Tokyo: Visiting “The Duplicates”

Marlistya Citraningrum | 07 May 2012 

While Japan is known for its grand temples, sakura, or Fuji Mountain; it is never harmful to explore other interesting but (slightly) less popular tourist attractions in the country. Tokyo, dubbed as the largest metropolitan area in the world, certainly drives lots of attention with its famous Harajuku area, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Hachiko statue.

It was pretty much a coincidence when I decided to do my own “duplicates tour”. I noticed there was this famous chain coffee store called “Excelsior Caffe” which looks very similar to Starbucks. I bought a cup of latte from the store and it was good. While sipping the coffee, I started to wonder if there are “other duplicates” I can visit.

So I went to Tokyo Tower. Well, most people will think that since it is the city mark of Tokyo, they have to visit the tower. However, I visited Tokyo Tower on different reason, because it is a duplicate of Eiffel Tower in Paris. The designer indeed based his design on the lattice style of Eiffel Tower. Serve as different functions, Tokyo Tower is a communication tower, and thus painted white and international orange; thus making it look not-so-similar to Eifel Tower. If it was painted with similar color as Eiffel, it will look very much the same. Tokyo Tower has two observation decks (Eiffel has three), Main Observatory which consists of two-floor level, and higher Special Observatory (final observatory deck). When the weather is good, visitors can see Mount Fuji in the far. Ticket for Main Observatory costs JPY 820 (around IDR 93,000).

Tokyo Tower looks very distinctive from its surrounding buildings, and the figure of the tower combined with bright sunshine gave me this adorable picture.

Another “duplicate” I visited was a very famous statue in Odaiba. Odaiba is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay area. It was once a defense port, but then developed into shopping and entertainment area. Fuji TV building is located in Odaiba. To get to Odaiba, visitor must take Yurikamome train line which crosses the famous Rainbow Bridge, a bridge similar to Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Other than the bridge, not many people know that there is a duplicate of Liberty Statue in Odaiba, placed near the water, just like the original Liberty Statue in the United States. It was said that after The French Liberty Statue came to Japan in 1998, it became very popular and then a similar statue was built in Odaiba. The hotel staff whom I asked later told me there are about 4 replicas of Liberty Statue all over Japan, but only one in Tokyo.

It was raining, so the picture is not that great, but I got both Rainbow Bridge and Liberty Statue. Nice “duplicate”.

The next destination on my “duplicates tour” actually was the love sculpture in Shinjuku area. The famous love sculpture (letter LOVE, LO on the top, O is tilted, VE below) is red in color and originally designed by Robert Indiana. The sculpture was since duplicated all over the world, including in Taipei (near Taipei 101) and in Shinjuku, Tokyo. However, I got lost (again!) in Shinjuku station so I decide to skip the trip.

It was a nice themed-tour. Once that I did not expect to do, but exploring a city in a different way is interesting!

-Citra

P.S. All pictures are personal collection.