For Henry Killackey, a well-traveled tourist from Los Angeles, Tokyo Sky Tree was the first place he wanted to visit upon arriving in Tokyo for the New Year's holidays.

The communications tower, now going up in Sumida Ward, one of Tokyo's traditional "shitamachi" districts, is the newest sightseeing spot in the capital. At well over 500 meters tall, it has already eclipsed Tokyo Tower, a 333-meter radio and TV transmission tower that was the country's tallest structure for 52 years.

But once at the foot of the modern architectural feat, which is on track to reach 634 meters in March to be the world's tallest stand-alone communications tower, Killackey and his wife, Liz, found little to do but take pictures of the gigantic steel structure in the cold wind.