At the top of Mori Tower, you can enjoy the best panoramic view from Tokyo City View and seasonal curated exhibitions at the Mori Art Museum.
We will share a travel guide for Roppongi shortly on the blog, before we do that we want to share this post on Tokyo City View, the Sky Deck, and Mori Art Museum at Mori Tower.
Nami and I have been to Roppongi Hills many times, the illumination around the area during the holiday time is worthy of the visit if you get the chance. Despite the number of visits we have taken to the area, we never visited Mori Art Museum or the Tokyo City View at top of Mori Tower. This past summer, we finally did as a family and it was a wonderful and memorable experience.
If you are not familiar with Mori Tower, it is a mixed-use building with retail and restaurants on the bottom 6 floors. Corporate offices take up the majority of the building and Tokyo City View and Mori Art Museum are located at the top.
Tokyo City View at Mori Tower
There are several places where visitors can take in the birds-eye view of Tokyo. Of those places, we have been to the top of TMG many times and also visited Tokyo Skytree a few years back. In our opinion. the views from Tokyo City View is probably the best of the three. Why?
- Roppongi is located closer to “center” of Tokyo than either TMG or Tokyo Skytree.
- There aren’t many tall buildings nearby blocking your views.
- You get to go outside onto the Skydeck!
- Adult ¥1,800 ($18)
- College and High School Students ¥1,200 ($12)
- Age 4 through Jr. High School Students ¥600 ($6)
- Senior (age 65+) ¥1,500 ($15)
Ready for some awe-inspiring views of Tokyo? Let’s go!
Tokyo City View ticket counter.
The first step, buy the tickets. We booked our hotel through booking.com and they had a discount QR code that was supposed to work. However, none of the ticket staff knew how to apply it and we ended up having to pay full price.
Elevator up to Tokyo City View on the 52nd floor.
After exiting the elevator, the view of Tokyo immediately grabbed our attention. On the day we visited, it was a beautiful clear day and you could see quite far away.
Tokyo City View is set up so visitors can walk around the perimeter of the building and see Tokyo from every angle.
We especially loved the view of Tokyo Tower.
View of Shibuya from Tokyo City View.
View of Shinjuku from Tokyo City View.
During our to Tokyo City View, the exhibition at Mori Art Museum was Japan in Architecture: Genealogies of Its Transformation. To complement the exhibition, there was a section with 3D models of buildings, pictures of them in real life, and diagrams of their drawings.
Towards the end, there was a cabinet with Nano Nano toys by Kouichi Miyajima on display.
$1,000 USD for the toy car?
Sky Deck at Tokyo City View – Mori Tower
Besides Tokyo City View, we paid an additional ¥500 ($5) so we can visit the Sky Deck.
Before going up Sky Deck, visitors are required to put bags and belongings in lockers. You can bring a camera with you.
So what is the Sky Deck? It’s basically the rooftop of the Mori Tower. To get there, you take a short elevator ride and walk through a pathway surrounded by industrial machinery.
Helipad on top of Mori Tower.
From the Sky Deck, you can take in truly unobstructed views of Tokyo, no glass, no steel barrier, just you and the city.
You walk around the perimeter of the building and there are a few observation decks where visitors can walk down and take photos.
Observation areas at Sky Deck.
View of Shibuya and Shinjuku from Sky Deck.
After spending a bit of time on the Sky Deck, it became uncomfortably hot so we headed down to the Mori Art Museum.
Mori Art Museum at Mori Tower
Mori Art Museum has seasonal exhibitions and during the time we visited the topic was Japan in Architecture. The theme traced the history of Japanese architecture from ancient times to today. The entrance fee of Mori Art Museum is included in Tokyo City View and vice versa.
Escalator to Mori Art Museum.
The topics the exhibition addressed.
KIGUMI INFINITY.
Diagram showing how KIGUMI INFINITY was built.
3D models of traditional Japanese wood architecture.
Replica of Sen-no-Rikyu’s Tai-an Tea House.
As we toured the various projects, the most memorable one was Experience Japanese Architecture to Scale in 3D. The project is located in a dark room where Japan spatial concepts were displayed with lazer fiber and 3D projection on the wall and screen.
The digital transformation of the room going from traditional Japanese to modern condos was really cool.
Between Tokyo City View and Mori Art Museum, we spent about 3 hours in Mori Tower. If you have limited time in Tokyo and want the best view of the city, we highly recommend stopping by Tokyo City View.
Mori Arts Center Gallery at Mori Tower
Not to be confused with the Mori Art Museum, on the same floor as Tokyo City View is the Mori Arts Center Gallery. The gallery exhibits works from museums around the world as well as from anime and manga. 2018 is the iconic Japanese comic magazine Jump’s 50th year. Mori Arts Center Gallery had a special exhibition on the various comics which we did not attend.
Mori Arts Center Gallery entrance fee is separate from Tokyo City View/Mori Art Museum.
After taking in the view from the top of Mori Tower, it’s time to roam around the rest of Roppongi. See you soon in our next travel post, Roppongi. In the meantime, here is what we have planned for our 2018 Summer Tokyo Series:
- Shinjuku 新宿
- Meiji Jingu 明治神宮
- Harajuku and Omotesando 原宿・表参道
- Shibuya 渋谷
- Roppongi Hills 六本木ヒルズ
- Tokyo Tower (update) 東京タワー
- Ginza 銀座
- Imperial East Garden 皇居東御苑
- Akihabara 秋葉原
- Ueno 上野
- Kappabshi かっぱ橋道具街
- Tokyo Dome City 東京ドームシティー
- Asakusa (update) 浅草
- Tokyo Sky Tree (update) 東京スカイツリー
- Odaiba お台場
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