The Tokyo SKYTREE® is tall!

After we got a tour of the university we’d be learning at, we then traveled to the temple area of Tokyo in Asakusa which then lead us to the second tallest tower in the world. The Tokyo SKYTREE®! The walk to this little place was interesting because we haven’t been ‘off the leash’ too long before this event came up in our to-do lists. Off the leash? Yeah, we cut the clock…close. We, our professor, and our previous second professor all looked at our clocks and the time we had to get to this place on time. You see… you don’t just walk-in to this attraction. You must schedule it ahead of time and basically your money is forfeit even if you can’t make it. Well, we didn’t have nearly enough time to casually walk to the Tokyo SKYTREE® from Asakusa. The race was on and we were off leash! We started down small roads, construction, neighborhoods, schools, and more to close the gap between us and the Tokyo SKYTREE®. This stupid tower is so tall that you always think you are getting close but it’s actually really far away. At one point the group split as they figured they had a better route in mind. We finally reached the base of the tower! We were tired! We were still on time!

The tower was so tall that it curved as you looked straight up. I couldn’t wait to reach the top. The base of the tower wasn’t good enough though, we were abruptly introduced to an insane number of stairs. So, we started to climb these stupid stairs. When we got to the real entrance, we were covered in sweat and looking for drink machines. I got some water and chilled by a plant next to a bench. Our professor went on in to get the tickets and information. Once that was all settled, we got in line to go up!

The elevator was HUGE! This thing was industrial and meant to hold a shit ton of people in one go. That being said, we were sardine-ified. This was not some Claustrophobia riddled persons play house. I was alright and managed to breath above the rest of the crowd because of my height. The elevator went up pretty quick, all things considered, and we made it to the first top. First top? Yeah, the tower is segregated between an open first floor and a closed-in second floor. This additional floor is also not a part of the tickets, so if we wanted to go up more then we would need to buy these new tickets. They were about 10-20 more dollars I think.

This first floor was fine for literally everyone and no additional tickets were purchased.

We explored the tower will all the power we could muster. The sight was like that of no other. A sea of city! There were buildings, cars, roads, water, and tiny pieces of green from the parks. I was really stunned by this sight as many others were as well. We were able to get a photo in the Tokyo SKYTREE® as a class which I thought was amazing! The attendants were really nice and lined us up neatly. They took the picture, printed it, and framed it in a neat Tokyo SKYTREE® poster/card. This was not free though, and only 2-3 of us bought a copy. I was one of these people.

The rest of the time on this tower was split between testing our fear of heights and…. getting homework finished.

The fear of heights spurred from the durable glass a person could stand on that shows the bottom of the tower. Many people were not fans of this experience. Others, like myself, danced on this glass and loved every minute of it.

The last part of this trip before the ascend down to the base was the homework. During our time in Japan, we had to take a class and that class had homework. This homework was really interesting because it made us interact with Japanese people. We would need to ask questions in Japanese and write the answers in… Japanese. You want to talk about nerve racking! This shit was crazy! So, we needed to ask something… I forgot what… but I remember that we needed to ask if they were Japanese (many Asian cultures were present within this tower) and eventually sign with a signature after my questions were answered. I procrastinated HARDCORE on this shit. I really didn’t want to do it. I liked self-research type homework and not the kind that make you be social. Asking strangers that don’t speak English a couple of questions for my homework was terrible. So terrible that I watched other people do it (Tokyo SKYTREE® was “perfect” for Japanese people) and tried to mimic what they did. Eventually with the help of another student in my class, we asked a couple some of these stupid questions. They signed the paper and it was OVER. MY GOODNESS.

After all that stuff, we went down to the base. On the way we noticed some neat odd and ends, a shop, café, and more. The tower was decked out for anyone to enjoy. I believe there was a little Pokémon too.

Over all, I would highly recommend this place to anyone in the Tokyo area.