Towering Over Views🗼- TacoCat’s Travels #289 (Tokyo)

I'm currently recounting our anniversary trip to Tokyo back in Feb 2023! It'd been at least 3 years since we visited Tokyo and the last time was pre-covid so we decided to go back and find some new places to explore while revisiting our favourite hot-spots.

Last week, we went to one of our favourite cafes for a post-sushi snack! We visited Hoshino Coffee, not for their special hand-drip coffee but for soufflé pancakes!

We also had some nice warm tea with lemon and a chocolate opera cake which was quite decadent and rich but nice nonetheless.

After we had our fill and were quite satisfied, we left the cafe to go walk off the calories before the food coma kicked in.

8 Feb 2023. Wednesday.

We were on our way back to the station and passed by this building that I always thought was some municipal government building or something.

But after researching I realised it's actually the Tsukiji Hongan-ji Temple! It's quite unlike other temples we've visited, and apparently the structure is modeled after ancient Buddhist architecture found in India. The temple’s roundish roof is modeled after the leaf of the sacred Bodhi tree. A lotus flower is depicted in the center of the facade. 

I wished we had gone inside to take a look, but unfortunately we didn't know it was a temple at the time so we just walked past it. But we also had a destination in mind anyway so we made our way there instead.

We were heading to the Tokyo Tower! It's actually one of our goals to go up all the high-rise buildings in every city we visit. We've been up the Tokyo Skytree before but not the tower so we figured on our chill day today we'd go and take a look, even though it's not as tall.

This was actually quite reminiscent of when we went to the Eiffel Tower in Paris some years ago. We actually thought of recreating this picture in Tokyo but it was too cold for ice cream. We tried to take some nice photos in front of the Tower regardless.

Upon entering the area this was one of the first things we saw; that the building was on Special Alert, for some reason. But I think that notice is always there.

There are quite a few floors to the Tokyo Tower building itself, with an event space, esports park and many restaurants on the ground floor.

I think this was either the food court or the restaurant section.

There was also a gachapon area of course, and a big Hello Kitty dressed in a kimono that was pretty cute!

I couldn't resist going to take a photo with it.

Anyway, the sun was setting soon so we made our way to the ticket counter so we could catch the sunset while in the observatory.

Here are the ticket prices, which are sorted by different age tiers. 

There actually wasn't anyone in the queue on this random Wednesday thankfully, so we made our way to the front of the line swiftly. The entrance actually reminded me of a movie theater.

Soon enough we were in the elevator going up quite quickly. I barely had time to take photos of the lights on top that were lighting up in a circle as we went up.

It was still light out so we could see the iconic red scaffolding of the Tower as we went up.

We went up to the 150m level observatory first, but our ticket lets us go both 150m and 250m.

There were a few other tourists here but it was still considerably empty which was good, since we didn't have to jostle in the crowd around the windows to enjoy the view.

It also meant that we could take nice photos like this.

It felt like we were pretty high up, although it wasn't nearly as high compared to the Skytree of course. 

I think everyone was waiting to enjoy the sunset as well, but we still had some time left until then.

I tried to get a photo of Seany but the back lighting was too strong.

This shot looks better I think.

After snapping a few photos and soaking in the stunning views from our spot, we decided to explore further. We strolled around the observatory to find out which side offered the best sights and to discover what other delights awaited us.

They had a mini Shinto Shrine in the Tower that was quite cute. I thought it was just a model at first but I think it was a legit shrine.

I like that the shrine is actually a symbol both to pray for the company's prosperity but also for the safety of visitors to Tokyo Tower. It's actually quite sweet and you can buy lucky charms here as well just like most Shinto shrines.

We actually saw some people praying to the shrine up here too.

There were some heart-shaped plaques next to the shrine with lots of handwritten wishes and prayers.

This is where you can also write down your wishes next to a Shinto shrine and pray that it will come true.

I thought this shot looked so cool. 

Most of the views were pretty similar of course, and we could see just how densely packed Tokyo was. 

There was some information below the windows indicating the direction that you're facing, and snapshots of what the view used to look like which I thought was quite interesting.

We saw a football field through one of the windows, and a building even higher than the Tokyo Tower.

We tried to take a nice selfie with the view but it was pretty difficult.

There was also an art installation within the observatory.

It's called Dandelion and after translating this poster it says that "When you blow on a dandelion, the fluff rises up and travels across the world via the network, where it blossoms into flowers near the dandelion in various locations. The collected flowers will eventually grow into a beautiful flower garden." 

It's mainly a message of peace and connecting with each other, which is very wholesome.

We walked one round around the 150m observatory back to the elevator where a gift shop was also located. 

There were lots of souvenirs of course, mostly themed around the Tokyo Tower.

There were plushies, miniature models, magnets and dozens of souvenirs.

They had some stationery, Japanese towels and even chopsticks.

Of course they had plenty of keychains as well.

Nothing really caught my eye though, everything seemed pretty generic to be honest.

But I think that's going to be it for today! There's still the 250m observatory to explore and of course the sunset view so tune in next time!

Thanks for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

Check out my previous post in this series!

Sweet Soufflé Snacks 😋- TacoCat’s Travels #288 (Tokyo)