Sunday, December 29, 2013

増上寺 & 東京タワー / Zojoji & Tokyo Tower

Zojoji is a Buddhist temple near Tokyo Tower.

































I knew about Tokyo Tower and I think it's famous, but strangely it was rather empty when I went. There were no lines. The observation deck was spacious. Aside from the person who is employed to push buttons on the elevator, I was the only person in the elevator on my way up.
My guess is that everyone is checking out Skytree. I had to wait for an hour in line to get a ticket there, and I was crammed into an elevator. It was full of people. I hadn't even heard of Skytree before coming to Japan this year. That's another thing: Skytree is new. It only opened last year. As you can see, Tokyo Tower has been around for 55 years. There are far more people who haven't seen the view from Skytree yet.
Tokyo Tower is famous and nice, but I wouldn't recommend going to its observatory after visiting Skytree. If you plan on going to both towers, go to Tokyo Tower first. It's not a big deal, but I say this because the view from Skytree is impressive. It doesn't always look tall, but it's obvious from going up there that it's by far the tallest structure in the country. It towers over everything. Tokyo Tower, on the other hand, seems about as tall as some of the tall buildings around. Also, even if it is slightly taller than other nearby structures, the observatory isn't at the very top tip of the tower, of course. That's why it seems smaller.
I think Tokyo Tower is worth checking out, but if you want to go up to an observatory for a cool view, pay Skytree a visit.

1 comment:

  1. Danke fuer die interessanten Bilder. Die Stadt ist ja riessengross, besonders vom Tower aus gesehen scheint sie ohne Ende. Auf dem Tokio Tower darf man aber keine Hoehenangst haben. Die pinkfarbenen Schuhe gefallen mir sehr. Liebe Gruesse, Apollonia

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