Summer River in Sawanoi – Western Tokyo
It is hard to believe but the majority of Tokyo consists of unpopulated mountains and forests. The reason for this is the extreme ruggedness of Japanese terrain and vegetation – there is just no realistic way of accessing most of the wild Japanese mountains with anything less than a helicopter, the stamina of a mountain goat or at least a well sharpened machete. The only way that I have found of really accessing nature is to follow the rivers and Western Tokyo is full of them. One of my favorite spots to avoid the summer heat in the concrete is to take the train out to Sawanoi and explore the local rivers. There are all kinds of roads and paths near the station so no matter if you want the full mountain ranger experience or just want to take granny out for a day in the greens, you will find this a good spot to start with!
Here are some of photos I took when I visited last summer, getting my feet wet in Tama River!
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