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| View from the top of the Roppongi Hills Sky Tower |
So since the last time I wrote I've been exploring Tokyo as seen from the observatories of very tall buildings. It's really quite amazing. From ground level I haven't felt that it's a particularly densely built up place. Certainly no more so than parts of London, despite its reputation for being so crammed together. But get a few floors up and it's a totally different story. All the buildings jostle for space, sitting on top of each other like row upon row of wonky teeth. There are brand new glass and steel-clad giants poking out here and there, surrounded by hundreds of smaller, mainly white or cream towers and shopping centres built in the 1980s, and in the gaps (where there are any gaps) there are tiny wooden structures. Every so often a huge, aerial expressway cuts through the sprawl, creating a gap through which you can see...more buildings. And it goes on and on and on. As far as the mountains in one direction, and the sea in the other.
The first observatory I went up to was the Sky Tower in the Roppongi Hills complex on Sunday afternoon. Simon and I had been drinking for a while with some of his colleagues and decided (a little bit squiffy) to go up to the 52nd floor of the tower. The view was something else. It was getting dark so all the lights were starting to come on. All the tall buildings have red lights that flash very slowly so that planes can avoid them and it's a surreal experience looking down on these pulsating red dots from so high up - like looking into a very deep sea with strange jellyfish swimming around underneath you. We stayed up there for a long time, trying to make everything out. Before the daylight went completely we could even see Mount Fuji in the distance. Stunning. The photo I've included with this post doesn't do justice to the magnificence of the view but it goes some way towards showing the density of the city.
A couple of days later, I discovered that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (the place where I went to the tourist information office last week) also affords the opportunity of an aerial view of the city. This time not one, but two observatories - one in the north tower and one in the south. These are both on the 45th floor but the view is no less stupendous than from the 52nd floor of the Sky Tower. As I got to the top of the north tower, the sun was pouring through the huge windows and the view was literally breathtaking. It was a real 'I can't believe I live in this amazing place', lump in the throat, eyes welling moment. This reaction provoked some very strange looks from the group of Japanese tourists with whom I had shared the lift...
The next 'sky' place I went to was somewhat different. This time it wasn't a big tall building, but a small converted bathhouse called Scai The Bathhouse (see what I did there...sky...scai...) I've been looking up cool free things to do in Tokyo and (thank you Time Out, you're legendary) discovered Scai The Bathhouse, which is a contemporary art gallery in Yanaka. To get there I had to walk through a large cemetery, Yanaka Reien. It appears that family members are often buried together so some of the plots are really quite big, and very intricately decorated. The whole place was also beautifully cared for and the pervading sense was one of great peace rather than eeriness. On reaching the far side of the cemetery I found myself on a small and winding street , which I followed round a couple of corners until I spotted the gallery. It's an unassuming white, wooden building with the original water tank still at the front. Inside, it's been stripped out and painted in light colours, to provide a calm, airy space in which to put on small contemporary art exhibitions. The one I saw is called Naoki Ishikawa 8848 and it's a photographic diary of the artist's (Naoki Ishikawa) ascent of Mount Everest. It was wonderful. I have a feeling that Scai The Bathhouse will become a regular haunt of mine over the next year.
The final 'sky' place I've been to is the best, and that's because it's potentially our new home. I'm not going to say too much about it here for fear of jinxing the ongoing contractual negotiations. Suffice to say it's on the 32nd floor of a very beautiful and shiny building in the centre of town, and affords the dweller superb views of the Imperial Palace gardens, the Tokyo Tower, and much more of the general wonderfulness that is this great city. More details to follow soon I hope!
Until the next time...
Amazing. So, I'm a little bit confused. When you went you said Simon was working just outside Tokyo but, from the sounds of it, you're living in Tokyo. Is he commuting out?
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