Off-the-beaten-tourist-track observatory tower in Tokyo has great views of the city…for free!

A tower that’s also a hall, and a ship.

You haven’t really seen Tokyo until you’ve seen it from above. The scale of Japan’s capital city is just too massive to really get a sense of from ground level.

For most people looking to get a bird’s-eye view, the obvious choices are to head to the Skytree or Tokyo Tower, and Tocho (the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building) has plenty of fans too. However, those spires’ fame means that in addition to seeing the view, you’re probably going to be seeing some big crowds, so we were happy to stumble across a little-known Tokyo observation tower that’s off the beaten tourist track in the Funabori neighborhood on the east outskirts of downtown.

Right across the street from Funabori Station on the Shinjuku subway line is Tower Hall Funabori. “Tower” and “hall” usually imply opposite shapes, and to make things even more complex, Tower Hall Funabori is shaped in way that’s meant to resemble a boat with a tall mast.

We can explain. See, Tower Hall Funabori, which was built in 1993, is what’s called a “kumin (ward residents) hall.” These structures have concert halls, auditoriums, and/or galleries to be used for local events, generally cultural activities that aren’t of a big enough scale to warrant a full-sized stadium venue. But because the Funabori neighborhood’s roots go back to boatmen who worked on the nearby Arakawa River back in the Edo period, the designers decided to incorporate that cultural heritage into its visual design, hence the boat shape.

On the first seven floors of the complex you’ll find various conference rooms, exhibition halls, and even a medical center, plus a movie theater and restaurant. Where we’re headed today, though, is the observatory, 103 meters (337.9 feet) up in the sky!

Getting up there requires two elevator rides, but we didn’t mind the extra step because admission to Tower Hall Funabori’s observatory is completely free. After the first elevator took us to the seventh floor, we followed the sign (written in both Japanese and English) to the observation tower entrance elevator.

Inside this second elevator is a display showing your current altitude and the speed you’re ascending at. Also, as a touch of old-school hospitality, there’s an attendant inside the elevator handling the controls, who greeted us with a polite “Allow me to guide you up to the 103-meter observatory.”

And once we got off the elevator…

…the view was wonderful!

Arriving before noon on a weekday, we had the place almost entirely to ourselves. The panoramic windows let you look out in every direction, but our eyes were especially drawn to the west, where we could see Mt. Fuji emerging from behind the skyscraper skyline in the morning mist.

Watching trains running along their tracks down below and planes landing and taking off at Haneda Airport gave us the surreal joy of feeling like we were looking at a model set come to life, and to the south we could see all the way to the Ferris wheel of Kasai Rinkai Park and Tokyo Disneyland.

So yes, Tower Hall Funabori is worth checking out, despite being a little out of the way compared to Tokyo’s more famous observation towers…or maybe because it’s out of the way, if you’re looking to avoid crowds. The observatory is accessible between 9 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., so we’re guessing it’s also a great spot to see the city lit up at night from too, and if you want to catch a glimpse of Tokyo Disneyland’s fireworks shows.

Tower information
Tower Hall Funabori / タワーホール船堀
Address: Tokyo-to, Edogawa-ku, Funabori 4-1-1
東京都江戸川区船堀4-1-1
Website

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