Asakusa Tourist Information Center

Located in front of the Kaminari-mon Gate, the Asakusa Culture Tourist Information Center is one of the biggest tourist information centers in Tokyo. It has a number of facilities, provides all kinds of information, and the staff is unbelievably kind and friendly.

Center offers services in four languages—Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean—under the concept “Search, Show, Support.” It has free public wireless LAN, toilets, a nursing room, currency exchange service, and ticket sales. Aside from being an important tourist spot, the building is a very interesting architectural site. It was designed in 2012 by Kengo Kuma & Associates, who aimed to create a multipurpose culture center, where you not only find tourist information, but also see various exhibitions, join a conference or enjoy the view from the top floor.

The center looks like many differently shaped small houses piled one on top of another. It brings some fresh air into Asakusa's conventional architecture. Despite its average height for high- and medium-rise buildings it has a lot of extra space, thanks to diagonally shaped spaces between roof and floor at every level. The roofs not only divide the structure into 8 one-storied houses but also determine the role of each floor. As angles of the roofs incline toward Kaminari-mon and the heights from the ground vary from floor to floor, each floor relates differently to the outside, giving a unique character to each space.

The first and second floors with an information lobby and foreign exchange have more distinctive roof slopes. The third floor holds a main office and a group tourist support. Floors four and five are for conference rooms. A multipurpose room is on sixth floor and an exhibition space is on the seventh. On the top floor, there is an observation deck, from where you can see the small streets of the traditional part of Asakusa, the Asahi Breweries building, and Skytree Tower. There is also a small cafe where you can sit, relax and admire the view. It is best to visit during hot summer days, when it is cool and windy on the roof. The cafe serves refreshing beverages perfect for battling the summer heat. I recommend trying iced macha with a scoop of green tea ice cream.