Sunshine City
This huge complex is both a shopping and entertainment Mecca with four towers including a 240 high skyscraper with observation deck on the top. The tower building, which is actually the second highest building in Tokyo, comprises of office space a lyceum hosting many events and entertainment programs and a large hotel The Sunshine City Prince Hotel. The lower levels are a monstorous maze of shops and tourist attractions.
The lift to the tower alone is an attraction in it’s self, being the fastest in the world taking only thirty five seconds to reach to top, but the highlight would have to be the illuminated dolphins and unicorns, ambient music and beautifuly dressed lift operators making the trip to the top an interesting journey.
The centre opening in 1978 is Tokyo’s oldest “City within a City” It was and sits on land that was once occupied by Sugamo Prison. it is typically open from 10 am to 10 pm seven days a week.
The Sunshine International Aquarium is a popular attraction where there are plenty of great underwater exhibits to entertain the whole family. There are the usual sharks, stingrays, tropical fish and sea life, but the most popular exhibits are the pengins, seals and sea otters which are well worth the entry fee. The aquarium sits on the 10th Floor, which gives it the title of the worlds highest aquarium. (you have got to wonder), but the 20000 odd fish dont seem to mind.
There are feedings every hour and one of the largest tanks holds over 120 tons of wter. The seals do performances during the day with extra shows on weekends and holdiays.
Another great family attraction is the Planetarium, where you can learn about the solar system and the universe. The Cosmic Safari takes visitors on a jorney to see the wonders in outerspace.
The Bunka Kaikan buiding is home to the Ancient Orient Musem which has an amazing collection of artifacts and is well worth a look.
The Sunshine City complex is also home to the Namco Nanja Town which is a collection of food theme parks and other interesting dining establishments and part of the Sunshine 60 complex. The centre has a series of kittens as mascots and there are plenty of them to choose in the gift shop. Some of the food parks include the Cup Ice Museum, Dessert Garden as well as the Tokyo Dessert Republic. Then for the Gyoza lover there is Ikebukuro Gyoza stadium and the list goes on – there are dozens of tasty attractions. There is a small fee to enter the complex then the fun begins. Make sure you go hungry as there is so much to try and two jammed packed floors of food and adventure.
One store no visitor to Japan should miss is Tokyu Hands, a cross between a hardware store and a hobby shop its a great place for gift shopping as many of the items for sale cant be found outside Japan. Tokyu Hands has several branches across the country but their Sunshine City store is one of their larger stores and also has a rather odd attraction known as Nekobukuro. Nekobukuro is basically a room full of cats to the side of the 8th floor pet depatment, the idea is when you dont have room for your own cat (neko in Japanese) at home you can come to Nekobukuro and pay to pat one of the cats there.
The complex is very easy to get to by rail its about 8 min walk from JR subway Ikebukuro Stn; 3 min walk from subway Higashi-Ikebukuro Stn.
For more information visit the offical website http://www.sunshinecity.co.jp/
