Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tokyo Skytree

This month will be the one year anniversary of the Tokyo Skytree. Although we had seen the skytree from a distance, towering over the other skyscrapers in Tokyo, we hadn't visited it yet. This month, during the Golden Week holidays we finally had the change, together with Daphne's parents, the admire the view from the Skytree!
Even though the Skytree is already open for almost a year, it is still very busy and (in)famous for its long queues and waiting time. On top of that, we decided to visit during Golden Week, the week know especially for its crowds! Anticipating the long lines that would definitely be there, we decided to go early in the morning and hope to be before the peak hour crowds.


We arrived at 8am, and there already were a lot of people! We received a ticket, similar to the Disneyland fast pass, so we could buy tickets at 9.30. How convenient! Instead of standing in line for 1,5 hour, we could use this time to walk around. 
 We returned to the ticket counter at 9.30, didn't have to wait at all to buy our tickets. 5 minutes later we were already in elevator, going with incredible speed to the first observatory.
The observatory is very nice, and the view is beautiful! We had a day with very clear weather and we could see all the way to Yokohama. 
View over Tokyo

From the first observatory you can buy extra tickets to go on to the second observatory,100 meters higher! We had to wait another 30 minutes, but the second observatory is really worth it. It is designed with a sloping spiral ramp that gains height as it circles to tower. This makes for a very special view, as you can really look down to the city below you.

Looking down on the city

Second observatory spiral

at the highest point for visitors

the elevator to the second observatory has a glass roof

looking down through the glass floor