Tokyo Sky Tree

One of the big events of this year was the opening of Tokyo Sky Tree, now the tallest building in Japan (and apparently the second-tallest building in the world, at the time of writing this). This tower opened in May and has attracted hordes of tourists ever since. it can be seen from many places around Tokyo, and is quite near Asakusa - you can walk there from Asakusa (takes about 20 minutes) or take a train from Asakusa. From Azumabashi (near Asakusa station) you can get a good view of it:

At the base of the Tree is a quite good shopping mall and an aquarium. When I got there, it was an average Monday, and the Tree had been open for over 4 months, so I didn't expect it to be crowded. Walking into the mall, I had one of my 'yikes, there are a lot of people' moments. (These moments are pretty frequent in Japan. Depending on my mood at the time, my reaction ranges from a mild 'gee, there are a lot of people' to 'oh God what fresh hell is this').

I did like wandering around the mall though. One store that amused me (and a lot of other people judging by the number of people trying to wedge their way through) was a food sample store on the fourth floor. You know those plastic samples of food you see in restaurant windows, to get an idea of what dishes you can order? You can buy your own. Expensive but diverting to look through.

I didn't end up going up the Tree, since there was a pretty lengthy queue, but I had a nice view of it from the base. I could have bought one of about a thousand different souvenirs of it, but to be honest, although it's impressive to see, it's really not that beautiful a building to have on a postcard or box of cookies.