When I visited Japan back in June I had visited the ever-popular JAL Sky Museum at their maintenance base in Tokyo Haneda Airport. Whilst it was free to book and visit, booking has to be made 30 days in advance, and the spaces run out very fast.

The visit was made of two halves: the first half being the interior museum exhibits showcasing the various jobs, a bit of JAL's history in the form of fleet models and flight attendant's uniforms over the years. (I learnt at one point JAL had an uniform specifically for the routes to Hong Kong - that was rather special) There were also seats from their premium cabins on display where you can sit on and experience it (briefly), and a former Boeing 737 cockpit you can sit in and pose for photos with. There was a shop for all your JAL/aviation gift needs.

Once time is up for the first half then the party would be split into smaller groups where a member of staff would then bring you out to the two hangars. The website had made it clear that because this is a working maintenance hangar there would be no guarantees as to what would actually show up on the day (if you're very unlucky there might not be one at all!) - in my case there was a 777 at the first hangar which was encased completely with staging, and the only thing that I could see unhindered was one of its engines. On the other side there was a 737 being looked at at the tail, but the staging around meant I couldn't get a good angle for this.

The second hangar had a non-JAL plane - they were very insistent on not taking any photos of that plane and so we all complied. We were also there just in time to see a 787 that had just finished being worked on and was getting pushed out of the hangar, and next to it there's an Embraer jet on some kind of heavy maintenance inside - most of the interior furnishings as well as exterior fairings were neatly stored around the plane. As the runway outside the hangar was used for landings that day the staff walked us right at the limit of the hangar, and gave us a running commentary of what the pilots would be doing as the planes came in for landing (as it turned out he was also a pilot).

I enjoyed the visit very much, and for the extreme bargain price of nothing no wonder why this is super popular.