Tokyo River Tour: Nihonbashi River + Kanda River + Sumida River
2022.10.22 Sachiko Segawa + Mami Kono + Noriko Higashi
The day after “Day of Light”, on October 22, we held a kids’ workshop for the first time in about three years. Due to COVID-19, we had not been able to organize it, but this year we launched the project with the strong wish to resume.
This workshop, titled “River Tour Part 2,” revisited the Nihonbashi River – Kanda River – Sumida River route that we first explored in 2016. The idea was to let children experience the nightscape of central Tokyo from the riverside perspective, something they rarely get to see.
On the day, 11 children and 15 adults including staff — 25 participants in total — joined the river tour.
The participants gathered at Nihonbashi as dusk settled, and the boat set sail, heading west along the Nihonbashi River. Since most of the Nihonbashi River is covered by the Shuto Expressway, there is little chance to see the open sky. From time to time, the orange glow of high-pressure sodium lamps leaked through from the expressway above.
The Nihonbashi River is also lined with many bridges, ranging from old to newly built, so one can see plenty of the “undersides” of both bridges and the expressway. Responding to a suggestion from the Chief Mende — “Try imagining how you would light these hidden sides to make them beautiful” — the children used the flashlights we had brought to experiment with different illuminations. Most of the children were quite young, so they didn’t think too deeply about how to shine the light, but when they directed it at the dark water surface, shimmering reflections danced across the riverbank. They delighted in the accidental play of light that appeared.
As the boat approached the Kanda River, the expressway that had been overhead disappeared, the sky opened up, and the lights of riverside buildings and shops, which had been difficult to see until then, became clearly visible.
Since the workshop was held on a Saturday, the office buildings had little light, but as we traveled, we enjoyed the glow from the trains running overhead near Suidobashi and Ochanomizu Stations.
Along the way, the boat approached the pitch-dark Ochanomizu diversion channel near Suidobashi, where the children experimented by shining their flashlights into the darkness and calling out loudly to hear their voices echo.
As the boat moved closer to the Kanda River, the expressway overhead disappeared, the sky opened up, and the lights from riverside buildings and shops, which had previously been hard to see, became clearly visible.
Famous sights often seen in photos, such as the Ochanomizu Cut and Hijiri Bridge, were not very visible due to ongoing construction around Ochanomizu Station, but in the Asakusabashi area, the participants were able to see many houseboats moored along the river.
As the boat exited the Kanda River and merged into the Sumida River, the participants saw the Tokyo Skytree illuminated in an unusual blend of green and light blue, different from its usual lighting. Unlike the Nihonbashi and Kanda Rivers, the Sumida had waves, so the river cruise became a slightly swaying experience. Although there were not many other boats, the variety of their lighting was interesting to observe. On the Sumida River, large bridges such as Ryogoku Bridge, Shin-Ohashi Bridge, Kiyosu Bridge, Sumida-Ohashi Bridge, and Eitai Bridge spanned the water, each illuminated with distinctive colors and lights. For the children, who had rarely experienced such large-scale light-ups, the dynamic displays were fascinating to see.
After about 90 minutes, the cruise ended by returning to the Nihonbashi River. By the end, the air had grown quite chilly, but the river tour seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. As a small “homework,” the children were asked to later send in a photo and a short comment about what left the deepest impression on them, after which the group dispersed.
We hope that this river cruise will remain in the children’s memories as an “adventure of light” unlike anything they experience in daily life, and that it will spark even a small curiosity about light in their everyday surroundings. The children’s reflections have been posted on Facebook, so please take a look there as well. (Sachiko Segawa)
