Landing at Sendai International Airport

What SDJ is like

Sendai is the largest city in the Tohoku region, and its airport is where journeys north toward the hot-spring and mountain prefectures usually begin. The terminal is mid-sized and laid out so that nothing is a long walk. What sets it apart from other regional airports is the direct rail link into the city's main station. A lot of passengers treat it as a starting point before continuing on high-speed services deeper into Tohoku.

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Bring the line up on landing and use the walk to check when the next train goes, because this service is not as frequent as a big-city line. International flights are few, so the entry process is often quicker than people expect. The station sits alongside the terminal with a covered walk the whole way, which matters in a windy winter. Settle which train you want before heading to the platform, since missing one here means a longer wait than at an airport with departures every few minutes.

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The terminal Wi-Fi works and rarely feels congested at these passenger numbers, with the same terms page as everywhere in Japan. The thing worth knowing is that what people actually want from the internet here is not to sit and use it in the building; it is to plan the next leg, the high-speed timetable and a booking in a hot-spring town where coverage may be thinner than in the city. Having your own line ready answers that far better than a hotspot you leave behind.

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The airport rail link runs from the station beside the terminal into Sendai Station in under half an hour and is what most people use. From there, high-speed trains continue north or south immediately, which is what makes this airport a practical starting point for the whole region. Buses exist but fewer people choose them because the train is more direct. The route runs above ground across flat land and through residential areas, so the signal holds almost throughout. Data use on this leg is light, though leave room for reserving a high-speed seat, which is a phone job best finished before you reach the platform.

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• Trains run less often than in a big city — Missing one can mean a longer wait than Tokyo has trained you to expect, so check the times while you wait for a bag rather than on the platform.
• Reserve the high-speed seat before the station — It is a phone task that takes a moment, and doing it on the airport train is easier than standing at a machine in a busy station.
• Hot-spring towns can be thinner on coverage — Valleys and forest weaken signal, so save any booking details or maps you will need while you are still in the city.