Tokyo Day 8 Part 1 — Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building Free Volunteer Tour, Shinjuku
The day before, we spent our time in exploring the streets of Shinjuku (Tokyo Day 7 Part 1), the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden (Tokyo Day 7 Part 2) and Marui Young Shinjuku (MaruiOne) department store (Tokyo Day 7 Part 3).
The Tokyo Tourist Information Centre is at the first floor of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. You can find the tourist office by following the blue marker.
An English-speaking volunteer offered us a tour of the premises. She explained this curious-looking thing ( which we saw visitors to the Hanazono Jinja Shrine on our first day in Tokyo). It is a bamboo rake decorated with a range of items lucky items and charms called kumade.
The Assembly Hall.
Smoking is allowed in this part of the building. There’s a designated smoking corner where smoke is sucked into a machine to prevent it from escaping to the surrounding area (or a least that what we understood from the guide). There wasn’t any cigarette smells here so I guess it works.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building - smoking allowed in the building at designated smokers' corner
If you’re not willing to shell 1500 yen for Tokyo City View at Mori Tower, Roppongi Hills, a good and free alternative to see Tokyo from above is the 45th floor of Tokyo Metropolitan Tower. Queue at the assigned elevator – it is the one with tensator queue barrier and security desk near the lift door. Your bags will be scanned at the security desk. There are two observatory decks – one at the north tower and one at the south. Here’s a view from the 45th floor, I can’t remember from which tower though.
View from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building is at:
2-8-1, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
Open 9:30am to 11:00pm (South Tower closes at 5:30pm)
Nearest station: Tochomae
Next, we discovered host bars at the red light district of Kabukicho (Tokyo Day 8 Part 2).
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Filed in: asia, japan, journal, tokyo
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[...] our tour of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (Tokyo Day 8 Part 1), we wandered around Tokyo’s red light district, Kabukicho. aKabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo, [...]