A day trip 350 meters into the sky

Since today is Veterans' Day in the US it was a holiday for me.  I thought all the Japanese would be working and so it would be a great day to go to Skytree Tower in Tokyo, one of the busiest tourist attractions in Japan.  Apparently, all Japanese (and quite a few Chinese) get Veterans' Day off too because they were ALL at Tokyo Tower.  We went to where we thought tickets were sold but they gave us a piece of paper that said we now had the right to come back two hours later to get in line to purchase a ticket.

Rather than spend time in the shopping hell of Tobu's Skytree complex we walked to Kameido Tenjin (Shrine) to see the Drum Bridge - an arched wooden bridge very famous in Japanese paintings.  On Friday I had bought a woodblock print of this very bridge and wanted to see it for myself.  While the bridge pictured in my woodblock print was burned up in the bombings of 1945 the reconstruction is nearly the same - except with steps.  I'd like to come back to this shrine when the wisteria bloom.

Back at Skytree we got in line for the 30-minute wait to buy $20 tickets for the 350 meter level and then waited another 20 minutes for the perfunctory security check and the elevators.  Finally at the top we were disappointed to realize it turned into a hazy (or polluted) day with barely enough clarity to see downtown Tokyo much less Mt. Fuji.  Nevertheless, we made the most of it and enjoyed the views for about 40 minutes before heading down and into the Hanzomon Line subway for the trip back to Akasaka.  Was it worth $20 per person and 4 hours?  Not really - but if it's on your bucket list, like it was mine, you gotta do it.