You can go up either of the two towers, both are 243metres high over 48 floors and offer panoramic views of the city – and both are open until 11pm and are heavy with gift shops and souvenirs.

In front of the building is a big empty forecourt which looks like it’s waiting for something and is decorated sparsely with a few statues.

You’re allowed to take as many photos as you like but you’re not allowed to set up a tripod.

Written by  Kat Mackintosh.

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Photo of George Monkhouse

Tokyo City Hall

This massive structure houses the Governor and Metropolitan Assembly, similar to the GLA in London, as well as an army of bureaucrats, dominating the central Tokyo skyline. Despite the colossal scale of the buildings themselves, only three years of construction were required. Designed by Kenzo Tange, one of Japan’s most eminent architects, it is a defined modernist structure that makes use of its angular contours to impose dominance over its surroundings. The building was designed to resemble a computer chip, mixed with symbolism to suggest the reverence of a Gothic cathedral. Tange is Japan’s answer to Britain’s Lord Norman Foster, having won the Pritzker Prize for his contribution to Tokyo’s development.

 
Review posted 12th July 2007 by George Monkhouse.

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