After my visit to the Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, I finished the day by walking to Jonanjima Seaside Park: It is a park bordering Tokyo Bay, directly across the water from Haneda Airport. Its position makes it a good spot for watching the planes landing at the airport: They are flying overhead every few minutes. There is also a beach (swimming forbidden though…) and a camping site.
The Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park (東京港野鳥公園) is a 24ha nature preserve built on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay, just north of Haneda Airport. It was built as a habitat for resident and migrant birds.
Last week, I went on a day trip to Hakone in Kanagawa Prefecture. The trip takes about 2h from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo using the Odakyu Line. There, I did the so-called Hakone Round Course (counter-clockwise), which involves going through the area using 5 modes of transportation (train, cablecar, ropeway, boat and bus), starting and ending at Hakone-Yumoto Station. Hakone offers great natural beauty, with mountains, a lake and the view of Mount Fuji, as well as historical sites, hot springs and museums, although I did not get to enjoy everything.
Showa Kinen Park (aka Showa Memorial Park) is a large park (163ha) in Tachikawa City, Tokyo. Until the 4th of November, it is home to the Cosmos Flower Festival. It also offers many other interesting sights and activities.
Ariake is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay, near Toyosu and Odaiba. It hosts the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center, museums, sporting arenas and hotels.
Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It is home to the No. 3 Battery Park (“Dai-San Daiba”), numerous shopping malls, a ferris wheel, a beach (no swimming allowed though…), the Fuji TV building (photo above) and the Miraikan museum, as well as hotels, offices and residential towers. Part of the island is used as a port for cargo ship operations.
After returning from Mount Tsukuba, I took some time to stroll around Tsukuba before getting back to Tokyo. The city is known for the so-called Tsukuba Science City and its large number of world-class research institutes, including the University of Tsukuba, the High-Energy Accelerator Lab (KEK), the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and the Geographic Information Authority. It was also host to the Expo'85 World’s Fair and still retains some landmarks built for the occasion.
I went to Nikko (Tochigi Prefecture) last Wednesday. It is a mountainous area not far from Tokyo (~2h from Asakusa station). It is especially known for its historical sites (shrines, temples) but, since I had already visited those before, I instead went hiking in the Oku-Nikko area (奥日光).
The Tokyo Imperial Palace is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in Chiyoda City and close to Tokyo Station. The actual residence cannot be visited but the site houses the Imperial Palace East Gardens and other interesting spots.
Nishi-Shinjuku (literally West-Shinjuku) is a skyscraper business district west of the Shinjuku train station, in Tokyo.