Tokyo Ikebukuro Layover: Sunshine City Indoors
Part of the full Tokyo in One Day: Ueno and Asakusa
Sunshine City, about eight minutes’ walk from Ikebukuro station in north-west Tokyo, holds an aquarium on its roof where penguins swim in a tank over visitors’ heads, a planetarium, and an observation floor on the 60th storey of its tower, all inside, which makes it the stop for a day of rain or heavy summer heat.
Sunshine Aquarium’s penguins swim over your head
Sunshine Aquarium occupies the roof of the World Import Mart block of Sunshine City, a high-rise aquarium with around 550 species across indoor galleries and an outdoor terrace. The terrace, the Marine Garden, is where the reason to come is: a ring-shaped glass tank about 12 metres across mounted overhead, so the African penguins in it swim above the visitors with the Ikebukuro skyline behind them. Indoors, the jellyfish gallery is a single tank wall about 14 metres wide, and the big reef tank runs floor to ceiling.
Adult admission is ¥2,600, and the aquarium opens at 10am on weekdays and 9.30am at weekends and holidays, closing between 6pm and 8pm depending on the season, with last entry half an hour before. Advance tickets sold through a tours and activities platform skip the ticket hall on the ground floor.
Most of the visit is standing still in dim galleries reading tank labels and waiting for something to swim into view, which is awkward with a suitcase parked at your feet in a gallery full of people doing the same.
Tenbou Park on the 60th floor of Sunshine 60
Sunshine 60 was finished in 1978 at 240 metres, the tallest building in Asia until 1985 and in Japan until the city government’s towers in Shinjuku went up in 1991. It stands on the site of Sugamo Prison, where Japan’s wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo and six others were executed in December 1948. The 60th floor reopened in 2023 as Tenbou Park, an observation floor laid out as an indoor park, with artificial lawn and low seating along the windows, and the elevators that reach it were the fastest in the world when the building opened.
Adult admission is ¥700 on weekdays, ¥900 at weekends and up to ¥1,200 in peak seasons, with the floor open 11am to 9pm and last entry at 8.30pm. A Tenbou Park ticket can also be bought ahead through a tours and activities platform. On a clear day the view runs to Mount Fuji in the west and Tokyo Skytree in the east.
Elsewhere in the same complex, the planetarium runs star shows of under an hour under its dome, from ¥1,600 for an ordinary seat, with grass-mat and cloud-shaped sofa seats for lying back at a higher price. Between them, Sunshine City’s mall fills the gaps with shops and food courts.
For a dry day with more time, the Ueno and Asakusa route on the east side of the city covers the national museum and Senso-ji temple.
The Narita Express no longer runs to Ikebukuro
The quickest way from Ikebukuro to Narita International Airport (NRT) is the JR Yamanote line to Nippori, about 13 to 15 minutes, then the Keisei Skyliner from Nippori, about 40 minutes for ¥2,580 with every seat reserved. Allow an hour and a quarter in all, with the change. The Narita Express, which once called here, no longer does. Airport buses from Ikebukuro go straight to the terminals with luggage in the hold, which avoids the change at Nippori but adds time in traffic.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo?
Spend it inside Sunshine City, eight minutes' walk from the station's east side, which is built for exactly the kind of day when the weather rules out walking around. Sunshine Aquarium on the roof of one block is ¥2,600 and takes about two hours, with its penguins swimming in a tank above your head. The Tenbou Park deck on the 60th floor of the main tower is ¥700 on a weekday, and the planetarium on the same site runs star shows from ¥1,600. The aquarium is the one to book; the deck and the planetarium can be fitted around it.
Is Sunshine City a good rainy-day option in Tokyo?
Yes, nearly all of it. The shopping mall, planetarium and observation deck are fully enclosed, and only the outdoor section of the aquarium, the Marine Garden with the overhead penguin tank, is open to the sky. In summer the same goes for heat: everything except that rooftop garden is air-conditioned.
What stood on the Sunshine 60 site before the tower?
Sugamo Prison, where the Allied occupation held Japanese war-crimes suspects after 1945. Seven men sentenced to death at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal, among them the wartime prime minister Hideki Tojo, were hanged there on 23 December 1948. The prison was demolished in the early 1970s, and Sunshine 60 was finished on the site in 1978. A small memorial stone stands in the park next to the complex.
Can I see Mount Fuji from Sunshine 60?
On a clear day, yes, from the west side of the Tenbou Park deck on the 60th floor; the tower's own figures put visibility at up to 100 kilometres in good conditions. Winter mornings give the best odds. On a hazy day the view still covers Tokyo Skytree, Shinjuku's towers and the green blocks of Ikebukuro's parks, and the deck stays open until 9pm, last entry 8.30pm.