Go anywhere in Tokyo and you will see it, a gleaming silver spire standing taller than any other structure in the metropolitan area. It is the Tokyo Skytree and it stands 630 meters tall, that is approximately 2080.05 feet or 192 stories tall. Even at night the distinctive ever-changing glow of the Skytree can be seen over rooftops and down city streets. When I first traveled to Japan, the sheer enormity of the structure was a bit daunting, and we didn't go near it, but upon learning more about the tower I knew we had to go on our second trip.
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| A real space needle |
One of the lucky things about our trip to Tokyo and our choice of hotel was a view of skytree out of my window. I could sit at night and look out over the city to see it lit up at night. The slowly shifting glow was like a beacon to me, and a perfect excuse to get out and see this amazing building on our second day. Getting to Skytree was an adventure in itself. Its a new building in an old part of the city, and as such some of the subway system has been changed and renamed to reach it. There are at least three stations that are within the boundaries of the tower. We chose the route directly to Skytree city which was two stops on the subway, but when we emerged I wondered at first if we were in the wrong place. Stepping out, you go upstairs and into what looks like any modern mall, with shops and stores.
"Where are we?" I wondered aloud. "Did we take the wrong train?" Thankfully there was a helpful little sign as there usually are in Japan which said "Skytree" and had an arrow. So up we went, and up and and up through the mall, and I kept thinking I was reading the signs wrong or that we were in the wrong place. Finally we emerged out and I realized my own mistake. Like anything in Japan, Skytree is built with other buildings around it, or rather which grew up after the building was built. The whole mall area is part of "Skytree City" which like Tokyo Station City, includes basements, bars, and complexes in a self-contained area around a main hub.
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| Size Comparisons of other structures |
If you want to have a sense of how small you are, you need only stand at the base of Skytree. From our vantage point I could see the intricate silver laticework that makes its way up the structure. The whole building is built on a triangular base, with more triangles making up the superstructure. Gazing up, it looks like it goes a good mile up for what the human eye perceives. The amazing thing is that for something so tall, it has a remarkable earthquake rating. The structure withstood the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2010. This is thanks in part to the triangular structure but also because of a huge concrete and reinforced steel central core that runs up most of the inner section. In the event of an earthquake, the two structures - inside core and outside building- shake at different frequencies. This effectively cancels the vibrations out to an extent, a remarkable feat of engineering inspired by ancient Japanese pagodas.
Skytree is one of the taller towers of the world, though not the tallest. It's first function is as a transmission tower. The helpful Japanese give comparisons to other tall towers of the world just inside. There is a long queue area of course, and Skytree gets VERY busy later in the day. Thankfully our old theory of come early paid off and we weren't overwhelmed by crowds.
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| Magnificent View despite the weather |
The first elevator we took was a marvel in itself. The doors closed and without a whisper of movement, sound, or even a slight vibration the lift climbed the span of 600 meters a second. Each lift has a capacity for 40 people, but let's simply say that it was just us, and we were up at the first level in seconds. The doors slid open, like something out of star trek and there it was ... Tokyo stretching for what seemed forever in all directions.
Looking down at anything from this height, you get a real sense of how tall the building is. The whole city looked like the train set in our hotel, with people, cars, and trains going about their business as we looked on. It was a hazy day, so not the best time for viewing, but we caught a scant few glimpses of Mt. Fuji (which we would see more of later.) The whole building has an unobstructed view 360 degrees. This elevates it (pun intended) a deal above the Mori building at Roppongi that we visited last time. It is also taller of course.
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| Interactive explanation of Skytree view |
The Skytree doesn't just include views out, it includes interactive panels which you can preview what your looking at. These panels can show both day and night views. I can estimate that the views of the city lights from the tower at night are spectacular, but we didn't go at night unfortunately. Above you can see one of the interactive panels, along with the direct view I looked out at below. A video of the panel at work is at the bottom of the post.
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| Cool Buildings |
As a fan of Tokyo, and Japan, I have to marvel at this building. I watched a video on how it was contructed and it really is a marvel. You get a sense of how big the Tokyo Metropolitan area really is. All you see are countless apartment complexes, sports fields, office towers and the different waterways. Tokyo has no one "downtown" so you can see main areas like Shinjuku, Shibuya etc as the densely packed spaces of tall towers. Wherever there are temples or graveyards however, there are trees. You can spot them from a mile away.
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| Towards Shinjuku |
My parents and I spent a good two hours at the skytree, which I think is reasonable for any visitor. Looking out, we chanced a glance at Sensoji temple where we had visited last time. From our vantage point it looked quite close (as anything does from that height.) We figured we could follow the main street from Skytree over one of the rivers and be there in 10 minutes. All of us figured to go that way, and I wanted to visit again as well and maybe get another cool fan from the fan shop near there. It was to be a fateful decision, though I will cover that in the next post.
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| It is like looking down at a toy train set |
We did go up to the higher level, and of course there are plenty of other touristy things to do like look down through glass at the ground or get your picture taken. I avoided both of these. In fact, the glass bottom area was something of an anathema to me since I am so afraid of heights. Just standing on the edge, looking down made me terrified.
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| Baseball and apartments |
It is interesting to think about all the people here. I am used to the largest cities I know being Los Angeles and San Francisco, but those both pale in comparison to Tokyo. The shear span of buildings is astonishing. I believe something according to 50 million people live in the greater Tokyo Metro area. Just take one of these littler apartments in the picture above and try to calculate the number of units it must have!
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| Looking towards Sensoji |
Even the scale of the skytree itself is on display. The support girders on the upper level are a part of the superstructure of the viewing platform. Each of these was as big as I was, and twice as tall.
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| Long way down |
We eventually descended back down to the entry area, through the mall. One of the things I wanted to see and was on the lookout for was the Skytree Moving Mural. I had seen pictures and videos on the net of the thing. I thought it would be in the main queue area, but it is actually in the "group and tour" entrance. It's a bit off the beaten track but if you can find it, its marvelous to see.
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| These girders are as big as I am |
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| Looking Down |
The Skytree moving mural is a whimsical "look" out the skytree view as painted the way only the Japanese can. You look at the thing and you see the painted sections and you smile because it has things like Godzilla attacking or floating sushi or whatever. Then you look again and some of the panels are moving, that is to say, they are actually video panels. These panels include parades, people crossing at Shibuya, etc.
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| Close up of the mural |
The humor and whimsy of the different videos is quite amusing. I didn't have time or the ability to capture all of them, but its definitely something to see.
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| Colorful sumo character as part of the mural |
So I close Skytree with our departure for Sensoji temple. On the whole, I highly recommend if you go to Tokyo once, you go to Skytree. I would go again for the night view, or a view on a very clear day. That would be marvelous. Just visiting Skytree city, I am certain there are other things to do as well in that mall. Overall, its a tourist draw, and well deserving. The Japanese are very proud of their new status symbol and they have every reason to be. Skytree soars into the heavens, towers over Tokyo and it certainly was a highlight of my revisiting of Japan. Below I include some videos of different things I saw in Skytree.
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| Interactive exhibit on the view from Skytree both day and night. |
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| Second tier elevator - moves 600 meters per minute. It takes 50 seconds to go from the first viewing level to the second |
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| Moving "Mural" of Sumida River |
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| More of the mural |
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| Giant Sushi and other eccentricities |
