Akabanebashi
Akabanebashi
Station lies on the Toei
Oedo subway line in the Minato Ward
of Tokyo. Even though Oedo is the
only subway line stopping here,
Akabanebashi is a busy station as
it is the closest station to one
of Tokyo's most popular landmarks,
the Tokyo Tower.
Tokyo
Tower:
Tokyo
Tower is only a 5-minute walk away
from Akabanebashi Station. Built
in 1958, this 333-meter high tower
is 13 meters higher than its model,
the Eiffel Tower, but 43% lighter
in weight. Tokyo Tower is the world's
tallest self-supporting steel tower
in the world and serves as both
a TV and FM radio broadcasting tower
as well as a tourist attraction,
attracting over 3 million visitors
a year.
The
Main Observatory is
located at 150 meters of the Tokyo
Tower. From here you get an unblocked
bird's eye view of the city, with
signposts telling you about its
main features. There are also coin-operated
binoculars and touch-screen displays.
The Main Observatory also has a
lower floor with an added attraction
of glassed-over holes in the floor
150 meters to the ground below.
There is also a café, a souvenir
shop, and a small Shinto shrine
on this lower floor. Another 100
meters up from the Main Observatory
is the Special Observatory.
At 250 meters, you can
get a better view of the city, and
of Mount Fuji if weather conditions
are good.
On
the third floor of the Tower are
the Wax Museum ,
the Guinness World Records
Museum and the Holographic
Mystery Zone . All the
three are worth a visit. Of special
mention is the part of the Wax Museum
called the ‘Inventions for
the Electric Guitar' . This
shrine to rock and roll has iconic
collections of rock posters, books,
cassettes, and all other kinds of
rock memorabilia besides the wax
figures of all prominent rock and
rollers.
The
second floor of the Tokyo Tower
is the restaurant and food court
with innumerable eating joints.
The first floor houses the Aquarium
, which features a wide
variety of fish from all over the
world.
The
Tokyo Tower has often been used
in cinema as a cliché, the
most prominent being in the movie
King Kong Escapes . This
popular movie has made Tokyo Tower
a household name the world over.
According to the story, an evil
genius creates a robotic Kong to
dig Element X, a highly radioactive
element. When it fails to do so,
they kidnap the real King Kong and
hypnotize him to dig the element.
King Kong soon snaps out of the
hypnosis and escapes to Tokyo. To
get him back, the evil genius re-activates
the mechanical Kong, and a raging
battle ensues between the two Kongs
atop the Tokyo Tower.
Banks