Randomly stumbling throughout a wonderful cruise line that begins within the coronary heart of downtown Tokyo.
Nihonbashi is the identify of a neighborhood in downtown Tokyo, however it’s additionally the identify of a bridge (hashi being the Japanese phrase for “bridge,” in spite of everything). And whereas we’re at it, we could as nicely cowl that Nihonbashi can also be the identify of a river, which the bridge goes over.
All of that is to set the scene for what occurred the opposite day once we have been in Nihonbashi, standing on Nihonbashi, and looking out down on the Nihobashi River, which is the place we noticed a ship.
Nihonbashi is fairly deep into downtown, and a number of the Nihonbashi River runs beneath the elevated expressway, which limits the dimensions of ships that may go up and down the waterway. Sometimes you’ll spot a yakatabune, an extended, low, historically styled boat used for dinner cruises, or some form of public works upkeep ship, however that’s often about it for water site visitors. This boat, although, didn’t match both of these classes, however it wasn’t a non-public craft both, since there was a gaggle of individuals standing by the dock ready to board. They weren’t wearing crew outfits or work uniforms. They have been simply common dudes.
Curious, we headed all the way down to the waterfront to research, and that’s once we came upon that that is the “Commute by Boat” ship, which runs between Nihonbashi and Toyosu, a neighborhood on the southeast fringe of downtown with rail connections out to the suburbs.
The Commute by Boat line runs within the night between Tuesday and Friday, with the journey from Nihonbashi to Toyosu (or vice-versa) taking 20 minutes. The one-way fare is 500 yen (US$3.35) for adults and half that for youths, and you may pay just by tapping a Suica pre-paid rail go, identical to you’ll on a commuter prepare, while you get off.
Boats depart from Nihonbashi at 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, and eight:30, and as luck would have it, the subsequent ship was leaving only a few minutes after we’d noticed it. Whereas it’s attainable to make reservations on-line, they’re not required so long as there are empty seats, and with solely a few half-dozen individuals in complete getting on right now, there was loads of house for us to come back aboard.
▼ The Nihonbashi boarding dock for the Commute by Boat ship
Seats aren’t assigned, so we settled into one, took a final have a look at the Nihonbashi bridge…
…and we have been off!
The Nihonbashi River has a complete size of about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles), beginning as a branch-off from the Kanda River and later becoming a member of up with the Kanda River on the east aspect of downtown Tokyo, which flows out into Tokyo Bay. The primary a part of the Commute by Boat Nihonbashi-to-Toyosu route is alongside the Nihonbashi River, with a lot of it spent below the cover of the expressway. Whereas it might not present the sense of liberation you get from being on the excessive seas, it’s bought a singular city enchantment, form of a retro near-future vibe such as you may discover within the Patlabor anime collection’ quieter moments.
The view opens up significantly as soon as the Nihonbashi River meets up with the Sumida River, the place clouds within the sky, with the lingering nightfall daylight, made for some nice photograph ops.
With the solar dipping under the horizon, the lights of town began to come back on, together with the purple lanterns alongside the yakatabune dinner cruise ships.
The Commute by Boat line docks on the Lalaport Toyosu purchasing/leisure middle, which is only a five-minute stroll from Toyosu Station, the place each the Yurakucho and Yurikamome rail strains meet.
After paying by tapping our Suica card as we bought off, we considered grabbing a chew to eat in certainly one of Lalaport’s eating places. Nevertheless, on our experience in we couldn’t assist considering that the surroundings we’d seen most likely appears actually cool at evening too. Since Commute by Boat ships depart from Toyosu on the hour at 4, 5, 6, 7, and eight p.m., we solely had a 10-minute wait till the subsequent one was heading out, so we determined to hop on and do the reverse route too.
Positive sufficient, the neon accents dotting the evening sky and reflecting off the in any other case darkened water made for a particular type of magnificence, with a contact of nostalgic sophistication.
As an added bonus, there was just one different passenger on the boat from Toyosu to Nihonbashi, which means that we had an almost-private cruise for simply 500 yen. So even when you’re not utilizing the Commute by Boat line to really commute, it’s nonetheless very a lot price taking a experience on.
Associated: Commute by Boat official web site (Japanese, English)
Pictures ©SoraNews24
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