Japan II

Postcard of Tokyo's Haneda Airport with Mount Fuji in the background. Tokyo has two airports; Haneda, Tokyo's original airport a short train-ride from the city centre, and Narita, built two hours away in the middle of nowhere when Haneda became too crowded after the growth of air travel in the 1970s. When I lived in Japan, Haneda was the domestic airport and Narita the international one; not a terribly convenient situation if you needed to transfer from one to the other. A new runway and terminal building were added to Haneda in 2010 and international services returned. I flew home to Singapore through Haneda last Christmas and preferred it immensely to somewhat dreary and utilitarian Narita airport. I look forward to using it again in the future.

Stamp from 1997 definitive series, still going strong! The series features Japanese fauna, and pictured here is the Japanese tit, Parus minor, a common songbird found throughout Japan and East Asia.

Poland

A rather dated postcard of Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW), formerly known as Okęcie International Airport after the name of town where it is located. It is the largest airport in Poland, handling nearly 40% of the country's air traffic, and recently passed the milestone of serving 10 million passengers in one year.

Stamp on the left features the museum and former studio of renowned, classical Polish painter Jan Matejko. Stamp on the right is from a 2005 series of Polish cities, featuring here the Baltic Sea resort of Sopot, once known as "Monte Carlo of the North", attracting Europe's Belle Époque high society.

United States of America – District of Colombia

Postcard showing the two airports of Washington, D.C. On the left, the larger Dulles Airport (IAD), whose main terminal building, pictured here, was designed by celebrated Finnish architect, Eero Saarinen, in 1958. Ronald Reagan Airport (DCA), pictured on the right, is the older of the two, having opened in 1941. It is also smaller, handling mostly short- and medium haul domestic flights.

Many thanks to friend Kate who what in Washington for a holiday.

Average, bland postage label.