Monday, February 27, 2012

Sky Garden @ Yokohama Landmark Tower (横浜ランドマークタワースカイガーデン)


Sky Garden is located at the 69th floor of the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. To go there, one can get off at Sakuragicho station (桜木町駅) of the JR Keihin Tohoku/Neigishi Line (京浜東北線・根岸線) - like what we did, the Sakuragicho station of the Yokohama Municipal Subway Blue Line (横浜市営地下鉄ブルーライン), or the Minatomirai station (みなとみらい駅) of the Minatomirai Line (みなとみらい線).

From JR Sakuragicho station exit, escalators can easily be spotted on the left side, right beside Colette Mare. Take this escalator up and go on towards the walkalators. These will take you directly to the entrance of the Sky Garden, the observation deck of the Yokohama Landmark Tower. Get your ticket at the entrance for 1,000円/pax using the ticket vending machine, then get in line to ride the once world's fastest elevator that will take you to the 69th floor.







The observatory features a 360-degree view of Yokohama in 4 viewing decks, though you can also see other landmarks like the Tokyo Tower (東京タワー) and Mt. Fuji (富士山). It also seemed like a lot of people wait here for the sunset, and not just tourists, but also locals. The night view of the city was also very nice. Each deck has its own "viewing guide" that shows you the direction of the famous landmarks that can be seen from that deck.










There's also a cafe and souvenir shops in the observatory, though we didn't try the cafe. My wife bought some Yokohama chocolates from the souvenir shop and she said they're really good. There are also lots of things to do after visiting the Landmark Tower because it's already in the center of Yokohama, but that's a different story altogether.






Yokohama Landmark Tower official website

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Sentosa


We went to Sentosa with the sole purpose of enjoying in Universal Studios Singapore. Much to our surprise, the tickets were sold out, and we didn't know that we could have, or that we should have reserved tickets. Anyway, enough of this unfortunate situation and on with why I blog here.

We stayed near Aljunied station of the East West line, so from that station, we took the said line until Outram Park station. From there, we transferred to the North East line going to Harbour Front station. In Harbour Front is Vivo City, the mall that also houses the Sentosa station of the Sentosa Express. To get to Universal Studios, we took Sentosa Express and got off at Waterfront Station. We took some pictures and went to the ticket booth to buy our tickets. Then it hit us.



Having so much time that should have been for the theme park, we decided to just kill that time going around Sentosa. We rode the Sentosa Express again and hopped off at Beach station. From there, we rode the beach trains or trams that people use to move around the beaches.

Beach station and people waiting for the beach train

A beach train

Not a beach train









Because of what happened in Universal Studios, our energy went down and we didn't get off at any stop of the tram, we just rode one until we got back to Beach station, then road another one going to the opposite direction until we had another round-trip. After seeing Siloso beach and Palawan beach, we decided to walk towards the big Merlion. The Imbiah station was also near the Merlion, so after taking a few more pictures, we got on the Sentosa Express again going back to Vivo City and back to the city.



So before going to USS, make sure to get your tickets here (there may be other sites, but as I've said, I didn't, and still don't know). I need to do more research next time.