Kenzo Tange’s 243-meter twin-towered city hall, finished in 1991, was Tokyo’s tallest building for a decade and still looks like a cathedral assembled from microchips. Each tower has a free observation deck on the 45th floor, 202 meters up, with views across the skyscraper district to the Shinjuku Gyoen greenery, the Skytree and, on winter mornings, Fuji on the horizon. Since 2023 the facade itself has become a projection-mapping screen every evening after dark.
Go to the North deck, which stays open later, and time it for the half hour when the office towers switch their lights on. It is the best free view in a city where most observation decks cost 2,000 yen or more, and the ground-floor plaza is worth a walk for the scale alone.
Tips
- Arrive 45 minutes before sunset to see the city in daylight, at dusk and lit up, all for free
- Mount Fuji appears on clear days from December to February, to the west, from the South deck
- There is a bag check and a short queue at the ground-floor elevator; the cafe upstairs is an ordinary one