This article is based on a visit made on Wednesday, 2 April 2014.
Edit 2 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.
In the beginning, by which I mean 1958, there was Tokyo Tower. Its antennas broadcasted radio and TV signals throughout the Kanto region, and its observation decks drew in millions of tourists every year. Even today, this is still true. But with more and taller buildings having grown up around it, over the years Tokyo Tower's effectiveness as a broadcast tower has become less so. A newer, taller tower was needed to complement these functions, including Japan's transition to digital broadcast TV in 2011. The following year, a new solution went online.
Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー,
Tōkyō Sukaitsurī) is a broadcast and observation tower in northeastern Tokyo. Completed in 2012, the Skytree measures 634 metres (2,080 feet) at its peak, making it the tallest tower and second-tallest building in the world (behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE). I trust this panorama shot I took gets the point across. The skyscraper to its left is known as the Tokyo Skytree East Tower. It's nowhere near as tall, but at 30 storeys, it's a sizable multi-purpose office space.
On days where the queue for buying tickets grows too long, they offer free time-cards indicating a future time range when you can return to get in line. Until then, you can spend your time in the Solamachi mall. This system is reminiscent of FastPass in the
Tokyo Disney Resort parks. With this system in place, I spent no worse than 30 minutes in the actual ticket-counter queue.
If that still sounds like too much waiting for you, I have some news you might be interested in. Since my initial visit, Skytree has launched a new form of ticket aimed exclusively at foreign visitors. Guests with a non-Japanese passport can now go to a separate counter and buy an instant-entry ticket, thus skipping the normal line altogether. Further details are at the bottom of this article.
Multiple artistic depictions of the Skytree line the wall at the ticket queue.
There are four elevators, each patterned after the four seasons. I went up in the Autumn elevator, the gold colours representing the changing leaves of that season.
All four of these elevators go straight to the lower observation deck. The screen above the door displays the current elevation, in addition to a cut-away of the tower’s shape, as it transforms from a triangle to a circle.
The main observation deck, called the Tembo Deck, is 350m (1,148 ft.) above ground. As you can see, I came in during the night. I'm pretty sure the blue needle-like structure in the far background, a bit to the left, is none other than Tokyo Tower.
A view down to the west of the tower. The Sumida River crosses along the front of the shot, and Asakusa's Senso-ji area is behind that, to the centre. If you look closely in the lower-left, you can also see the Asahi headquarters (
also seen in my Asakusa Nighttime Walk article).
Posted at multiple points around the Tembo Deck are these touchscreen panels where visitors can identify specific places in the distance. Many observation towers have pictures for this purpose, but the ones here show both night and day views, as well as facts about various locations!
Like in Tokyo Tower, there are a few windows set into the floor where you can look down to the base of the tower. I must say, my camera's tendency to turn white lights green in the night made for an interesting shot, for once!
For an extra thousand yen (exact prices at the bottom of this article), you can climb up to the Tembo Gallery, a second observation deck with an elevation of 450m (1,476 ft.). It is a tubular walkway which curves upward in a full circle around the tower. At night, the Gallery has its own unique lighting patterns. The pink lights shown here were chosen in honour of the Spring sakura season. Combined with the tube-like architecture, it felt rather space-age.
As I was walking up the Tembo Gallery, I saw a few welcome messages projected in lights onto the glass. I'm not sure if that blue streak in the centre is supposed to be one of those, or just a bridge lit up. Either way, the greenish glow of the lights in this picture remind me of a circuit board.
At the end of the Tembo Gallery is the "Sorakara Point", the highest point one can climb to on the Skytree, specifically 451.2 meters (1,480 feet).
Of course, I just had to take a selfie at the Sorakara Point. If you desire a more professional photo, you can have your picture taken by the staff at different locations on both the Tembo Deck and Gallery (not at the Sorakara Point, sorry), and buy a copy of it for ¥1,500.
I'll wrap up this article with one more vertical panorama, this one showing off Skytree's night-time colour patterns. They are the blue
iki, representing the nearby Sumida River, and the purple
miyabi (shown), a traditional colour of old Edo. As pretty as Skytree is at night, both inside and out, I imagine seeing it, and seeing out from it, during a clear sunny day would be a different experience altogether. If you can, I'd recommend going up Tokyo Skytree twice; once during the day, and once at night!
Hours: Open 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM. No regular closing days.
Costs: ¥2,100 for the Tembo Deck, plus an additional ¥1,000 for the Tembo Galleria. On weekends and holidays, the ticket prices are ¥2,300 and ¥1,100 respectively. Major credit cards including MasterCard, Visa, JCB, and Discover are accepted.
It is possible to reserve tickets ahead of time through their website; however, this requires a credit card issued in Japan, and as such is not feasible for overseas visitors. However, foreign guests can take advantage of the new Fast Skytree Tickets, which are sold at a separate counter and allow the user to skip the regular lines. These tickets cost ¥3,200 (Tembo Deck only) or ¥4,200 (Tembo Deck & Galleria).
Address: 1-1-2 Oshiage, Sumida-ku, Tōkyō-to 〒130-0045
Access: Right next to Oshiage Station on the Tokyo Metro Hanzomon
(Z) and Toei Asakusa
(A) lines, and Tokyo Skytree Station on the Tobu Skytree
(TS) line. From Tokyo Station, walk to nearby Otemachi Station and take the Hanzomon subway line to Oshiage (Z14, 15 minutes, ¥200).
Directions: The ticket counter is on the 4th floor, in the structure directly underneath the tower. The Oshiage subway stations are on the east side of the Skytree complex (roughly underneath the East Tower), and Tobu's Tokyo Skytree station is on the opposite west side.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
