Tokyo skyscraper district located in the West of Shinjuku station and was the home to many Tokyo’s tallest buildings. It was amazing and the most busy area of Tokyo where located the building of most powerful companies in Tokyo. Coming here, many people could admire the architecture of tall buildings as well as a perfect landscape, road and subway design.
Washington Shinjuku hotel was one of the tall buildings in the center of the district with 25 floors and a basement of shops, restaurants, convenient stores and subways. While staying in the hotel, I had chances to see the skyscraper district day and night and to visit it whenever I wanted. While there were a lot of people working in this district, it was not a noisy area. In contrast, the district was safe, peaceful, well-organized and had no traffic jams. This was because the district was accessible from a complex subway system that links with all directions. There were not many people walking on the street day and night. There were normally taxis, buses, and transportation vehicles on the five-level streets surrounded the district.
The most important building in the district was Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office (in Japanese it is called Tocho 都庁) which was in front of Washington Shinjuku hotel. Tocho was a twin tower of 243m tall surrounded by many less tall buildings to make a complex of the offices and the assembly hall of Tokyo’s metropolitan government. There were two observatories in each tower at 45th floor. The observatories were open from 9.30 am until 11.00pm. The entrance of the observatories was free to public. However, there was a control of arms by the police before the elevators. The observatories had several transparent glass windows around the tower where visitors could observe Tokyo from the height of about 200m. If it was a clear day, visitors could see the Mont Fuji. There was a pizza restaurant and a souvenir shop in the observatory of the northern tower. A lot of visitors came a day to admire Tokyo day and night. They were from all over the world.
Surrounded Tocho were impressive buildings owned by banks, insurance companies, and other Japanese multi-national companies, luxury hotels and shopping malls. Among them were Hilton hotel, Hyatt hotel, Shinjuku central building, Nomura building, KDDI building, NS building, Keio Plaza, I-land Tower, I-Town Square, Shinjuku Park Tower, Mitsui building, Sompo Japan building, Sumitomo building, NTT building, L-tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishi-shinjuku) . These building had more than 45 floors and restaurants on the top. Each building had its own design and architecture of modern Japanese construction. Here, there were buildings of great anti-seism designs. Most buildings could resist to strong quakes.
Eating at a skyscraper restaurant at night or during the day was a fantastic experience. On July 1, 2007, I had a lunch at Duke restaurant (http://www.nomura-shop.com/restaurant/duke.html) on the 50th floor of Nomura building with my professor of Business Policy and a friend from Myanmar. We had Asahi beers and Japanese food. We enjoyed so much talking about how to start up a business and many other things about Japan while admiring Tokyo from the 50th floor. We saw air planes and helicopters on the sky. We saw people appearing and disappearing as sand particles moving on the ground. It was a beautiful day so we could see Tokyo Tower, the suburbs of Tokyo and the train network like a cobweb around Tokyo. It was a wonderful lunch.
As my hotel was in front of Tocho, I visited it whenever I wanted: daytime, nighttime, at weekends, at weekdays, on a nice day and on a rainy day. I normally went to the northern observatory to watch Tokyo. To me, watching busy Tokyo was an excellent way to relax. I had an amazing evening watching a heavy rain falling in the northern observatory. I saw rain drops falling down at high speed like many arrows come to a shield. I felt wet. Well it was not true. I remembered my childhood favorite: bathing in the rain. Suddenly, I recalled my hectic childhood. I’d loved the rain so much that whenever it had rained, I had come out and played and bathed in the rain. Rain drops had washed my body, my clothes, my hands and my foot so I had not had to bath before going to bed. It had been a stupid idea but I’d loved it so much. At least, I had done something different from my friends of the same age. Tocho became a place where I frequented alone or with friends. It was an entertainment place to me.
Shopping in subways of the skyscraper district was an excellent experience. There were a lot of small shops along all subways. I could shop 12 hours a day. There were lots of items such as clothes, perfumes, jewelries, shoes, handbags, make-ups, household products, cosmetics, decorative items, books, magazines, electronic products etc. When I felt hungry, I stopped at a rapid restaurant and took a lunch. When I was tired, I stopped at a vending machine and bought water or energized drinks. I could spend days and days shopping at underground shops. Light, music, people, convenience in subways lured me. I did not feel bored with shopping there. However, I did not buy much. I shopped to know what was on the market and what was different from my country. I shopped to understand Japanese customer behavior and trend. I shopped to learned how to sell and how to attract consumers. It was a part of my MBA program.
I loved this skyscraper district that had been constructed in 35 years starting from 1970. It was the face of Tokyo centering business, shopping and entertainment. It revealed the capacity of Japan to be the world’ leading construction technology. It was the modern life of Tokyo.
