If you want a good view of Tokyo from above, or just want to do something “touristy” in Tokyo, a visit to the Tokyo Tower is always a good bet. Built in 1958, it is now the second tallest structure in Japan, with its 333 meters. In the bottom you have a four story building that houses restaurants, museums, and shops, called FootTown. From here, visitors can go to two different observation decks: The Main Observatory at 150 meters, and and the Special Observatory at 250 meters.

The tower was built to support the transmission of television broadcasts, and was used for this purpose until 2011, when Japan switched to Digital Broadcasting. It turned out that Tokyo Tower wasn’t tall enough to support the digital broadcasting, and a taller structure was built: The Tokyo Skytree.

Originally the tower was built partly because the government was afraid that broadcasting companies own relay towers would overrun the city, and partly because post-war Japan needed a monument to symbolize that they had become a global economic power. It is built of steel, a third of which came from scrapped U.S. tanks from the Korean War. At the time of completion of the structure, it was the tallest free-standing structure in the world.

It is well worth a visit, to experience the history and the engineering skill put into this structure. And with a good view of Tokyo added to the recipe, what could go wrong?

Tokyo Tower (Picture courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)