Thank you for people who came here.

And welcome to everyone who planto come Akihabara.

If you have some questiions, please ask us!!

If you have a chance to come to Akihabara, please stop by here.

We take you the place where you want to go at Akihabara free,

and we will put on various costumes every time!!

Need more details?  Come to the information center.

You can find it in front of the “Takarada Musen” which is near JR 電気街口(denkigai guchi) .

 We open this information center on Saturday and Sunday.

↓↓　This is a landmark of the information center.

Why don’t you enjoy Akihabara with us?!

● Why 634 meters?

That’s partly because they want to build a higher tower than the TV tower, which is scheduled for completion at the end of this year in Guangzhou, China. It will be 610 meters tall.

The other reason is how to read the number “634″.

6 can be pronounced as “mu”, 3 can be pronounced as “sa”, 4 can be pronounced as “shi” in Japanese. So 634 can be pronounced “Musashi”, which means the area extending from Saitama, to Tokyo, to Kanagawa. And the Sky Tree will be stood in the area where is formerly known as Musashi.

You’ll be able to command a panoramic view of Musashi from the tower. As soon as you visit its observatory, the scene of Edo period streets will come out in front of you. And your heart will go out to the Tokyo’s history… They put that much ardor in the number of “634″.

● Tourism department will launch.

Sumida-ku, a factory town which is located at the foot of the Sky Tree. Its local block associations, business entities and those who are in charge of political affairs have been having a monthly meeting. They discuss the tower-centered regional revitalization project. The construction of the Sky Tree began in July 2008. Sumida-ku expects that the annual number of visitors will be 552 million and it will generate 88 billion yen (approximately US$880 million).

Sumida-ku carried out a questionnaire survey through internet last year and As many as 80% of respondents answered that they would like to visit the tower at least once.

Then the regional government became serious about attracting tourists. Sumida-ku will establish the tourism department in its city office this coming April. Also they are planning to build a memorial hall which commemorates Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai is an internationally-respected Edo Period ukiyo-e master who was born in that region.

● A map for construction workers.

The chamber of regional revitalization made maps for tower construction workers. Those maps contain information about local restaurants and are put in a corner of a building office. Workers can go home with copies. What a good arrangement it is!

● Fanzine “Sky Tree Report”

A magazine with pictures of a construction site has been published.

You can enjoy seeing the tower’s “growth record” by reading it. There are pictures that was photographed the site from a number of angles. Also it tells you good photo spots to film the tower under construction.

That magazine is edited by a man who used to live another area in Tokyo. He moved to Sumida-ku because he wanted to see whole process of the tower construction. He’s going to sell some copies at Tokyo Anime Fair at the end of this March.

● The mascot character of Sky Tree

A tourism information center was set up near the tower site. It’s called “Oshinari-kun No Ie” (“Oshinari’s House”).

What’s Oshinari? It’s a Mascot character of the Sky Tree. It promotes the tower district called Oshiage and Narihira-bashi.

Local volunteer staff are stationed in Oshinari’s House and they serve you free green tea and cold water, paid coffee, beer and refreshments. You can see progress situation there and they give out local restaurant maps and free information magazines. You can take a rest and gather informations about local shopping areas at Oshinari’s House.

*** Oshinari’s profile ****

<What’s “Oshinari”?>

“Oshinari” represents “Oshiage” and “Narihira-bashi”, the tower district. Its name consists of the initial Chinese characters of those place-names (Oshi: 押, Nari; 業).

<Concept of this character>

Oshinari is designed to look like Ariwarano Narihira, which is responsible for its name. Narihira is a poet from the Heian period, about a thousand years ago. It wears an ancient style hat inspired by the tower.

<His bio>

Born at Oshinari’s House and raised in the tower district.

<Character>

Cheerful, vital and genuine.

<Hobby>

Writing Japanese poems (waka), Playing with cats in a shopping area

<Favorite food>

Inari-zushi (a type of sushi), dango (Japanese dumpling), shijimi (basket clam… a kind of shellfish)

Tokyo Sky Tree is very accessible from both Narita and Haneda Airport. Local residents, so called “Edokko” (true-born Tokyoites or people who were born in downtown Tokyo) welcome you with their sophisticated hospitality. We Japanese treasure conformity (和; wa) and a circle of people (輪; wa). We take a great deal of “wa” (conformity and a circle of people) so we respect cultural diversity.

Welcome to the Tokyo Sky Tree!

View Tokyo Sky Tree in a larger map

Pokemon characters on bento

Housewives make bentoes for their children but many kids tend to hate green peppers or carrots. So mothers had to exercise wisdom to encourage them to eat food like those kinds of vegetables.

Then finally they found the way. They started to put cartoon (or anime) character-shaped foodstuffs on bentoes and kids got excited at them. It may be no exaggeration to say that mothers have revolutionized the way of making bentoes.

Black Jack

Portrait of kabuki actor

In Akihabara, you can learn how to make Chara-ben in the French language! The Institute of Creative Industries and Culture (ICIC) will have a Chara-ben workshop in this coming March. “Obento” is experiencing a boom in France now.

*For more details, please look at; http://www.icic.jp/workshop/cat/o/000117.html (Japanese)

Akihabara is truly the “facility” to offer cutting-edge information!

We are the organization called “Akibaland Tours” who gives guided tours to you, Akiba lovers from abroad. 
We give you trilingual tours in English, Chinese and Japanese. No other tours will do that.
Moreover, our guides are all COSPLAYERS!! 

Akihabara is the 3D wonderland where popped up from Anime or manga to the real world. 
You can gather cutting-edge informations there. 

So let’s enjoy Akihabara together! Akihabara ni oide yo! 

*For more details, please look at our website; http://www.akiba-tour.com