Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Landmark Tower

We recently took a trip to Yokohama to visit the Minato Mirai 21 (MM21) waterfront area. This means port of the future and the city has renovated this old port area with high tech earthquake proof buildings and piers. The major attraction to this area is the Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan. When the building was completed it featured the world's fastest elevator at 750m/hr, but recently became only the second fastest elevator in the world. It was incredible as the elevator was a perfectly smooth and quiet ride to the 69th floor viewing area.


There are many other interesting buildings and styles of architecture to see from the top of the tower. The ones shown here are the convention center, the Minato Mirai Towers, the restored red brick warehouse, and the Yokohama Bay Bridge. This area is also the location of the world's tallest ferris wheel which happened to be closed the day we visited.
Our last stop was a tour of the sailing trainer ship, the Nippon Maru, also known as the Swan of the Pacific. The white sails are hoisted twice a year and this ship is part of the Maritime Museum of Yokohama.

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