Monday, May 4, 2009 3:09 AM
Down by the river...
...a great place to...
...hold a barbecue...
...(though not on the grass of course)...
...close to public transport...
...plenty of space for everyone...
...lots to eat and drink...
...it was a long day...
...but all good things must come to an end.
With many thanks to Chris for organisation and provision of vast amounts of bits of deceased animal including swine parts.
If you're interested in this location for your own barbecue: it's on the south bank of the Tamagawa just opposite Futako-Tamagawa and just inside Kawasaki-shi. Nearest station is Futako-Shinchi on the Tokyu Denen-Toshi line, about 5 minutes walk away if you're prepared to scramble down a concreted slope, otherwise it's a bit of a long trek along the road which leads down to the car park. Parking is available but limited and will set you back a few hundred yen, and is only open until 6:30pm. The "barbecue OK" area is basically part of the river bed and consists mainly of stones and pebbles, so bring something comfortable to sit on. It is not enclosed in any way and there are no restrictions on entrance. Toilet facilities are available but very limited with long queues, especially for women and those not prepared to risk the very sparse bush cover. My tip: go back to the station, buy a platform ticket (入場券, nyūjōken) for 120 yen and use the facilities there, or in case a lot of other people have had the same idea, take a train to the next station). There is a semi-official garbage drop-off point under the railway bridge. The Family Mart convenience store to the east of the station carries barbecue-related products, and there are several other convenience stores, small supermarkets and liquor stores around the station.
The tragic thing is that this is one of the few "unregulated" spaces in the Tokyo area.
Although I dont know why people would decide to camp under the train tracks..
I'm sorry to contact you suddenly but I found your expat blog and am contacting you on behalf of our website ModernNipponProject.com
We are planning to renew our site and make it into a more advanced information platform for Japanese and foreigners coming to or living in Japan, to exchange useful information or find other people with the same experience in their area (since it is especially difficult for foreign residents who do not live in the big cities) and introduce the town they live in, its best spots and foods, post photos and articles.
We are looking for foreign residents in ALL Japanese prefectures and would love to hear their experiences and share them with others on our new interactive website, and we hope helpful and interesting discussions will come up in the course.
Maybe you would like to contribute a blog entry you wrote in the past, if the interactive concept is not your type. ANY sort of contribution or interaction would be greatly appreciated and we would be very grateful.
Our current site is not being updated while we are still in preparations for the brand new interactive information platform, but please do have a look and if you are interested in any of the ideas above, please do let us know and write us back.
We hope we can gather a lot of people and create cultural interaction on the new Modern Nippon Project site.
Thanks for reading and hoping to hear from you soon!
Yours kindly,
the members of the MNP team
ModernNipponProject.com
A bit of reasearch (and it is really not obvious from their site) reveals a Tokyo company called "Interfusion Inc." is behind this. For the record I am always willing to engage in "ANY sort of contribution or interaction" (provided it's nothing that will turn up on YouTube to embarrasss me in later years) with commercial entities at my usual hourly rate.
I used to live right next to the Tamagawa near Ota-ku in Kawasaki. Nothing but blue-tarp campers most of the time. It's funny, for 700 yen and 30-minute train ride from there, you can have a decent seaside BBQ in Yokohama.