Yakiri – Edo River Crossing

It is easy to forget, but until quite recently, historically, Tokyo was a city built on water: reclaimed lands, great moats, canals, rivers, streams, inlets, marshes just about anywhere and the sea constantly present. In the era before reliable road transport the humble push-boat ferry crossing was the daily staple of hundreds of thousands of people all over Tokyo, and remarkably, one of those ferries have survived to this day. There used to be ferry spots at or near almost all major bridges in Tokyo, but as the bridges went up, the ferries went in decline of were actually banned by the Meiji government outright.

The last remaining ferry crossing in Tokyo is on the edge of a little field on the Edogawa-river, connecting Shibamata and Shimoyakiri Matsudo, which is technically in Chiba Prefecture. Operating these ferries was by government appointment only, and the present and last operator is a fourth generation ferryman. The ferry system was made semi-public by decree in 1740, and its has been a special operation involving both the city of Matsudo and the families of the town for the last 255 years. The boats were traditionally made from a kind of wood which is excellent in sea water but rots rather quickly in the fresh water of the river. Back in the old days the revenue would be used to keep new boats coming in and it is said that the river here is littered with old ferry boats having sunk during the centuries. The present boat is operated by paddle when leaving Tokyo but an engine is usually engaged for the return trip, depending on the number of passengers, the weather, the current etc.

The reason this crossing has survived is because of the bank on the Chiba side of the river used to an uninhabited island with extremely fertile lands for farming, so plenty of Tokyo farmers would need to cross here to get to their fields. If you look at the area from a satellite image you will see instantly the huge difference between the Tokyo side which is densely populated and the very sparse Chiba side. In fact, the Chiba side is so empty (just fields and tiny farms) that no tourists ever bother to get off. The trip is 100 yen, but everyone just pays for the roundtrip at once, so it becomes 200 yen per adult. Half price for kids I think.

As a tourist attraction, well, it depends on what your idea of fun is. What you see in my photos is just what you get and nothing more, nothing less, plus the sometimes interesting banter of the ferryman of course. There is no reason to get off on the other side and the ferry ride itself is over in a matter of minutes, still, to me it was fantastic. As a fan of economic history, and the history of Tokyo in particular, it was a huge event to experience first hand exactly the same thing that hundreds of thousands of Tokyo farmers, samurai and merchants had as part of their daily routine for hundreds of years. It was a brief but fantastic window into one tiny part of life in the old days. Virtually nothing has changed, apart from some of the taller buildings sticking up by the horizon. There are birds watching the boats, now as in centuries past, there is fish in the river and probably a bit of garbage as well. Where humans are, garbage will accumulate. From half a meter above the water, this is quite possible the only place in the entire city of Tokyo where nothing visible to the naked eye has changed in three centuries. If you narrow your eyes and listen carefully on quiet Sunday afternoon, it what you see and hear and smell will be exactly the same as any peasant farmer in 1755 or 1815 or 1855. These places are quite valuable I think, and apparently the government agrees with me because a few years ago it was selected to be part of the 100 Soundscapes of Japan, a government initiative to identify and preserve a variety of unique and vulnerable soundscapes, in order to fight the ongoing noise pollution of the country.

To most tourists, this ride and the walk to and from it would be a major pain in the behind and boring as nothing else, but for this Tokyo lover, it was a little piece of heaven. Explore at your own risk!

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!

Sawanoi River Walk

Summer is fast approaching and while outdoor temperatures are still tolerable even outdoors here in Tokyo, the days will soon be upon us when a lot of people will be stuck day and night to their air conditioners. The only thing I can recommend in those cases is to spend a little time and effort and try to get out of Tokyo. It is often forgotten that even Tokyo mostly consists of mountains and forests, so there is a lot of greenery around if you have the energy to find it. One of my favorites is taking the Ome line out to Sawanoi in Tokyo’s far western Town and walk along the beautiful Tama River. This far upstream it is still quite small, rapid and much cleaner than downstream, although the modern river is many hundreds of times cleaner than it was just 50-60 years ago. Today a lot of wildlife has returned to the river, enough even to support fishing of carp, trout, salmi, redfin and ayu. Not fished but still quite common in the river you may find turtles, crabs and crayfish. There was even a case a few years ago of a seal making its way up to the river, although never this far up!

In the summer the trees provide good shade, the slight breeze is usually cooled down over the broad river and there are plenty of spots where you can get down and put your feet in the cold water to cool down. Go early in the morning, bring a picknick or eat at one of the local places, and get some green in your life to substitute for all the Tokyo grey!

Sawanoi Scenery

As summer is coming to Tokyo I thought I should share more photos of one of my favorite places for a long nature stroll in the capital – Sawanoi in Ome City in the far west of Tokyo. Quite a bit of a train journey away from Shinjuku but well worth is this hidden gem of a river valley complete with foot bridges, easy to walk paths and trails and more greenery than you can shake a stick at! Just take the Chuo line to the west towards Ome and get off at Sawanoi station.