Skytree is taller. Shibuya Sky has the better outdoor deck. Tokyo Tower is still the one you can't stop looking at.
Tokyo Tower was built in 1958 and for decades it was the tallest structure in Japan, a steel lattice painted in international orange and white to comply with aviation regulations. It looks like the Eiffel Tower's more confident younger sibling: narrower, brighter, and lit at night in a way that makes it visible from most of the city. When Skytree opened in 2012 at nearly twice the height, Tokyo Tower became the old one — but it didn't become the less interesting one.
Why It Holds Up
The Skytree experience is impressive in scale and very modern. You queue, you take a lift, you look out from an enclosed platform at an enormous view. It's efficient. Tokyo Tower is different — there's a warmth to the structure itself that you feel when you're standing underneath it. The steel legs spread out from the ground at a human scale, close enough to touch, and the whole thing tapers up through the Tokyo sky in a way that reads as almost organic against the geometry of the surrounding buildings.
Standing directly below it and looking up — which is the best thing you can do at Tokyo Tower — is one of those moments in Tokyo that catches you off guard. You've seen pictures. You think you know what it looks like. The actual size of the thing only lands when you're under it.
The Neighbourhood
Tokyo Tower sits in Shiba-koen, a park district in Minato ward that most tourists pass through without stopping. This is a mistake. Zojo-ji temple is directly next to the tower — a Jōdo-sect Buddhist temple with a gate dating from 1622 that you can walk through for free. The contrast between the sixteenth-century temple gate and the mid-century tower behind it is the kind of thing Tokyo does effortlessly: ancient and modern, just coexisting without comment.
The area is considerably quieter than Shibuya or Shinjuku. The konbini down the street from the south entrance has a rooftop terrace — impractically small, but if you buy a coffee and sit there you'll have Tokyo Tower to yourself in a way you can't manage anywhere closer.
Going Up
The observation deck at 150 metres costs ¥1,200. The top deck at 250 metres is an additional ¥700. For a first-time visit, the main deck is enough — the Tokyo skyline is the view and you get that from 150 metres. The real reason to go up is the glass floor panels in the main deck, which are either a delight or completely inadvisable depending on how you feel about heights. They're worth the moment of mild panic.
Walk to it, stand under it, look up. Then go into Zojo-ji. Then go up if you want the view. It's half a day in a part of Tokyo most visitors skip and it's better than most of what's on the standard itinerary.