Japan Places|秋田空港 おなごりホン — Named for the Reluctance to Let Go

Akita's glass phones arrived after the smartphone.

On 8 June 2010 the terminal company announced that an intercom now joined the second-floor boarding lounge to the public waiting hall.

Staff had named it Onagori-hon: leftover feeling plus intercom. The glass that used to be soundproof had drawn complaints. People wanted the last words after the trays, not before them.

The handsets sit on both sides of that pane. You pick one up. The person who cannot follow you through security picks up the other.

You can see the face. You can hear the voice. You still cannot touch.

The current field opened in 1981, on a hill between the Omono and Iwami rivers, after the old seaside strip proved too short and too windy for jets.

The city is twenty kilometres away. Families still make the drive and stay until the last call.

By 2016 other airports had already dropped their versions. Akita said it had no plan to take these down.

The name is the whole argument. The reluctance is the point of the device.

Photo: Passenger terminals of Akita Airport, 2 June 2019. Kikucha, Wikimedia Commons.