Japan 2013 - Tokyo Sky Tree
Constructed only about one year ago, the new icon for Tokyo city has now been replaced by none other than the Tokyo Sky Tree which is located in the Asakusa region. It can be reached by foot from Sensoji Temple but I opted to take the train instead. There are 2 lines with 2 different stations at 2 opposite ends of the area (Oshiage & Sky Tree station) serving this place so it is quite accessible using public transport.
The Sky tree area can be divided into 2 places, the Tokyo Solamachi and the Tokyo Sky Tree itself. The layout is exactly the same like the Petronas Twin Towers where by Solamachi (or Suria KLCC) is the designated shopping mall with a huge variety of tenants and the entrance to go up the towers lies on another end. The shops were still closed (a lot of shops opens late and closes early in Tokyo, very annoying) when I got there at about 10 in the morning. The only restaurants available for food was McDonald's.
It is apparent that the management of the Tokyo Sky Tree had anticipated a huge amount of crowd. They have done a fantastic job of laying out amazingly long queue lines and have multiple elevators for guests to go up the observatory deck. The price to go up it's not cheap though at ¥2000 for the lower deck. You have to pay a bit more to go on a higher deck which deems to have more things to see and play around.
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| Loooooooooooong lines |
Fortunately the queue wasn't long and I need not wait for long before my turn to enter to lift. Having said that, there were quite a number of visitors at that time and the attraction had just opened on a weekday morning!
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| Very fast. Equivalent to 36 km/h |
Unfortunately, as I stepped into the observatory deck I was only met with disappointment. The whole area of the deck was really quite small compared to the past towers that I've been too, namely Taipei 101, Namsan Tower in Seoul as well as our own KL Tower. Apart from the grand view outside (which was marred by heavy clouds on the day I went), there isn't simply much to do there. At other towers there was a lot of display panels for visitors to read about the history of the tower and it's construction, a decent cafe, souvenir shops and others. Here the souvenir shop was located at the base of the tower and they don't even provide chairs for their mini cafe. The food prices are equally expensive as well. =/
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| View of Tokyo. Can't see Mount Fuji :/ |
Perhaps they are better offers at the higher deck but when I am paying close to RM70 I was expecting more (Taipei 101 ~RM40, Seoul Namsan Tower ~RM30). I do apologise to any Japanese readers but I wouldn't recommend anybody visiting this place if they are dropping by Tokyo. There are just better alternatives out there in Tokyo and the money can be better spent elsewhere.
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| Souvenir shop located at the lower levels |
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