mutelife

On the 9th day of our adventure in Japan I was turning 30 years old. Usually I don’t care about this day, don’t really like to make a thing out of it, and often forget that it’s supposed to be special. But we were in Japan after all, and booked the trip to overlap this week so we had the chance to do something really unusual in the most unique (crazy?) city in the world. More on that particular event on tomorrow’s post.

Got on the JR Yamanote line and switched to the Metro subway line so we could get out in Asakusa. This is a very turist-y area because it holds, arguably, the most famous temple in Tokyo: the Senso-ji.

As such, it has developed this life around it, comprised of a big shopping street leading to the sacred grounds, and tons of entertainment around, including an amusement park that opened in 1853 as a flower park.

Lena bought me a pair of beautifully handmade chopsticks, we visited the temple and walked around the block looking for little idyllic streets.

We then spotted the Tokyo Skytree behind countless rows of buildings, standing above them all but really far away. It’s actually kind of funny to look at a photo featuring the tower, like the one below, where you can compare it to other buildings but completely unaware that it’s kilometers behind them.

The Skytree was completed just under 3 years ago, it stands 634m tall (2080ft), making it the second tallest structure in the world, and it’s a marvel of modern engineering.

From its sheer height, to earthquake resistance, to the speed of the elevators (600m/minute!!), to what it holds on top, inside and below — a huge shopping mall, restaurant at the top, broadcasting antennas, etc.

The views from the top observation floor? Stunning. And scary. But not because it’s a tall building; in fact, it’s so tall that any anything in the ground just looks like toys. Any feeling of vertigo you might have vanishes when you see the Lego bricks below.

When I say it’s scary it’s because only then you can see the mind-blowing vastness that is Tokyo. You’ll see city as far as the eye can see, and it goes beyond that, only stopping for a breath where the water meets the Tokyo bay.

Simply crazy to see otherwise giant buildings when you walk in between them turn into miniatures in the largest urban board in the world.