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Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, everything that’s wonderful… Alright, I’ll stop. Just had a lalala moment when thinking about my visit to Sunshine City. It’s a multi-use building complex located in Ikebukuro of Tokyo, equipped with an observation deck on the 60th floor, shopping mall, restaurants, indoor theme park, aquarium, and lots of other fun things. How fitting to call it Sunshine City.
To get to Sunshine City, you simply take the metro that will get you to Ikebukuro Station and within the station, identify arrows and signs that lead to the building. Despite getting lost multiple times in Tokyo, I find getting to Sunshine City hassle-free.
This visit to Sunshine City was mainly to look out the observation deck. I was particularly interested to see what it was like given the tight-knitted nature of Tokyo, the highways that crisscross from high up, or the lack of space. More interestingly, how the population of 13 million fit in this relatively tiny city. I wondered quite a bit.
First of all, I needed to find my way to the elevator that would bring me up to the deck. Again I followed signs after I entered the building. There are personnel at some counters that should know enough English to be able to assist you. When I got to the elevator, I saw many school kids lining up to get in for a school excursion to the observation deck. And because of that, I assume it took me longer than usual to board the elevator.
The elevator ride was quite fun. They have elevator ladies whose job is to hold the doors, push the button, and keep visitors company when riding the elevator. The best part was once the doors closes, music and a light show comes on. The kids that rode the elevator with me were wowing the whole ride. In fact, I was wowing too. It kept us entertained throughout the ride. The elevator also went as fast as 36km/h so your ears might hurt!
I went crazy with the camera on the observation deck. It’s basically an indoor loop around the 60th floor with lots of large windows. I saw soccer fields on top of buildings and famous structures like Tokyo Dome. It was an eye-opening experience that I recommend to visitors interested in a different visual of the city. Though you should know this is a hugely biased suggestion because I took a city studies course in school and developed interests for topics surrounding urban spaces and sustainability. Tokyo is particularly interesting to me because it has one of the highest densities in the world among cities.
Many of the school kids were also doing busy observing, learning, and writing things down. I wonder if any of them are going to be urban planners in the future because I hope somebody can come fix the transportation problems in Toronto for good, among other things. Inside the observation deck area are also snack shops and art displays. You can get a painting of yourself too, for fun. So that’s the general idea. If you’ve been to other parts of Sunshine City, let me know what neat things you saw. Cheers!
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