Japan Airlines Sakura Business Class Lounge Tokyo Haneda Review: Worth Arriving Early For?

Worth Coming to Airport Early For: YES (Good views, decent food)

Better Than The Terminal? YES (Terminal is nothing special at Haneda)

Introduction

After a long but incredible flight on Japan Airlines business class from LAX to Tokyo Haneda, I went straight to the JAL lounge to get some food and rest. After flying for 11 hours and staying awake the entire flight, things were becoming quite fuzzy. I was so tired I didn’t even realize there were two lounges open here (main Sakura Lounge on floor 4 and a Sakura “Sky View” Lounge on the 5th floor of the international terminal). Today, my review is just of the main lounge on floor 4, although for what it’s worth both are generally similar, except 4 is significantly larger and has showers, while 5 has (marginally) better views from being higher up.

Overall, this is a great lounge, but could use some rest areas where you can lie down properly during a long layover. I had an 8 hour layover here after a 12 hour flight, and really wish I could’ve gotten some proper sleep. But hey, first world problems.

In this post, you’ll find:

Access & Lounge Hours

This lounge can be found right near gate 114 in Terminal 3 (international terminal) of Haneda airport.

After deplaning from my flight from LA, I headed straight to the lounge:

I was so tired I didn’t even notice there was another Japan Airlines lounge on level 5.

And here’s the entrance to the Sakura Lounge on level 4:

In terms of hours, this lounge is open from 5:30am – last departure of the night, which makes this lounge (nearly) 24/7 but not quite. I was actually on one of the last flights of the night – my flight to Bangkok was set to depart at 1:20am.

In terms of access, there are a few ways to get into this lounge:

1. You’re flying same-day JAL business class
2. You’re flying same-day JAL first class (although there is also a separate first-class lounge you’d rather probably rather go to)
3. OneWorld Emerald or Sapphire status, even if flying in economy
4. Paid entry, subject to space availability

Here’s a map of the floor layout of this lounge:

Lounge Review & Amenities

Walking into the lounge, you’ll notice the physical space is massive with tons of variety in seating areas. My biggest complaint of this lounge, however, is that there is no comfortable lie-down seating / lounge chairs where you can get proper rest. This lounge is great if you’re originating here in Tokyo, but I was here for an 8 hour layover, where I really wanted to get some proper sleep but couldn’t because … there was nowhere to. I ended up getting some half-sleep slumped over a dining table, which was not comfortable. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Anyways, onto the lounge itself. The 4th floor lounge is split into 2 main areas, each with its own food buffet. Both offer a variety of seating with some quieter areas and some more communal eating areas.

The food selection was standard and nothing special overall.

My favorite part of this lounge, by far, was the automated rice dispenser machine. I’d never seen anything like this in the US. Their signature Japanese curry was really good, and I had three bowls of this to hold me over for the next 8 hours in the lounge. Waistline expanding.

Here’s more of the seating areas in the lounge:

The second half of the lounge has another dining area, albeit a bit smaller. On this side, there are also massage chairs. Unfortunately, these were pretty much all occupied the time I was there (which was 8 hours!).

Tucked in the corner are the massage chairs:

And last but not least, back towards the other side of the lounge are the bathrooms. This lounge does feature showers, although I find airport showers gross unless absolutely necessary. After 20 hours of travel I honestly maybe needed one but still, no.

After a pleasant 8 hour stay in this lounge, I made my way over to my gate for my next flight to Bangkok. At this point I had been traveling for 20+ hours and desperately needed some proper sleep.

Conclusion

All in all, I thought this was an acceptable business class lounge, but nothing special. The food was decent (the Japanese curry was really good), drinks selection standard, and was quite large and never felt busy. However, I really wish this lounge had more comfortable seating for longer layovers or for trying to get some much-needed sleep between long-hauls.

After 8 hours in the lounge and 3 bowls of Japanese curry, I was on to my second leg of the trip to Singapore. This flight was in Japan Airlines’ 787 business class in their Sky Suite III product, which gets a lot of hate online but I found to be great.