Sightseeing in Tokyo

We visited Tokyo Tower to celebrate my best friend’s birthday, as she requested. It was my first time there in more than 20 years.

When I think of Tokyo Tower, the wax museum and the aquarium are the only things off the top of my head. I really loved those 2 places. Their kitschiness and tackiness were one of the attractions for me. While our cab was heading to Tokyo Tower, I was filled with anticipation and I hoped that they had not changed.

“What is that creepy thing over there?” When we got off the cab, there was a strange pink thing in front of the ticket booths. It received visitors and took photos with them. I’d never seen such a weird shaped character before… but for some reason, I actually liked it. I thought, “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m expecting of Tokyo Tower! This kischiness… thank you, God! Thank you, Tokyo Tower!! ”

According to the brochure, his name is “Noppon,” and he is one of the Tokyo Tower’s characters. Actually, there were 2 of them, and they’re brothers. The one in the red overalls is the little brother Noppon, and the one in blue is the older brother. Unfortunately, we missed the big brother Noppon, but we took photos with younger one.

After the photos, we headed to the main observatory first. There are 2 observatories at Tokyo Tower. The main one is 150 meters high, and has 2 floors. The other one is called “The Special Observatory,” which is 250 meters high. It costs an extra 600 yen to visit the special observatory. Depending on the crowd, you have to wait to go up there. We had to wait for about 1 hour.

For the first 15 minutes, we enjoyed the beautiful view and took photos. 15 minutes was enough to get a good view of everything, because there were so many people and not many spaces. So, 20 minutes later since we had arrived at there, we went straight to the observatory’s café for a beer.

While we were drinking, we talked about where we were going to eat. The restaurant, “Tokyo Shiba Toufuya-Ukai” is located near Tokyo Tower. As can be expected from the name, it’s a restaurant that specializes in Tofu. Also, there is a huge beautiful Japanese garden and you can enjoy the garden view while you eat. Beer, the nice restaurant and the freaky pink character —what an interesting birthday!! About 40 or 50 minutes later, we went to the higher observatory. The view from the special observatory was so beautiful, but we didn’t have much time because we hadn’t visited the wax museum or the aquarium yet. It was too bad that we couldn’t visit the aquarium, which looks like a tropical fish store, because it closed early. Anyway, we ran to the wax museum.

At the wax museum, there were so many wax figures that didn’t look like the people they were supposed to be. Take a look at the pictures below.

Just in case you can’t tell, let me explain. The wax figures of the Beatles (left), the wax figure of Audrey Hepburn (middle) and her picture from the scene in the movie, Roman Holiday (right).

I think it’s amazing that Tokyo Tower has shown these low-quality wax figures for such a long time — Tokyo Tower deserves praise! After we fully enjoyed Tokyo Tower we made our way to the restaurant.

The restaurant was completely silent and it made us forget that we were next to Tokyo Tower, which is very crowded and one of the most famous sights in Tokyo. We had good time eating good food and enjoying the beautiful views in the silence, and we felt like we were traveling. Finally, we toasted to her birthday with a tasty birthday cake and white wine.

I usually don’t visit sightseeing spots, famous or popular places in Tokyo. I always visit and spend time in familiar places. I still don’t like crowded places, but sometimes it is really fun to visit places I don’t go to often.

If you are interested in “Tokyo Tower,” “Noppon,” and “Tokyo Shiba Toufuya-Ukai” you can check the URLs below.

 
 "Tokyo Tower"


 
"NOPPON details" (only in Japanese)


 
"Tokyo Shiba Toufuya-Ukai"