ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Japan's Famous Tokyo Tower

Updated on September 9, 2015

A Famous Japanese Landmark

Tokyo Tower is one of Japans’ more famous landmarks and has been seen in many Japanese films. It’s modeled after the Eiffel Tower design and is actually 13 meters taller, making it the world's highest self-supporting iron tower. Tokyo tower weighs a little over 4000 tons compared to the French tower at over 7000.

Finished in 1958, it's chiefly a relay tower for 9 TV stations and 5 FM radio stations. It also houses a system for detecting earthquakes and is a popular tourist destination.

At the time it was built it was the tallest structure in Tokyo, but that record has long since been superseded by several other buildings.

Perhaps the Most Famous Attraction

However, according to critics, although the tower is perhaps more famous than other tourist attractions, there are better values for your money. While doing research on this article I came across the word “tacky” more than once. Visitors have also described it as being overpriced, inconveniently located and having poor amenities.

I was lucky enough to visit Tokyo Tower as a young child shortly after it opened. My dad was in the United States Air Force and stationed in Japan. But at 6 years old, I don’t remember seeing some of the following attractions. Perhaps they were added later.

At the bottom is a 4-story building known as “FootTown”. On the first floor is an aquarium, containing over 50,000 fish.The second floor is primarily a food and shopping area.

The third floor is home to the Mysterious Walking Zone which is an interesting attraction displaying 3-D hologram technologies and the Wax Works Museum. And on the fourth floor there's a Trick Art Gallery of odd, curious 3D images.

There are also two observatory floors. The main observatory (at 150 m) and the "special observatory" (at 250 m); both offer a beautiful 360 degree panorama view ofTokyo and, if the weather is clear, sacred Mount Fuji. I only saw the main observatory, but that was an impressive sight. People do look like ants from that height! However, sometimes smog makes visibility high humidity and smog make visibility difficult. Even if you visit during the day, you should also come back at night to see Tokyo brilliantly lit up.

Afraid of Heights?

Are you afraid of heights? Then don’t stand on the glass panels looking down at the streets. We had fun watching the antics of more timid visitors finding themselves standing on clear glass.

Then there were the inevitable pay telescopes. I vividly remember spending an hour scoping out the busy Tokyo harbor with multitudes of shipping traffic. Dad was scoping out the pretty Japanese ladies.

As with most tourist attractions tickets must be purchased."Main" gallery tickets are bought at booths on the first floor and tickets for the “special” gallery are bought from booths located in the “main” gallery. That’s right, they hit you twice.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)