By Johan Hjelm, about.com
When it was new, Tokyo Tower stood proudly over the surrounding city. The orange-red and white tower, modelled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris but a tad taller, was briefly the tallest television tower in the world.
When it was new, Tokyo Tower stood proudly over the surrounding city. The orange-red and white tower, modelled after the Eiffel Tower in Paris but a tad taller, was briefly the tallest television tower in the world.
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But time has
passed by the icon of the Japanese recovery, a symbol of an age when the
goal of every family was to own a washing machine, a refrigerator and a
TV set. And not only time: Today, you can look down on the once tall
tower from the surrounding high-rise buildings – the view is best from
the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. As an observation tower, it has long ago lost out to the skyscrapers in Shinjuku, Shiodome and Roppongi.
And
when Japan switched off its analog TV signals a few years ago, the
reflection from the surrounding buildings became too much for the new
digital system to handle. Television broadcast was already in the
process of switching over to the newly constructed Tokyo Skytree, the tallest television tower in the world.
Just a couple years before its 55th
anniversary in 2013, the largely outdated tower became mostly used for
limited digital telivision and radio sygnals, but it can still act as a
spare for its taller replacement in case of an emergency. However, it is
a member of the World Federation of Great Towers.
[post_ads]Tokyo Tower was
constructed in 1957 to 1958 and reaches about 1,092 feet, if you
include the antenna and lightning rod. However, the Great Northeastern
Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011 damaged the antenna and its
replacement is somewhat shorter. The observation platform is
significantly lower – the special observatory is situated below the
antenna, but that still means only 820 feet up. And the two-story main
observatory, with restaurants (including a McDonald's) and cafes, is
lower than most of the surrounding buildings.
The main attraction
today is Foot Town, a four-story exhibition and event center which is
constructed directly beneath the tower. Exhibitions draw visitors from
all around Tokyo, especially those for school children during vacations,
and probably make up a large part of the 150 million people who have
visited the tower. Standing exhibits include an aquarium, a wax museum,
and a small amusement park on the roof.
The tower is painted in
the internationally standardized orange color for broadcasting towers,
but while it has safety lights for aircraft, the lighting of the tower
can be changed for special events. These include advertising – both
mobile phone operator AU and Coca-Cola have used the tower as part of
commercials for their products, and it was lit up green when the movie
Matrix Reloaded had its Japanese premiere.
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In a city like Tokyo,
with its red-hot real-estate market, a prime piece of land like the one
where Tokyo Tower sits is attractive. Yet there are still no offical
plans to tear down the tower. While tour buses
still stop here, Tokyo Tower is more interesting to those looking for
the special exhibitions in the Foot Town, or in search of Japanese
icons. Tokyo Tower will live on in popular culture, if nothing else –
the climactic battle of "King Kong Escapes" took place at the Tokyo Tower.
Address and access: The tower is at 4-2-8 Shiba-koen, Minato ward.
Phone: 03-3433-5111; To get there, walk from Akabanebashi station;
Kamiyacho station; Onarimon station, Daimon station; or the JR Yamanote
Line Hamamatsucho station. To get in the main observatory costs 820 yen; the special observatory, 600 yen.
