day 1 (part 2)

Leaving off from the afternoon (found here) we headed toward Tokyo Skytree. This amazing communications tower was opened to the public in May of this year and has broken the record as the world's tallest tower. Tokyo has other communications towers, including the Tokyo Tower, which was fashioned after the Eiffel Tower in Paris. As the city's skyscrapers grew taller and taller, the communications towers were rendered useless. Tokyo needed to construct a tower that would reach above the skyline; thus, Skytree.

The building itself is a beautiful, cylindrical structure with the base of a tripod. Spanning 2,080 feet, it's the tallest tower and second tallest man-made structure in the world.

Surrounding Tokyo Skytree is a mall and aquarium. There was a Ghibli store, which I was extremely excited about (alas, no KiKi iPhone covers there, either). We made our way up to Skytree, snapping pictures along the way.

The elevator ride up to the first observation deck (350 meters/1,148 feet) was surprisingly smooth. The elevator was decorated with sparkling lights and was exciting to watch as we scaled the building.

The views from Skytree were amazing - I've seen Tokyo from the air before and still can't get over how enormous the city really is.

After Skytree we headed back to the hotel to drop off our belongings and then strolled through Ginza on the way to the Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. We saw many high-end shops (including 3 Tiffany and Company locations, the Tokyo Apple flagship store, and Cartier.)

The Alice restaurant was awesome! The servers dressed as Alice and had purses in the shapes of clocks and Cheshire cats. The booths and tables all fit the Alice theme, and ranged from booths lined with playing cards to a giant teacup. Even the menu was delightful, with a pop-up drink menu. The drink coasters were playing cards and there was a bell on the table that we could use to ring for our Alice-dressed server to help us. There is even a section near the back of the menu for ordering an Alice outfit for yourself! We had a great time during our stay in Wonderland; it made a great end to a fun-filled day.