#Tōkyō

Tōkyō’s old landmark, the Tōkyō Tower, is modelled on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We went up to the lower observation deck at a height of 150 metres and enjoyed the view over Tōkyō and the neighbouring city of Yokohama.

And that’s where we headed afterwards. The Christmas market at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouses is the biggest we’ve seen in Japan so far. There are loads of food stalls there with mulled wine and bratwurst, but also more unusual dishes like potato soup or Hoppelpoppel, plus stalls selling gifts.

The Christmas market at the Roppongi Hill Mori Tower in Tōkyō is a bit more traditional. It is quite small, but it’s Tōkyō’s oldest and mostly offers typical German gifts.

We finished off the evening with the illumination at the Caretta Shiodome. It claims to be the best in Tōkyō. It’s a light spectacle set to the music from the Disney animation “Frozen”. We liked the Starlight Garden better, though.

Probably the most spectacular light show in Tokyo is the Starlight Garden in the Roppongi neighbourhood. Around 190,000 LEDs create a colourful animation across about 2,000 m² of grass. As a special treat this year, there are also smoke-filled soap bubbles.

Words can’t really describe the spectacle. And even the video only gives you a hint of just how gorgeous this light show looks.

Sadly, it was super packed. The stewards were asking people over megaphones not to stop walking, but honestly, nobody listened to them… 😆

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Today we took it easy wandering through Tokyo. In the Asakusa district, we first visited the Senso-ji. The temple is a must-do on our itinerary every time we visit Tokyo.

After that, we popped into a little gallery where artists were exhibiting miniatures and photos of miniature worlds.

There’s another German Christmas market by the Tokyo Skytree. It’s really small, though, with the selection pretty much limited to mulled wine (more of a mulled punch really), crêpes, beer and bratwurst. But to make up for it, a Japanese a cappella group was singing their songs by the Christmas tree.

The Rikugien landscape garden offered a nice bit of Momiji vibe in the evening light. After sunset, the park gets lit up with spotlights, giving you a completely different view of nature.

At 634 metres, the Skytree in Tōkyō is the tallest TV tower and the second-tallest building in the world. It opened in 2012 after four years of building work.

The tower is made up of a massive reinforced concrete pillar surrounded by a strut-like steel skeleton. The design was inspired by the pagoda in Nikkō, which is supposed to make the tower earthquake-proof. And it works – the Skytree actually survived the massive 2011 Tōhoku earthquake pretty much unscathed.

The lower platform, the Tembo Deck, sits at 350 metres up and offers the usual mix of restaurants and souvenir shops alongside its panoramic windows. You can also look right down to the ground through a glass floor.

A separate lift takes you up to the second platform, the Tembo Galleria, which is another 100 metres higher. The extra cost is totally worth it, because you get an even better view of Tōkyō from a spiral tunnel attached to the outside of the building.

A standard ticket (“Same-day Ticket”) costs 2,060¥ and gets you to the Tembo Deck. Once you’re there, you can buy a ticket for the Tembo Galleria for another 1,030¥. Alternatively, tourists can show their ID at a separate counter to get express tickets (“Fast Skytree Ticket”). They cost 3,000¥ for the Tembo Deck, or you can get a combo ticket for both platforms for 4,000¥. This ticket lets you join a fast-track queue for the lifts, though to be honest, I didn’t think it saved that much time. If the lifts aren’t too busy and you’re not in a rush, the standard ticket is probably fine.

The group checked out Tōkyō today. We already knew the stops though, so we decided to bail early and explore the city ourselves for the rest of the day.

We did check out the Meiji Shrine and Roppongi Hills together, however. For an extra 500¥ we got access to the roof terrace of the Mori Tower this time, where you can take fantastic photos of Tōkyō.

At the Imperial Palace, we finally went our separate ways. We headed to Tōkyō Central Station first, where we bought tickets for our onward journey.

After that, we headed to Odaiba, where a life-size figure of the Gundam battle mech is currently on display. We also visited the Statue of Liberty again. The photo we took here back in 2010 isn’t possible anymore today, because new buildings block the clear view of the old landmark, the Tōkyō Tower.

While wandering around, we spotted a pet shop selling little dogs. The prices left us gobsmacked. One of these little four-legged friends costs up to 400,000¥. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, though, because anyone dropping that much cash on a dog will think really hard about buying it beforehand.