I was reading the International Herald Tribune and found an interesting article on Tokyo Tower. In it, a professor emeritus of history at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi University, Masanori Nakamura, states, “Tokyo Tower stood for a dream of the future, but that dream is gone. Tokyo Tower offers no more dreams, just as Japan has no more dreams.” Ouch! I’m not sure if I completely disagree, but I don’t completely agree either.

This article, coupled with a request to include more pictures, made me think about some Tokyo Tower pictures I’ve had sitting around in my archives.

Climbing the tower to the first observatory level,

The elevator is the very idea of modern,

The view from the top is impressive,

I also had some black and white pictures I shot on film (remember film?) last year.

An uninspired tower photo,

A parking area under the tower for tour buses,

Resting quietly. Everyone else is inside,

There is a mini-amusement park on the way up. Why?

The elves are a little scary.

This character must be dangerous as it is fenced in. Is this Thomas?

Of course, Pikachu is obligatory.

Finally, who can resist their lovable mascots? You be the judge of what they look like. I have my ideas. Visit the Tokyo Tower website here to learn about the hobbies of the Noppon twins (the mascots are twin brothers – who knows why).