Sky Tree (RotW)

RotW is my Railways of the Warrior project. Visiting all the Japanese train stations with Fuji in the name & the 12 castles with the original keep still standing wasn’t enough to satisfy my love of lists, so now I’m working through all the stations with Musashi in their name.

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Name in kanji : 東京スカイツリー
Kanji meaning: erm, Tokyo Sky Tree
Opened : March 2011
Trainlines: Tobu Skytree
# Visitors daily : over 10,000, double that on weekends
Distance from CityHillsAndSea HQ: 62km
Located in: Sumida, Tokyo

Things to Do

Visit the tallest building in Japan? Other than that, not a whole lot but shops.

All About Sky Tree

I wonder about nations that are obsessed with building tall things. Is there some kind of natural characteristic that they all have in common?

In Asia, it seems to be China, Taiwan & Japan who are locked in some kind of weird edifice measuring competition, an unceasing onanistic oneupmanship to see who can build the highest building that can withstand earthquakes, typhoons & tidal waves.

I don’t really understand all the fuss to be honest; while these fantastic pieces of architecture are impressive feats of engineering, I don’t feel like a big pointy tower slap bang in your city centre does much for the skyline.

On the other hand, I’d probably have had a moan about steeples popping up everywhere back in the day, so best not listen to me on this.

Tokyo Sky Tree is an honorary member on the Musashi list. It was included owing to its height – 634 metres – which can be read as MU – SA – SHI in Japanese, and was, indeed, deliberately chosen as such.

There is the additional reason that I like round numbers and we were at least 1 shy of 30.

Musashi features nowhere in the name of any stations within the vicinity and never has – despite the multiple reentitling of the station which serves the tower.

When it first opened in 1902 it went by Azumabashi. Then it was renamed Asakusa in 1910 before finally settling into its penultimate form as Narihirabashi Station in 1931. With the opening of Sky Tree imminent, Tokyu renamed it again in 2012… and, well, here we are.

Sky Tree has two decks that the public can visit- the highest of the two has an exhibition area, and it costs a little more to get up there .

Either of the decks are accessible by four lifts which are, as one expects in these huge buildings, really fast. Each of the elevators is themed after one of the seasons and there’s a little light show with appropriate background music to evoke the feeling of whichever season your metal box is meant to be.

On the day I was here, the gallery featured an Evangelion exhibit owing to the release of the latest film in the latest iteration of the franchise that just won’t stop giving.

The views out of the windows were, as to be expected, fantastic. There was a little bit of heat haze so Mount Fuji wasn’t visible but the cityscape was … well. Tokyo.

While it’s certainly hard to wrap your head around the concept of a city this huge at ground level, I’m not even sure 634 metres was enough distance for me to make much sense of the place.

Nonetheless, I feel I’ve made some progress. Pretty sure I’ve moved beyond existential dread towards a more benign acceptance of my being a speck of spume floating on an ocean current that is inifinitely more vast than I could possibly comprehend.

Station Rating

It’s not really a station so it shoud probably be exempt from a rating if we’re being strict. Still though, it’s a fun place to visit. If you’re into towers, I bet it’d really scratch your itch.