^ Roppongi
Hills Mori Tower ^
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
v Yokohama
Landmark Tower v
When I was a child I was fascinated by aerial
shots of my hometown in England. In fact, I recall my form
tutor telling my parents that I might have a future career in aerial
photography or cartography or some such...
...actually
I was just trying to find myself in the photos. (Keeping in
mind that I was 10, of course I mean this quite literally.)
However,
skip forward a few (few) years and this obsession with getting above
everything and seeing cities in full context has not left me. I'm
positive if the views weren't so great I'd probably not ascend so many
buildings...or take
so many mountains
or even fly anywhere. Whatever the reason is for humans building these
sky touching structures (spoiler alert, after about 50 floors the
reason is 'becauseego')
if I have the chance to take in large chunks of a city or catch a
glimpse of the curvature of the earth then I'm in.
Now neither the Roppongi
Hills Mori Tower (53 floors) nor the Yokohama
Landmark Tower (73 floors) are the highest you can get in
Japan by man-made constructs (that would
be this) but they do both offer fantastic photos
views. I would say the sights from the former are better being that
it's in the centre of Tokyo, but the Yokohama Landmark Tower's
observation rooms are more spacious and thus more time can be afforded
to have a proper look around, which is nice. Actually for about 21
years the Yokohama Landmark Tower was the tallest building in Japan,
until the Abeno
Harukas in Osaka was reconstructed took the title in 2014.
It's also the biggest shopping hole in Japan. Ooh la-la.
A
list of the tallest structures in Japan can be found
here. If you read all the way through then we can be friends
who spend life trying to scale every one of them.
Talking of superlative
heights, the Burj Khalifa (currently the tallest building in
the world) will likely be surpassed in 2019 by the Kingdom
Tower, an under-construction monstrosity in neighboring Saudi
Arabia (designed by the same architect).
It will become the first building to reach the one kilometre-high mark.
I
imagine the view of oppressed women and abused labor workers will be
quite spectacular from the top...
How
to get there:
Technically
this blog should be called "Greater Tokyo From Above"
as Tokyo and Yokohama are separate administrative areas...
Step
one, get to Japan. Then:
Roppongi
Hills Mori Tower
- Roppongi Station, Exit 3, Turn left and walk until your neck snaps.
- One must pay admission to the Mori Art Museum (which is cool) but the 54th floor costs extra. Not cool.
- Try to avoid lamping annoying foreigners.
Yokohama
Landmark Tower
- Yokohama Station. Minatomirai Station. Follow the signs for the Landmark Plaza.
- One must go up a few floors before one can get on the lift (elevator) for the "sky garden".
- Yokohama is gorgeous. Explore at all levels.
Soundtrack:
Japanese bonus track for the 'Lost In Translation'
soundtrack. I've been searching for this for years...