A while back, Haneda airport opened up a few slots to international flights. Before Narita(NRT) was built, Haneda was the main hub for international flights. These flights begin flying in this month and a number of airlines will be embarking on this route. Unfortunately for me, none of those are United out of SFO. ANA has a few flights from LAX which depart shortly past midnight to arrive approx 5am the next day. Other airlines have roughly the same schedule. JAL has a flight that takes off from SFO around 6pm to arrive in HND at 10pm the next day.
My usual flights on United leave at 11am to touch down at 3pm the next day. Because of the time and jet lag, I am rarely able to get a few good hours of sleep on the flight. A midnight departure, in my mind, would seem ideal as I would normally be asleep around at this time. and, hopefully wake up feeling refreshed once I make my way through the airport and into town, The reverse flight back to the states, for practically all filghts, outbounds around midnight. I forget what time it lands in California but I believe it was late afternoon. I imagine there may be some nice aerial views of the metropolis on the inbound JAL flight
Haneda is located just south of and much closer to Tokyo than Narita. Sitting on Tokyo Bay, the airport is serviced by a monorail and a local train which ferry people to Shinagawa and surrounding areas in under 30 minutes. Tickets run less than 500 yen. Narita users will usually ride the N'ex for a speedy 1 hour at 3000 yen minimum. Stations further than Tokyo will incur higher fees.
