Going Up 350m – December 26th, 2012

Our last day in Tokyo and the weather was still nice if just little bit windier.

Our first stop of the day was at Ueno Park. We had gone there to see if we could visit the Tokyo National Museum. It was a beautiful park to walk through, filled with shrines and temples. In the spring the park is also a great site to see the cherry blossoms. We spent some time walking through the park before heading to the museum. Unfortunately when we got there we found that museum was closed, so we didn’t get the chance to explore.

After finding out that we couldn’t get in, we hopped on the subway and made our way to Asakusa.

Asakusa is a small part of Tokyo that is home to the Senso-ji, a temple dedicated to Kannon. The lead up to the temple is a massive gate. It’s known as the Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate) and hanging in the gate is a 4m tall lantern. After passing through the gate it’s a walk along a street lined with small shops selling souvenirs and treats. This street and area also has some of the oldest buildings in Tokyo. This makes this part of Tokyo a great place to visit and to shop.

 From Asakusa we decided to go up to the Tokyo Skytree. It was a nice day so we decided to walk from Asakusa to the Skytree. The Skytree is currently the tallest tower in the world. It was built to serve as a radio and television-broadcasting antenna – to act as a replacement for the Tokyo Tower. The tower has two observation decks one at 350m and one at 450m. We only went as high up as 350m and it was great. We got to once again see the entire skyline of Tokyo, but this time during the day. It was amazing to see how far out this city spreads.

After seeing the city in the setting sun we headed back to the hotel. Before going back though we got a delicious dinner of sushi. Which is always really well done in Tokyo.