Even after more than a year here we are still discovering new places to visit. We had been meaning to check out the Tamagawa river area to the west of Tokyo for a while, but had not realised just how accessible it is for us: in a little over half an hour door to door we were walking up the steep slope into Tamagawadai park. This is set on a ridge with the Tama river shimmering directly beneath and having unobstructed views over Kawasaki to the mountains of Hakone. Great Fuji itself was just visible though clothed in a cone of cloud, just revealing the odd flash of a shapely flank now and again (just behind the large building middle-left).
The paths through primarily broad-leaved woodland resembled a country park back home and it also sported some tumuli that Nick said were late 6th century.
We came across a large recreation area as well, with lots of swings and slides and a hippo that Emily enjoyed hiding in.
Though sunny weather had returned, our whole visit was to the accompaniment of a really strong wind from the northwest that kept it fresh and almost cool.
Before going home we went in search of a coffee shop. The area was apparently developed as a garden suburb in the 90s and seemed really green and pleasant and a million miles from central Tokyo. We enviously drooled over some detached houses on the hill that were abnormally spacious for Japan and wondered how far beyond our financial reach they were. Instead of a cafe chain, we happened across a bo-ho type establishment that was doing a roaring trade and where no two tables had the same chairs. They did a mean line in homemade desserts, which Emily happily tucked into, though thankfully not denting her recently poor appetite for her three meals a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment