Altough dwarfed by the much newer Tokyo Sky Tree, Tokyo Tower offers a unique view of this massive city – and has a long and romantic history that makes it a great site to visit. When it was first built in the late 1950s there were no nearby sky scrapers that came even close to the new tower’s height – in fact, Tokyo Tower was the world’s tallest tower at the time.

Rob Gilhooly wrote a great article “The tower and the story” for The Japan Times – have a read if you’d like to know more about Tokyo Tower’s history.

Views from Tokyo Tower

In and around the tower you will see a lot of interesting views. Peering through one of the binoculars I spotted this very strangely named Inner Trip building…

The Inner Trip building is a normal office building – but with an awesome name – just in front of the very unique Reiyūkai 「霊友会 Spiritual-Friendship-Association」 building.

One thing I always keep an eye out for are signs that have been translated into English (what I call Japrish)… stairs for GO DOWN!

On a clear day, you could see Mt Fuji in the distance from this direction. The clouds in the distance hide the notoriously shy mountain from view.

There are two viewing platforms that visitors can view the city from. Both have some very cool glass windowed sections in the floor…

View from 150m

View from 250m

The sprawl of this massive city is put into perspective from Tokyo Tower…

Opening hours, admission cost and access

The tower is open from 9AM to 11PM every day of the year.

Admission to both the main (150m) and special (250m) observation decks are ¥1,600 for adults and ¥1,000 for school students.

For more details, including how to get to the tower, visit the official Tokyo Tower website.

Other things to do in Tokyo

• Free observation decks at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku
• Stroll around Shinjuku (inner city Tokyo)
• Visit the Tokyo National Museum

See more photos of Tokyo