A Sunday tour to Tokyo Tower

We had a good Sunday out in Tokyo when we decided to visit Tokyo Tower with our guest Mustafa-san from Jordan. He came to Japan for a short stay, but within one week he was all praise to Japan. He is also with a wonderful note on the high degree of discipline of Japanese people in the public behavior.

This was my first trip to Tokyo Tower. Along with Kawano-san, Ienaka-san and Mustain-san I had a pleasure trip at night around the Tokyo Tower, but did not enter inside the Tower building. We took ticket to go up to the Main Observatory which has height of 150 meters. The ticket charge for an Adult entry is 820 Japanese Yen.

The Main observatory is an exciting place to have a 360 degree view of the Kanto region surrounding Tokyo. There are many coffee shops to take break. Guide boards are available on the Observatory in which the name of the buildings that can be viewed from four sides of the observatory are displayed in different languages. Set up on the four sides, these guide boards help to orient the city of Tokyo with explanation of the view from the Tower.

We could see many people offer prayers to the Great Shinto Shrine of the Tower. Located at the highest spot in all 23 wards of Tokyo, the Shinto shrine grant the faithful divine favors such as successful passing of academic examinations and traffic safety.

The Information counter is welcome to visitors with their doubts and I don’t need to repeat the Japanese way of welcoming visitors and guests with all regards and warmness. The staffs at the Information center are so polite and helping that even stranger would not feel awkward to approach in case of confusion.

The look down window is an exciting portion of the Tokyo Tower. We could see some children enjoy standing over the glass and look down. Looking down to the streets form the tower, I felt dizziness and could not stay there long, but managed to capture some shots in my mobile.

Due to time shortage, we decided not to proceed further go up. There are special observatory at 250 meter height. We could see Mount Fuji from the Main observatory, but the vision was not so clear. From the Special observatory the view of mount Fuji is clear. Mount Tsukuba is also visible from that height. The top of the Tokyo Tower is occupied by NHK General TV, NHK Education TV, TV Asahi, Fuji TV, TBS TV, NTV TV, TV Tokyo and the University of the Air TV. The topmost of the Tokyo Tower is a lightning rod at a height of 333 meters. That is the total height of Tokyo Tower – 333 meters.

There are game centers for children to enjoy, restaurants and food courts at the Foot Town. Guinness World Records Museum, Crystal Planet, Space Wax, Trick Art Gallery and Wax Museum are other major attractions inside the Tokyo Tower. We were little confused due to time shortage on which one to choose. Finally we decided to enter Wax Museum.

Wax Museum in Tokyo Tower was opened in 1970. The wax figures of prominent personalities of the world history are displayed in the museum. Wax figures exhibited were imported directly from the workshop in London, where they were made. Also added are the figures of great personalities who created major impact on the human history in 20th century and played an important role in the society.

We missed many things like Thrilling Economics House, Amusement Park, Aquarium Gallery, Tokyo Souvenir Shop Town etc, but to come back again to view Tokyo Tower ! Next time I will try to have a night view of Tokyo from the top of the Tokyo Tower.