To-cho

Today we had to visit the Tokyo City Hall (To-cho) to pick up Rika and Hannahs' passports. Tocho is an impressive complex in the West Shinjiku district with 2 distinctive towers that are among the tallest buildings in Tokyo. Both towers have a public observation gallery on the 45th floor which provides a famous (and free) view of Tokyo from 200m up.

It was a beautiful day and Mt Fuji was clearly visible, huge and snow-covered to the south-west. Unfortunately due to the afternoon sun I couldn't get a photo of Mt Fuji but please enjoy the rest of the panorama. (double-click on the photos to enlarge them).


Looking north-East past a skyscraper under construction.


Looking east over Shinjuku station, with Shinjuku park to the right. The tall buildings in the far right is the Otemachi area around Tokyo station. The line of green in front of them is the Imperial Palace.


Looking east-south-east over Shinjuku station south exit. The pointy building tis Time Square which we often see from our neighborhood.


Looking south-east over south Shinjuku and Yoyogi station. The park to the right is the north part of Meiji shrine.


The same view with more zoom towards Roppongi. The large brown buildings in the left is Roppongi Midtown, and just to the left of it is the red and white needle of Tokyo Tower. The enormous silver building in the middle is Roppongi Hills. Just below the horizon you can see the blue of Tokyo Bay, with some white buildings visible on the far shore of the bay. To the left of Roppongi Hills is one of the towers of Tokyo Bay Bridge.


Looking south-south-east over Meiji shrine and Yoyogi park. The clumps of tall builings behind the park are Shibuya and Ebisu. The complex of builidings taking-up a chunk of the bottom-right of the park is the National Olympic Memorial Centre. Our apartment block is just to the right of that between the park and the edge of the photo.



This is a close-up of Sangubashi area (yoyogi 4-chome) and our neighborhood, Yoyogi 5-chome. Sanugbashi station is in the middle left, below the Olympic centre. (Just between the row of trees and the white chimney things on top of the rear skyscraper). Our apartment is in the middle right (about 75% to the right and 60% up). The small green area visible in the right-edge is part of Yoyogi Hachiman shrine.


Looking south with less zoom. The tall building is the Park Hayatt tower of 'Lost in Translation' fame. Just beneath it is a motorway junction where 7 layers of roadway cross each-other (2 levels under-ground, one at ground level and 4 levels of elevated expressway)


Looking south-south-west into the afternoon sun. The building to the right of the Park Hayatt is the 50-story Opera City in the Hatsudai area.


Looking west across the Kanto plain towards the mountains.


Looking north-west across the Kanto plain. The blue building is a 35-story apartment block, but it still looks like a toy from up here at 200m.


Looking north-north-west. The building in the right is the north tower of To-cho. The top two floors visible in the photo are the north-tower 45th floor observation deck.

The same panorama in video.