A press preview for the new commercial complex surrounding the 634-meter-tall Tokyo Sky Tree was held Thursday in Sumida Ward.
The 37,000-sq.-meter complex consists of a 312-tenant shopping and restaurant zone called Tokyo Solamachi, an office building zone, an aquarium and a planetarium.
The Sumida Aquarium has around 10,000 marine animals spanning 400 species, including sea turtles, and features cisterns that represent ecological systems all the way from Tokyo Bay to the Ogasawara Islands 1,000 km south.
The office zone includes a new branch of Chiba Institute of Technology at which a range of high-technology items, such as robots and a Mars probe, are on display.
The complex was completed in a former freight yard that belonged to Tobu Railway Co., the parent firm of the company that runs the world's tallest free-standing tower, which opens on May 22.
