Moments from Mori Art Museum

The Mori Art Museum occupies the 53rd floor of Mori Tower in Tokyo's Roppongi Hills complex, a deliberate architectural statement by the late developer Minoru Mori, who believed that placing a serious contemporary art museum at the literal top of a major commercial skyscraper would fuse art and urban life together rather than segregating culture into its own separate district. Opened in 2003, it has since built a reputation for ambitious, large-scale contemporary exhibitions, both Japanese and international, presented with a view over the entire Tokyo skyline as a constant backdrop.

Because the museum sits above an observation deck, Tokyo City View, that shares the same floor and ticketing complex, it's easy to combine an exhibition visit with panoramic views of the city in one trip, particularly striking near sunset when the light shifts across the skyline mid-visit. Go with real time to spare, the combination of major exhibition and observation deck tends to fill an afternoon rather than the hour a single gallery visit might otherwise take, and the elevator queues during peak tourist season can add a genuine wait at both ends.