Interesting facts about the tallest tower in Japan

The amount of steel to build the Tokyo Skytree TV tower is equivalent to 200 cargo planes.

After opening its doors in 2012, Tokyo Skytree has become the top spot of interest in the Japanese capital. Located in the Sumida district, the 634 m high tower is the tallest building in the country of the rising sun and ranks first among the tallest TV towers on the planet.

Since Tokyo has many 200-meter-high buildings in the center, it is imperative to build a 600-meter-tall television tower for broadcasting.

The construction plan for this project started in February 2005, invested by Tobu Railway Company, and designed by Nikken Sekkei architecture. To deal with the frequent earthquakes, they applied construction techniques like the Horyuji Temple in the ancient capital Nara. This 5-storey building has stood for more than 1,300 years with a central core pillar.

Engineers also dropped weather balloons to an altitude of 600 meters to collect data on the wind speed and the risk of disturbances at that altitude. The shock gauge at a depth of 3 km was set up to understand the soil type and what would happen if an earthquake occurred.

According to the original design, the building will be 610 m high. However, to ensure this will be the tallest TV tower in the world, the number 634 m was given. The Guinness World Record was awarded to the Tokyo Skytree on November 17, 2011 in the category of the tallest (non-building) tower in the world.

In addition, the number 634 pronounced in the old Japanese word mu-sa-shi evokes the name of ancient Musashi prefecture covering an area including Tokyo, Saitama prefecture and parts of Kanagawa prefecture.

Tokyo Skytree is painted in white and floats against the blue sky of the capital. When painting the tower, the engineers added a bit of Aijiro – the brightest shade of traditional Japanese indigo blue, like white porcelain. At night, the tower is illuminated in different colors with different themes.

Tokyo Skytree inaugurated after nearly 4 years of construction, from 7/2008 to 2/2012. If you walk up the tower, you will have to climb 2,523 stairs. About 36,000 tons of steel were used to build the tower, equivalent to the weight of 200 Jumbo Jet cargo planes. The area of both observatories on the tower can accommodate 2,900 people. Many parties held here bring a different atmosphere in the middle of the cloud.

Tokyo Skytree is open from 8 to 10 pm, the most crowded time is usually in the morning or early afternoon. Ticket price to the 350 floor is 2,060 yen (438,000 VND), to go to the 450 floor, you spend 1,030 yen (220,000 VND). Drink prices from 450 yen (about 90,000 VND).

If the weather is fine, you can see the top of Mount Fuji on the horizon. Screens longer than 5 m for close-up shots of buildings and locations below allow visitors to interact (zoom in, zoom out, choose to open detailed historical information…).

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