Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower: One to Look Out From, One to Look At

Skytree is for looking out over Tokyo; Tokyo Tower is for looking at the tower itself. Start below it, at Zojoji, where the orange tower rises behind the temple roof, and then, on a weekend, climb its outdoor stairs, about 600 steps up through the steel, rather than ride the elevator. On the stairs the paint is within arm’s reach, and what gets me is that each time the tower is repainted, every stroke goes on by hand, with a brush, in the early-morning hours before it opens.

If you can, do both on the same day and in that order: Skytree first, when it tends to be less crowded and, in the cold months, gives you a good chance of Mt. Fuji, and Tokyo Tower in the afternoon, before its stairs close to climbers.

Skytree: looking out over an old province

I love that Skytree’s height is a pun. The tower was first planned lower and was finalized at 634 meters, a number that can be read “mu-sa-shi,” for Musashi, the old province that took in Tokyo and parts of Saitama and Kanagawa. So when you stand at the windows, you are looking out over land that was once part of Musashi.

The first deck you reach, the Tembo Deck, has a glass floor you can stand on with an ordinary ticket. Picture the streets of Oshiage directly under your shoes, and decide then whether you want more. You do not have to choose the upper level in advance: if the view grabs you, buy the Tembo Galleria ticket at the machines on the Tembo Deck the same day, unless it is too crowded to sell, and walk up a glass-walled ramp toward the top floor.

If you are hoping for Mt. Fuji, come in the cold months, when the air tends to be clearer, and go up as early as you can; Skytree says the chance is high on clear, cold days and in the early morning. Nothing guarantees it. On days when the cloud sits low, the official site says you may get a dreamlike view you can only have from up there, and sometimes the windows turn completely white.

Look at the tower itself on your way in, rather than heading straight for the elevator. It is not plain white: its color, called Skytree White, comes from the palest shade of traditional indigo dye, with a faint blue in it. The column at its center, which holds the emergency stairs, is built to work against the swaying in a big earthquake, and it is named after the central pillar of Japan’s five-storied pagodas, which have no record of falling in an earthquake.

At night Skytree is lit in a pale blue called Iki, after the surface of the Sumida River, or an Edo purple called Miyabi.

If you walk between Asakusa and Skytree, stop at Makurabashi bridge, where Sumida City says you can see Skytree reflected upside down in the river below.

Tokyo Tower: see it first from Zojoji

Take the subway across the city and start at Zojoji, the big temple at the tower’s foot, with the view Minato City picked for its collection of local landscapes: a temple roof in front and the orange tower rising behind it. Even the hill under the tower is older than it looks; Zojoji’s records call it Kannon Hill, where a stone Kannon was placed in the Kamakura period, and the statue now stands in the temple grounds.

Up the stairs

Before you climb, stand on the roof of Foot Town, the building at the tower’s base, and look straight up into the steel framework above you. On weekends and public holidays, Tokyo Tower opens its outdoor stairs from that roof to the Main Deck. It is a short climb. Imagine the city dropping away on one side, orange steel on the other, and the wind coming through the frame. The climb is included in the normal Main Deck ticket, and climbers receive a certificate.

Once you start, you cannot switch to the elevator halfway, so wear shoes you can climb in, and come on a dry day, because the stairs close in rain, storms and heat alerts.

Not quite red

Most people would call Tokyo Tower red and white. Strictly speaking it is International Orange and white, two colors that Japan’s aviation law requires on structures above a certain height.

The repainting comes round roughly every seven years and takes about a year, with scaffolding going up from the top down, and all of the work fits into the hours between sunrise and opening.

The two decks

The stairs bring you to the Main Deck, where a glass panel in the floor called the Skywalk Window lets you look straight down. If you want to go higher, book the Top Deck Tour ahead instead of hoping to buy it on the day; the Top Deck began as a work platform for maintaining the antennas.

After dark

If you can choose your evening, pick a Monday or Thursday. Tokyo Tower’s usual lights, the Landmark Light, change with the season: silver in summer, and from early October, the warm orange most people picture. On those two evenings, from eight to ten, the tower switches to the Infinity Diamond Veil, a pattern of colored LEDs whose color changes every month, and on the hour after sunset the upper part sparkles white for a couple of minutes. The lights normally go out at midnight, and there is a local legend that couples who watch them go out together will be happy.

Before you go

Checked 23 October 2026.

What I would do

I would be at Skytree when it opens on a clear winter weekend, then cross the city to Zojoji and climb Tokyo Tower’s stairs before they close, with the orange steel close enough to touch.