Roppongi Hills is a “futuristic micro-city” that was built in Roppongi (Tokyo) in 2003. The complex has more tha 800 apartments, Livedoor, Yahoo Japan, Lehman Brothers, Rakuten, Konami and Goldman Sachs offices, a cinema, a hotel, bars and luxurious restaurants, a museum, a TV studio, gardens, a gym, a shopping area etc. All you need to live compressed in various towers, the main one is the Mori Tower that has 54 floors. It seems a convenient place to live but living there would cost you an arm and a leg, 100 square meters rental it’s about 10.000$~20.000$. The construction of Roppongi Hills was a changer, it reactivated the financial activity in Roppongi and brought many business from Shinjuku (Businessweek article from 2002).
If you travel to Japan, here there is a map with the most interesting places to visit in Roppongi Hills.
More detailed maps here and here.
Blue circles are the best exits from Roppongi station if you want to go to Roppongi Hills. But you can also go to Roppongi using Oedo line and then take exit 7. If you love architecture you will love Roppongi Hills and you will spend a long time enjoying it, if not maybe just with one hour you will have enough to grasp the essence of the area. Add one extra hour if you go to up to the Tokyo City View and the Mori Art Museum
1.- The giant spider: is a sculpture made by Louise Bourgeois. I love the eggs detail.
2.- Muesum: on the top floor there is a panoramic city view and a museum. If it’s a clear day you will even be able to see Mount Fuji.
3.- Cinema: interesting if you are living in Tokyo. You can make reservations from the web or from your keitai.
4.- TV Asahi and Doreamon shop: next to the Mori Tower there is a huge TV studio owned by Asahi TV. Inside the building there is a shop full of Doreamon merchandising.
5.- Heartland bar: it’s a ‘classic’ bar. It’s a meeting point to have the first beer of the night. It’s located below Zara.
6.- Garden: is specially beautiful with night illumination.
The Mori Tower is more than 200 meters tall, but the most impressing feature is how wide it is.
The giant spider(Number 1 in the map)
Below the spider.
Map of the first floors. It’s really complex!
Mori museum entrance (Number 2 in the map)
Asahi TV studio and Tokyo Tower in the horizon (Number 4 in the map)
Tokyo Tower taken from Roppongi Hills.
