How do you get the sense of Tokyo's immensity? For me to let my parents feel the sheer size of Tokyo, I took them to the Tokyo metropolitan government building in Shinjuku. The view from its observatories on the 45th floor is truly breathtaking, and is free!
The walk to the building was a challenge as Shinjuku JR station is the largest in Tokyo. Navigating inside the station was tricky, even outside rush hour. ONce out of the tunnels though the walk from the station to the office building offered some view on the surrounding high rises, especially this MODE gakuen cocoon tower.
Outside of the building itself was quite interesting and we spent some time there before going up. From outside, the building with the two towers looked like a cathedral. The arena outside and the spaceship structure were quite intimidating and imposing.
The few flowers here and there did not quite soften the image of the concrete and glass towers. Nonetheless inside was well organized and indicated. There was even a welcome rake inside (Kazari Kumade), to gather all the good fortune from the visitors (aha! crowdsourcing).
The trending topic was the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and colourful banners adorned the main hall. Of course being in Japan safety was also observed in the form of information about emergency numbers in case of earthquakes, a frightening call to reality.
And so finally after a bit of queueing we got to the observatory. There are a few stars of the skyline: Sky tree, the cocoon.
But all in all for me the vast sea of concrete jungle extending beyond the horizon was the star.
The walk to the building was a challenge as Shinjuku JR station is the largest in Tokyo. Navigating inside the station was tricky, even outside rush hour. ONce out of the tunnels though the walk from the station to the office building offered some view on the surrounding high rises, especially this MODE gakuen cocoon tower.
Outside of the building itself was quite interesting and we spent some time there before going up. From outside, the building with the two towers looked like a cathedral. The arena outside and the spaceship structure were quite intimidating and imposing.
The few flowers here and there did not quite soften the image of the concrete and glass towers. Nonetheless inside was well organized and indicated. There was even a welcome rake inside (Kazari Kumade), to gather all the good fortune from the visitors (aha! crowdsourcing).
The trending topic was the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and colourful banners adorned the main hall. Of course being in Japan safety was also observed in the form of information about emergency numbers in case of earthquakes, a frightening call to reality.
But all in all for me the vast sea of concrete jungle extending beyond the horizon was the star.
As we saw a park nearby, among the suffocation of all the concrete, we made our way to the Shinjuku Chuo park which I have never visited before. It was quite pleasant, and used by students to practice plays, music or exercise.
I could imagine the park completely full at lunchtime when all the office workers come out of all the hundreds of offices surrounding it. We could only enjoy the peace of it until then.
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