If you plan to go to Kyoto Tower then I implore you to visit at night. Quite possibly the most prominent building in the city’s skyline, this observation tower arguably has the most comprehensive views of Kyoto. I ended up visiting sometime during Christmas and this was perhaps one of the most chill experiences I’ve had in the city.
As I explained in my writeup of Higashi Hongan-ji, Kyoto Tower is quite close to Kyoto Station so going here should be relatively easy. In fact, it’s literally one of the first buildings you’ll see across from Kyoto Station’s north facing Central Gate entrance/exit. From the station you can cross the pedestrian lane and you should see the entrance to the tower.
If you took the subway then there’s an exit/entrance that’s also just a couple of steps from the tower’s base building.
Night Views from Kyoto Tower
Once inside, you’ll need to look for the ticket counter for the Observation Deck. This will be on the base building’s first floor and it’s relatively easy to spot since there are going to be signs pointing to it. Now if you’re not keen on going up then that’s actually still okay.
In the first floor of the main building alone you’ll find plenty of shops selling souvenirs as well as food and beverages. There’s even a Starbucks branch on the first floor which is perfect if you want to re-energize with some coffee.
Here’s a sign featuring the Observation Deck’s opening hours as well as the restaurants that you’ll find there. Of course, it also shows the opening hours for Kyoto Tower Sando which is the dining and shopping complex that covers the base building’s first two floors and the first floor of its basement level. As you might have noticed, the shops here typically open at around 10:00AM which is also the time the Observation Deck starts receiving visitors.
This is a lift panel indicating the floor that the elevator I was riding was on. As you can see, the indicator on the lift panel shows that it’s still at the lowest or first floor of the tower. Take note that while the whole building and the tower might be several stories high, the tower itself really only has 5 floors (more on this later).
Anyway, you’ll need your ticket to get access to this area and the upper floors. As for how much a ticket costs, it’s only 900JPY for adults. Remember though that this fee does not cover meals in the establishments you’ll find here.
So earlier I said that Kyoto Tower only has 5 floors but this actually excludes the base building that it’s on top of. The first 3 of these floors sit on top of the main building while the fourth and fifth constitute the main Observation Deck. After purchasing your tickets, you can take an elevator and head up to the main building’s 11th floor which is also technically the Observation Deck’s 1st floor.
Anyway, from the 1st floor you take another lift that goes through the tower’s spire until you finally reach the main Observation Deck floors (4th and 5th). In this image, I’m now on the 5th floor and the views of Kyoto from this high up is just mesmerizing.
So one thing you’ll probably notice the moment you get to Kyoto is that there aren’t that many high rise buildings here. I’ve said in one of my other writeups that this is an intentional choice of the city’s planners to preserve its traditional vibes and historic landscape. It was really only after I got here at the tower’s 5th floor that this choice made perfect sense.
Before talking more about the views, here’s a look at one of the corners in this floor. What you’re seeing is a gachapon capsule vending machine. These feature Kyoto-themed Rilakkuma local pins, Nidec Kyoto Tower pins, and glowing Kyoto Tower souvenirs that you can get by paying 300 yen per capsule.
If I’m not mistaken, the contents of the capsule are random so you’re likely going to have to spend a lot if you plan to collect all of them.
If you don’t want to deal with the randomness of the gachapon capsule vending machine, you can opt for this one instead. It’s a more straightforward vending machine for Nidec Kyoto Tower themed medals. The medals price range from 700JPY to 800JPY and there’s also a keychain that’s priced a little cheaper at 300JPY.
What’s nice about the medals is that you can customize them with names and dates through a separate machine nearby.
Much like most of the places I’ve been to that offered views of the city, Kyoto Tower also has these viewers/binoculars for me to see the city below more clearly. What makes these viewing binoculars unique though is that you can use them for free. Yes, these aren’t coin operated and so long as one is available you can use it to get a better view of Kyoto’s cityscape.
Since my visit was in December, there were these decorations that gave this Christmas postcard effect on the views of the city in the areas of the Observation Deck where they were installed. It honestly looked quite nice and if you enjoy playing with your phone’s camera settings you could take pictures where the city is framed inside the decorations. On a side note, the building you see in the background of this image is actually Kyoto Station.
So one thing that you can expect if you visit the Kyoto Tower Observation Deck at night is that it’s actually dimly lit. Now before you complain, there’s actually a reason for this. If the area was illuminated really well then you’d actually have a hard time viewing the scene down below.
The light from inside drowns out the city’s lights and it’ll also mean that you’ll see more reflections on the glass windows (making it even harder to appreciate the views from here).
Even with the dim lighting, you actually still see reflections on the windows here. That said, they’re not as pronounced and you still get to see a glimpse of the mesmerizing Kyoto cityscape. Seriously, there’s just something to the views here that make it really memorable (at least for me).
So I said earlier that Kyoto’s city planners made sure that it didn’t have many high rise buildings. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have buildings that aren’t higher than 2 or 3 stories. If I’m not mistaken, buildings here are capped at 9 stories with Kyoto Tower of course being one of the few exceptions.
Another example would be the Kyoto Station building you saw earlier that maxes out at 15 stories.
This is the flight of stairs leading down to the 4th Floor of the Observation Deck. So one thing I’ve always been mystified by is Japan’s celebration of Christmas. It’s such a Christian tradition that has somehow taken a foothold in such a secular society.
The reason for this is actually quite simple. The Japanese actually view the Yuletide season more as a commercial and romantic holiday rather than a religious one.
Opposite the Christmas tree from the previous image is this standee of the Kyoto Tower drawn in what I think is a cartoon-ish/anime style. In the background is again, a glimpse of Kyoto Station’s parking lot. I actually briefly considered going down to the 4th Floor but there was still so much to do and see in this area that I decided to forgo a trip down the stairs.
It wasn’t just me who decided to stay in the 5th Floor though. There were still plenty of other visitors who were enamored by the views here. Now you might be wondering how the foot traffic here was?
Honestly, I was expecting for the place to have plenty of people so I was surprised to find out that the crowd was actually manageable. It probably helped that this visit was during early winter. It might have been a different matter if I visited at the peak of the tourist season in Kyoto.
Here you can see the buildings on the blocks east of Kyoto Tower. It was already a bit late so the streets below (especially the one on the left of the image, Shiokoji Dori) weren’t that busy. I wasn’t able to take a picture of it but there’s a Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Kyoto store to my right (north of the tower on a map) that you might also want to add to your itinerary especially if you plan to buy electronics of any kind.
This is a closer look at the Kyoto Station main entrance. As you can see, it’s still busy even at night. That said, the foot traffic here is actually quite tame when compared to the morning and late afternoon rush hours.
Aside from being known as a bustling hub for transport, the station is also known for its futuristic and avant-garde design. Chances are, you’ll be seeing plenty of the station as you could pretty much go to any destination and/or landmark in Kyoto from it.
The street directly in front of the Kyoto Station main entrance is called Shiokoji Dori (seen in the image above). Now if it’s your first time in Kyoto then I highly recommend booking a hotel on this street. Since it’s quite close to the station it’s going to be relatively easy to get to locations in your itinerary (provided they’re within the city of course).
Aside from the convenient access to transparent, you’ll also be close to a multitude of dining options along the street.
So this is a permanent display here on the 5th floor of the Observation Deck and it’s quite similar to the Christmas themed frame that you saw earlier. I neglected to mention this earlier but Kyoto Tower is also known as a popular romantic spot for dates. The display shown here is actually permanent and couples can have their picture taken with this and the view of the city serving as the backdrop.
After a couple of minutes there were only a few people left on the 5th floor so I decided to take one last picture of the view from here. Man, the view from up here was definitely worth the price of admission. I’m not quite sure if the view in the morning is as nice.
I’ve read from most sources online though that it’s not as crowded in the mornings here. Now as someone who’s been here at night, I’m a little skeptical that the views in the morning can top what I’ve seen.
Oh look, it’s the Higashi Hongan-ji (the top image in the sign) that I also visited and wrote about some time ago. From the observation deck you can see the temple if you look north. As for the other image (below the aerial view of Higashi Hongan-ji), it’s what you’ll see if you look to the east.
Admittedly, a lot of the landmarks shown here aren’t that visible at night.
As I was heading down, I came across this display that featured characters from an anime called Sound Euphonium. Now while I enjoy anime, this series was admittedly not my cup of tea. That being said, it’s actually quite popular and the studio that made it (Kyoto Animation) has its headquarters in the city.
If I’m not mistaken, this specific display was for a collaboration campaign with Keihan Railway that ran from October 2025 to some time in December of that same year.
Near the display was a booth selling various souvenirs and gift items featuring characters from the show. Character clear files range from A3 to A4 sizes with the prices of each ranging from 400JPY to 2640JPY. The item I was eyeing though was the Traveling Mameshiba keychain.
I mean, just look at that doggy wearing an Inari hoodie!
Of course, it wouldn’t be a souvenir shop or booth if it didn’t sell items that featured Sanrio characters. Forgive me if I go off on a tangent but it’s seriously impressive how Hello Kitty and friends have seemingly managed to conquer the world with their cuteness. Whether it was China or Japan, it seemed like every place I went to last year I saw these characters.
If there was one item that I would’ve wanted to purchase though, it would have been either of these dolls. Unfortunately, these weren’t for sale and were just a display to commemorate the end of the year. And if they were being sold, I couldn’t imagine how much they’d go for as they look really detailed.
After checking out the displays, it was now time to leave. From the 3rd Floor of the tower, I went down to the first (not to be confused with the 1st floor of the main building) using the elevator. Now, if you also end up visiting at night then I implore you to not go down and exit the main building yet.
Instead, head on over to the main building’s roof top (which is technically its 10th floor) and check out Kyoto Tower from there. There’s actually a restaurant here called TOWERLAND ROOFTOP BAR&BBQ. As its name implies, the restaurant specializes in barbecue while also offering a panoramic view of the city and of course, an up close view of the tower.
I didn’t actually eat or get a drink at the bar but I did get some awesome shots of Kyoto Tower from there. So a little background about the tower, it was actually designed to look like a massive candle from afar. It’s probably just me but I kind of thought it looked more like a red spider lily flower thanks to the red beams encircling the tower’s Observation Deck.
The similarity to a red spider lily is especially noticeable when you zoom in on the Observation Deck like in this image. Anyway, it’s kind of impressive that Kyoto Tower is actually more than half a century old by now. It’s been around since 1964 and was said to have been a symbol of Japan’s modernization.
Fast forward to now and the tower’s design surprisingly has stood the test of time. Even with its age, it doesn’t look out of place in Kyoto’s landscape.
I think the reason why Kyoto Tower doesn’t look out of place might have to do with the city’s planners building with it in mind. You only need to look at Kyoto Station’s glass facade and you’ll kind of understand what I’m trying to say. I mean, just look at how the tower is reflected on the glass facade in this image.
It’s still kind of surreal how eye-opening this recent trip to Kyoto has been. It was definitely more than just shrine and temple visits. There’s an energy to the city that I think is very hard to explain but at the same time is also very charming and appealing.
The Kyoto Tower, in a way, kind of is a perfect manifestation of that contagious energy.
So this ends my Kyoto Tower visit and I’ll say it now, this place is worth it. Check that, it’s more than worth it considering admission only costs 900JPY. Probably the only reason why I wouldn’t recommend going here is if you’ve already visited in the past.
Overall, the experience was memorable and I think it’s something that you should add to your itinerary if you plan to visit the city.Anyway, have you ever been to Kyoto Tower’s Observation Deck at night? If yes then we’d be happy to hear about your experience as well as your thoughts about this Kyoto landmark down in the comments!
