TacoCat’s Travels #72 (Japan 2.0): On Top of the World! 🏙

Hey Hive/Steemit!

If you didn't catch the last couple of posts, this series is about
our trip to Tokyo (again) way back in August 2016, when we went there
for a short international exchange program called Promoting Asian
Leadership (PAL) with Keio University! The program was a week long, but
we went there a few days ahead of time to explore and revisit our
favourite places.

Last week,
we finished up the previous day exploring Odaiba where we discovered a
very retro arcade and saw a replica of the Statue of Liberty!

So just the day before,
we visited Skytree Town - the mall attached to Tokyo Skytree! But we
went there pretty late and we agreed that we would come back and enjoy
the sunset at the observatory together. I also shared a teaser at the
end of the last post saying we were going to the tallest tower in the
world and that's exactly what we did!

9 August 2016. Monday.

Today was actually Singapore's birthday (aka Independence Day)! And
to celebrate (and also a belated one for Sean), we decided to go up the
Tokyo Skytree!

I guess there wasn't much planned for today. We might've had some
discussions in the morning about who-knows-what but after that we were
free! So while the rest of them went off into separate groups for lunch,
we decided to go get our own and head to the Skytree!

The weather was ridiculously hot that day and we were out walking
towards the tower at high noon - the absolute worst time to be outside
in the height of summer btw. It was hot and dry; the temperature was 35
deg C but even my phone said it felt like 42 deg C. Geez.

We were basically running from shade to shade. The walk itself isn't even that far but it felt like ages in that heat.

This is us struggling to take a selfie with the tower but the sun ruined the lighting.

Eventually we made it back to Skytree Town! Thank goodness. I was so
relieved to feel the air-conditioning the moment I stepped into the
mall.

The first thing we did was check out the queue for the tickets since
we didn't know how it works. But we found out that they sold tickets by
specific time slots. And because we wanted to catch the sunset (which
was around 6:30-7pm or so, we had arrived way too early to purchase
tickets for that timing.

So we went to have lunch first! I don't remember what we had and
unfortunately I didn't take any photos, but we probably had some fast
food like Mos Burger or something because most of the restaurants there
are very expensive.

We wanted to beat the queue so we went ahead of time and when we went
by at 5ish, we thankfully didn't have to wait long to get our tickets!

So just a little info; Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting and
observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo. It became the tallest structure in
Japan in 2010 and reached its full height of 634 m (2,080 ft) in March
2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, and the second tallest
structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa.

There are basically 2 observation decks - the Tembo Galleria at floor 450 and the Tembo Deck at floor 350.

There are separate ticket prices for both those floors, or you can
buy a combined ticket which gives you access to both 350 and 450.

However, since there really isn't much to do at floor 450 (and it's
pretty much the same view either way), we decided to just get the Tembo
Deck ticket.

We were so excited! I think this was the very first tower we were
going up together, and was what started a trend of us visiting tall
structures during our travels.

We had a wait a little bit for our time slot to be allowed in and
after 10 minutes, we entered the elevator and started our ascend to the
350th floor!

Sorry the picture's not very good. But the lift itself looks cool,
with different coloured lights as we went up and a small screen showing
how high and fast we were going.

Soon enough, we arrived! And man, what a view!

Seeing all the buildings looking so small like that made me feel like
I was really on top of the world. The sun wasn't setting just yet, but I
managed to get this amazing shot when some clouds obscured it for a
bit!

I guess we weren't the only ones who wanted to come up and enjoy the sunset because it was fairly crowded when we arrived.

And everyone was basically crowding around the windows enjoying the
view. But I did manage to snag a couple good shots like this one:

I was kinda lamenting that the window frames were ruining my shots but I did get some nice shots with them as well.

Apologies for those who are afraid of heights or are prone to motion sickness btw.

Just to show you how crowded it was (and how difficult it was to get shots without people photobombing):

Man, it's been a while since I've seen crowds like that. But I don't miss it in the slightest.

Some of the window panes had nice decals like this one:

Unfortunately I don't know what that means but I think it's some well wishes or a greeting.

And these:

Since I couldn't avoid the other people, I thought I'd include them in my shots too!

There weren't that many seating areas but there was a nice bench that probably gets used for phototaking.

They even had a painting/shoji screen that I'm fairly sure was drawn on by hand.

We pretty much spent our time walking around the whole floor, taking a crap ton of photos and selfies.

And enjoying the view of course.

We hovered from spot to spot whenever we found an empty slot where we
could take photos; to share our spots and get views from different
sides of the tower.

But man, that view really is something. If you're not afraid of
heights I'd definitely recommend going up there and seeing it for
yourself.

Personally, I prefer nature views but there's something special about
urban landscapes too. And just enjoying the sunset and seeing the
transition of the city from day to night is truly amazing.

Speaking of which, I think I'll share those pictures when I continue this post next time!

Tune in next week where we explore more of the Tembo Deck and watch the city lights come on while dining at the Skytree Cafe!

Here's a teaser:

Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #71 (Japan 2.0): Time Traveling and Sightseeing! 🗽

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