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Biking around Tama Lake: A super-easy, super-relaxing afternoon getaway from downtown Tokyo【Pics】

Casey Baseel Dec 10, 2024
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Less than an hour away from downtown, this Tokyo Lake is a beautiful and relaxing oasis from busy city life.

No other place in Japan has as much hustle and bustle as Tokyo, but if you’re feeling the need to get away from all that urban excitement, the beautiful, soothing shores of Tama Lake are less than an hour away from downtown. What’s more, unlike some of Japan’s countryside oases, you don’t need a car to get to Tama Lake, as it’s easily accessible by train via Musashi Yamato Station on the Seibu Tamako Line.

But once you get there, how should you get around? You could stroll around the lake on foot, or your could do what our Japanese-language reporter Ahiruneko did on his visit and hop on a rental bicycle.

Firing up the app for Hello Cycling (an automated service which lets you rent and drop off bikes from any of its registered parking stations and pay by credit card), Ahiruneko saw that there was a bike port just west of the station inside Sayama Park.

After picking out a bike, Ahiruneko hopped on, and was on his way toward the lake, following the Tama Lake Bicycle and Pedestrian Path.

The Tama Lake Bicycle and Pedestrian Path follows a pretty straight path from Musashi Yamato Station to Tama Lake. It’s not a completely straight shot, though, and somehow Ahiruneko managed to take a wrong turn, veering off to the left somewhere where he shouldn’t have.

Of course, “should” here only really applies to following the absolute fastest path to the lake. Since Ahiruneko’s real goal, though, was to take a relaxing bike ride with lovely scenery, even after making a “wrong” turn he was still in exactly the right place.

Tama Lake is entirely within the Tokyo prefectural limits, but it feels worlds away from the dense concentrations of concrete and crowds in districts like Shibuya or Shinjuku. Though Tama Lake is a man-made reservoir (officially, the body of water is called “Maruyama Reservoir”), it’s surrounded by forests with very little residential or commercial development.

Realizing that he was still south of the lake and moving west, Ahiruneko decided to head for the lake’s dam, the top of which also serves as a bride by which to access the north shore.

▼ ダム = dam

Following the route in the map above, it’s about a 30-minute bike ride from Murayama Reservoir to the top of the dam…

…and once you get there…

…you’ve got a nice view that stretches all the way to the horizon without being broken up by any skyscrapers or power lines.

After a short selfie break, Ahiruneko started pedaling again. Now on the north side, he started making his way the lake in a clockwise direction.

This route takes you past one of the few large buildings in the area, as you’ll go past the back side of Belluna Dome, previously known as Seibu Dome, the home stadium of the Seibu Lions professional baseball team.

▼ From dam to dome is about five minutes by bike.

Keep heading east, and at more or less the northeast corner of the lake you’ll come to a rise called Miharashi no Oka, or “Nice View Hill.”

And they aren’t kidding when they call it that.

Get here on a day like we did, when the sun is shining and the wind isn’t blowing too hard, and the mirror forms a mirror reflecting the brilliant blue of the sky above.

▼ You can even see Mt. Fuji from here!

▼ Belluna Dome to Miharashi no Oka (approximately 10 minutes)

Miharashi no Oka is at the northern tip of Sayama Park, and is actually the endpoint of the Tama Lake Bicycle and Pedestrian Path that Ahiruneko initially intended to take straight to the lake. So now he could take the official bike path south back towards Musashi Yamato Station, and along the way he came to the Murayamashita Reservoir Number One Water Intake Tower.

Despite the dour-sounding name, the Murayamashita Reservoir Number One Water Intake Tower is considered by many to be the symbol of Tama Lake, and it’s really quite picturesque, with its domed roof, arched windows, and exterior-wall columns. It’s even been called “the most beautiful water intake tower in Japan,” which, while an unofficial and unusually specific title, is still an impressive one.

▼ Miharashi no Oka to Murayamashita Reservoir Number One Water Intake Tower (2 minutes)

From there, it’s about a five-minute ride back to Musashi Yamato Station. Hello Cycling lets you return your bike to any of its parking stations with empty spaces, which meant Ahiruneko could drop his back at the same Sayama Park port he’d gotten it from earlier in the day.

▼ Murayamashita Reservoir Number One Water Intake Tower to Musashi Yamato Station

The total ride around the lake took about an hour, but you can easily stretch that out if you’re stopping to take pictures, enjoy some snacks or drinks you brought with you, or maybe even sit in the park and eat a full picnic lunch. Hello Cycling’s prices in Tokyo vary by the exact model of bike you rent, but an hour’s ride will only cost you between 430 and 800 yen (US$2.85 and US$5.35), making a trip out to, and a ride around, Tama Lake very doable whenever you feel like getting out of the city for an afternoon.

Related: Hello Cycling
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