Day 22 : Walking to Arakawa City

While I didn't necessarily wake up late, I didn't have anything planned for the day and spent a decent amount of time cleaning up my AirBnB and trying to see if all of my luggage would fit in my bags (hint: I bought vacuum clothing bags so we will see what that does for me later). So I still ended up leaving my apartment later in the day than I would have liked.

I didn't really have any plans so I just decided to walk towards the parks that I had been to nearby (but that I had taken the train to) in order to see what happened along the way.

Since I was just walking through the more residential areas, it was a lot more quiet than the busier city hubs and completely non-touristy. Since school was already over by the time I was walking around I think it was livelier than if I had gone at like 11AM but there still wasn't too much traffic in the areas I was walking.

I didn't see too much that I thought was interesting for the first 20 or 30 minutes but I did get held up by the Sakura Tram for a few seconds as it passed. A single train car passes much quicker than you'd expect considering the amount of time it takes the crossing guards to come down and how long the warning is. Like 30 seconds of warnings, 5 seconds of the train passing, and 2 seconds of the bars raising.

It actually raised the arms so fast I was able to still get a picture of the train as I crossed the tracks

After a bit more walking I came across another interesting scene. It appears to be a training exercise for the firemen. Either that or I was nonchalantly taking pictures of some kind of disaster. I hope it's the former!

Also this picture reminds me of a pretty funny video I saw lampooning the ubiquity of traffic cones in Japan. I actually think this video is so true, you'll definitely see cones everywhere. Not even kidding. Definitely watch the video if you have 10 minutes to spare.

A little while later I found myself back at that station I had really liked the other day, Kami-Nakazato Station.

For the next half-hour or so, my walk turned into a bit of a train watching expedition as I walked on the path beside the train tracks and eventually onto a pedestrian bridge where I could see tons of different trains lines all at once. I don't know why the reviewer wasn't impressed and only gave it a 3 stars.

From here you can see the Keihin-Tōhoku Line

The Ueno–Tokyo Line

It's like Where's Waldo with trains

And even the Tōhoku Shinkansen which just whizzed right by!

Apparently there are other lines that use these tracks as well but I didn't wait too much longer to see others. After trainspotting for a bit, I decided to finish walking to Asukayama Park since I was already close anyway. One thing I hadn't noticed the first time I had visited was that there were actually old train engines in the park for kids to play in.

More trains!

From here, I decided to walk to an amusement park I saw on the map, unsure of what to expect since it seemed to be pretty small and in middle of nowhere. I charted course and kept walking through the residential areas I encountered.

One weird thing I saw was this building absolutely smothered in vines or leaves or plants (I know that at least). I kept wondering if that was bad for the building and if it kept the inside any cooler somehow.

One thing that I've noticed on these kind of walks is that little shrines are all over the place, just tucked away just out of site. I was walking by one street and just happened to look left and noticed a torii seemingly just trying to blend in.

And sure enough, cloistered not far inside was a small shrine.

And look more traffic cones!

Almost immediately next door, I found the amusement park I was looking for, Arakawa Amusement Park. It was closed for the day already but does look like it would be a cool place to go if you had kids. Not much for me though since I don't like Ferris wheels so nothing lost by it being closed.

From here, I decided to just visit another park I saw on the map. On the way I saw a couple temples that were closed for the day and also another small fox shrine.

When I made it to the park (I think it's this one), there were a bunch of kids playing soccer and people sitting by the river. A few were also in the garden area looking at the flowers.

While this was a nice little park, I felt I should keep walking. I didn't know what I was looking for but figured I'd keep going until it got dark out. I ended up walking like 15 more minutes to Ogunohara Park which seemed really nice and had a dragonfly wildlife pond in the center.

The only other thing I took a photo of were these ladies because I noticed their doggos have to outweigh them

After this, I walked to the closest town center (appears to be called "Machiya") to grab some dinner and take the Sakura Tram back home. I did a pretty good amount of walking and although I didn't 'do' anything per se, it was cool getting to see areas and places that I wouldn't have found in a guide book. If you end up staying in Tokyo for a prolonged time, or even staying for a regular amount of time but don't need to fit in work everyday, you should try to explore the areas around where you stay. Even if those areas aren't in the Shibuyas or Ikebukuros of the world.