused on them a couple of years ago. They asked Peter and I to come for some sausages and we went and they fed us way too much. You can see they have like an American style booth here. And the Fuji water. How much is that? 350 yen for that. Now that's way too expensive. I'm going to show you why in a second. Unless you really want that brand. They've got hot dogs, which is $13 for that. Okay. There's a mini Starbucks stand here. So that's good news for coffee-holics. And there's an exchange booth as well here. And the exchange booth is giving you probably not a great rate. Actually, that's not too bad. That's not too bad at all, is it?

00:12:39 John Daub: This is the end. So there's places for recycling. I like that. It's very easy to understand. And then this is the drugstore. All the airports, every terminal has to have one of these with like hand cream and things like this. This one has like arts and crafts and things like that. Stuff that tourists like. Oh, here we go. So that was 160 yen for the water there. And then there's got some snacks here, including these daifuku (sweet rice cakes).

00:14:44 John Daub: I'm going to take you see the daifuku. Let's see the airplane. Let's go. So this is why you probably want to hold off on buying a water for that price, which is even pretty reasonable if you were to compare it to New York or any airport in the United States. Because all the vending machines inside the terminal after immigration, this is 110 yen or 75 cents about for water. This is so cheap. It takes a Suica or even credit cards tap to pay. You can get another brand for a little bit more. This is so reasonable. I never understood why airports charge $7 or why people accept that. But you know, if people pay that, they're going to hold you to it. And in Japan, they just keep it at the normal prices pretty much as the vending machines outside the city. I like this here.

00:15:30 John Daub: They've got like a vending machine for food as well. So even if you don't like the offerings that I showed you, you have your last tamago sando (egg sandwich) here. It's a mixed sando with, I think there's some ham and salad and a little bit of egg. Here's one that has a tomato in there. So that's pretty healthy-ish. You have donuts and waffles and things like that. And there's even onigiri (rice balls) here. Yakishake (grilled salmon). This is the grilled salmon up here. And the tuna and mayonnaise and Japanese flavored tuna mayonnaise there. And the yakisoba pan (fried noodles bun). And there's our flight.

00:16:29 John Daub: All right, so as you can see, Terminal 2 International is a little bit shorter, not that great. Even Narita beats this one. So if you're flying in and out from Terminal 3, I say thumbs up. You're going to have a pretty good experience there. If you're flying in and out of Terminal 2, you're probably going to want to eat before you check in here. It seems okay. Offerings are slim. It's new. Maybe it'll evolve. But certainly if you got trapped at Terminal 2 International, it's not exactly something to write home about. Because the other terminal, Terminal 3, has a 7-Eleven inside, like a convenience store after immigration, to get all the goodies and snacks that you would want for the plane. You don't got that here. You get some options though. And that's not so bad.

00:17:14 John Daub: I hope this was interesting. A big shout out to all of you for watching. We're going to be in the U.S. for about two weeks or so. I'm saying shout out because I appreciate very much. I know people have been watching regularly for a long time. So I'm going to try to do the podcasting format. If I see something interesting, maybe try some Japanese food in the United States. But it's going to be a little bit slower until we come back in two weeks. And then we'll be back to regular programming almost daily. Oh, look at the flight going off. I wonder where that one's going. I think that one's going to Paris. Alright, everybody. Bon voyage to us. See ya.