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Tokyo’s “commuter boat” is an awesome hidden way to see the city from the water for dirt-cheap

Casey Baseel Dec 3, 2024
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Randomly stumbling across a beautiful cruise line that starts in the heart of downtown Tokyo.

Nihonbashi is the name of a neighborhood in downtown Tokyo, but it’s also the name of a bridge (hashi being the Japanese word for “bridge,” after all). And while we’re at it, we may as well cover that Nihonbashi is also the name of a river, which the bridge goes over.

All of this is to set the scene for what happened the other day when we were in Nihonbashi, standing on Nihonbashi, and looking down at the Nihobashi River, which is where we saw a boat.

Nihonbashi is pretty deep into downtown, and a lot of the Nihonbashi River runs underneath the elevated expressway, which limits the size of ships that can go up and down the waterway. Occasionally you’ll spot a yakatabune, a long, low, traditionally styled boat used for dinner cruises, or some sort of public works maintenance ship, but that’s usually about it for water traffic. This boat, though, didn’t fit either of those categories, but it wasn’t a private craft either, since there was a group of people standing by the dock waiting to board. They weren’t dressed in crew outfits or work uniforms. They were just regular dudes.

Curious, we headed down to the waterfront to investigate, and that’s when we found out that this is the “Commute by Boat” ship, which runs between Nihonbashi and Toyosu, a neighborhood on the southeast edge of downtown with rail connections out to the suburbs.

The Commute by Boat line runs in the evening between Tuesday and Friday, with the trip 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 kids, and you can pay simply by tapping a Suica pre-paid rail pass, just like you would on a commuter train, when you get off.

Boats depart from Nihonbashi at 4:30, 5:30, 6:30, 7:30, and 8:30, and as luck would have it, the next ship was leaving just a few minutes after we’d spotted it. While it’s possible to make reservations online, they’re not required as long as there are empty seats, and with only about a half-dozen people in total getting on at this time, there was plenty of space for us to come aboard.

▼ The Nihonbashi boarding dock for the Commute by Boat ship

Seats aren’t assigned, so we settled into one, took a last look at the Nihonbashi bridge…

…and we were off!

The Nihonbashi River has a total length of about five kilometers (3.1 miles), starting as a branch-off from the Kanda River and later joining up with the Kanda River on the east side of downtown Tokyo, which flows out into Tokyo Bay. The first part of the Commute by Boat Nihonbashi-to-Toyosu route is along the Nihonbashi River, with much of it spent under the canopy of the expressway. While it may not provide the sense of liberation you get from being on the high seas, it’s got a unique urban appeal, sort of a retro near-future vibe like you might find in the Patlabor anime series’ quieter moments.

The view opens up considerably once the Nihonbashi River meets up with the Sumida River, where clouds in the sky, with the lingering dusk sunlight, made for some great photo ops.

With the sun dipping below the horizon, the lights of the city started to come on, including the red lanterns along the yakatabune dinner cruise ships.

The Commute by Boat line docks at the Lalaport Toyosu shopping/entertainment center, which is just a five-minute walk from Toyosu Station, where both the Yurakucho and Yurikamome rail lines meet.

After paying by tapping our Suica card as we got off, we thought about grabbing a bite to eat in one of Lalaport’s restaurants. However, on our ride in we couldn’t help thinking that the scenery we’d seen probably looks really cool at night too. Since Commute by Boat ships depart from Toyosu on the hour at 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 p.m., we only had a 10-minute wait until the next one was heading out, so we decided to hop on and do the reverse route too.

Sure enough, the neon accents dotting the night sky and reflecting off the otherwise darkened water made for a special kind of beauty, with a touch of nostalgic sophistication.

As an added bonus, there was only one other passenger on the boat from Toyosu to Nihonbashi, meaning that we had an almost-private cruise for just 500 yen. So even if you’re not using the Commute by Boat line to actually commute, it’s still very much worth taking a ride on.

Related: Commute by Boat official website (Japanese, English)
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s always ready to reference Patlabor.