Hunkered down at the Tokyo Admiral’s Club, waiting to board my flight back to New York. Now, this is what an airline club ought to be like. It’s far and away the most comfortable, high-tech club/lounge I’ve seen, with any airline, anywhere in the world.

According to the website, the club will seat 265 people, and even though it seems like there are about 250 people scattered about (of whom roughly 249 are busily typing away on laptops), it doesn’t feel crowded at all. In addition, the place has … well, why paraphrase? Here’s what the website says:

“Approximately 13,300 square feet with seating for 265 and state-of-the-art technology. Business center equipped with 7 private work carrels, complimentary telephone service to Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama area, other than those areas, two public pay phones with credit card capability. Twelve Lenovo ThinkCentre PCs provide complimentary, high-speed Internet access. Cyber-Café features four Lenovo ThinkCentre PCs with complimentary high-speed Internet access. Complimentary Wi-Fi coverage through the entire lounge. Over 100 Ethernet port connections provide high-speed Internet access, 85 duplex electrical outlets are located throughout the lounge, four IBM printers for any connection type, one conference room seating 10, complimentary copier and fax service for a fee. In addition there are lounge areas with two 50″ flat panel televisions, quiet area with comfortable recliners, five spa-like showers, and a self-service bar offering wines, beer, coffee, tea and snacks.”

I’m sitting in a row of about 8 carrel/desks at one side of the large room, looking out over a section of the airport tarmac, where a big fat American Airlines 767 is pulling away from its gate, enroute to LAX. And I’ve got free wireless access, as well as free Ethernet access, to a high-speed Internet connection. None of the usual firewall/port-blocking nonsense to screw up your outbound email. Tons of free food, munchies, soda, beer, wine, and so forth. What more could anyone want?

Why can’t we have one of these places in the U.S.? Let’s start with LaGuardia and JFK!