I think Japan has a thing for towers. There is the Tokyo Tower in the Minato district of Tokyo, the new Tokyo Sky Tree Tower in Sumida, and I here Yokohama even has a tower too. Something just makes perfect sense about building really tall towers in a country super prone to earthquakes. There is just something magical about a really tall tower. Add in some color changing lights and it’s even better.
We can see the new Sky Tree Tower from Aya’s parent’s balcony. And while I’ve been up close to it, I’ve never been inside before until this trip. But before we went there, we went inside the old Tokyo Tower.
The Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 as a sign of Japan’s post-war prosperity. It is modeled off of the Eifel Tower and is 332.9 meters. It is definitely an iconic part of the Tokyo skyline. It looks really neat lit up at night and seeing Mount Fuji during the sunset at 250 meters in the air was spectacular. At least I thought it was spectacular until we went to the Sky Tree Tower.
The Sky Tree Tower is 634 meters tall and it’s observation deck is at 455 meters. That’s just about double what the Tokyo Tower is. It’s the world’s tallest tower and the second tallest structure in the world (according to Wikipedia). It was definitely a mesmerizing view gazing at Tokyo from that height. We could even see Aya’s parent’s apartment from that high. “I can see my house from here!” The girls were in awe while we all oogled at the view too.
The only thing that could pull me away from that view was to gawk at the merchandise in the gift shop.
