“The Memorial Day of a building completion 003 ～Tokyo Tower”
Tokyo Tower’s “60th Birthday”
Tokyo Tower celebrated its “60th” Anniversary today (December 23).
60 years have passed since its completion on December 23, 1958. The Tokyo Tower presumably seems to be handed over the position of the leading role to the Tokyo Sky Tree, but it is still keeping the status as a symbol of Tokyo.
The official name of this orange-colored steel tower built in Shiba Park is “the Japanese radio tower”. The height is 333 m, about half of the Tokyo Skytree, but at the time of completion, there was no tall buildings around it and the tower stood with dignity. Now that high-rise buildings such as Toranomon Hills have been forested, the situation is somewhat different, nevertheless, I am still impressed by the beauty of the Tokyo Tower when I see it from the Shuto expressway inner circle route, especially during the twilight time when the lighting up starts.
It was on January 9, 1989 (The 1st year of Heisei period) when the famous lighting designer Motoko Ishii started working on it. That is to say, it has been lighted up during the latter half of its life of 60 years so far. Before the lighting up started, only the outline of the tower was lit.
The light-up consisting of 276 lights. It has a warm winter version and a cold summer version. From 8 o’clock to 10 o’clock on Saturday evening, a special version called “Diamond Veil” is performed, 17 levels of light hierarchy turn into seven colors. Did you know that? Occasionally, it displays social message or news elements as well. Now I remembered, when Tokyo had been determined to be the venue of the Olympic Games, the figure of “2020” appeared on the tower.
“Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum” (1970 – 2013) and “Tokyo Tower Aquarium” (1978 – 2018) ended their operation (In the meantime, “Madame Tussaud Tokyo” opened in 2013 in “ODAIBA”). Yet, Tokyo Tower will continue to play an important role as a backup of the Tokyo Skytree and to exist as an accent for the landscape of the city center.
The observatory with a height of 150 m has been renamed as the “Main Deck”, and a part of it is under renovation. The special observatory with a height of 250m also has been renamed as the “Top Deck” on March 3, 2018 and started a new attraction the “Top Deck Tour”. You can enjoy the scenery seen from the middle of the city center which is different from that of the Tokyo Skytree.
According to the official website of the Tokyo Tower, the stairway to the Main Deck with 600 stairs is open for visitors (admission fee is needed as normal visitors) only on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, and in the middle of the staircase, the loose characters ” Noppon brothers ” provides a quiz. you can also get the “Certification of Noppon for the staircase climber”. Would you like to challenge it, especially those who are lacking physical exercise?
