Tachikawa Cycling Guide: Showa Kinen Park’s 14 km and the Tama River

On to the Tama River cycling road: Tama River 50 km

On the riverbed of the Tama River, which flows along Tachikawa’s southern edge, there is a route called “Tama River 50 km,” set out by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government together with the wards and cities along the river. According to the page of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Urban Development, it was created to promote residents’ health: a continuous route of about 53 km for walking, running and strolling, using the riverbed and nearby land to link the area near the Hamura Intake Weir in Hamura City with the area near Daishibashi Ryokuchi (Daishi Bridge Green Space) in Ota Ward.

Fifty kilometres by name, about 53 by content. Three kilometres thrown in for free. You could call it false advertising, but it errs on the generous side, so nobody who runs it complains.

As places that hand out the route map, the metropolitan page lists, besides the Tokyo government’s street-planning section, the relevant departments of Ota and Setagaya wards and the cities of Tachikawa, Fuchu, Akishima, Chofu, Kunitachi, Fussa, Komae and Hamura. Tachikawa’s contact is the Parks and Green Spaces Division of its Urban Development Department. The map has two sides: the front covers Hamura to Fuchu, the back Fuchu to Ota Ward. Tachikawa is on the front, in the upstream half. From Hamura upstream to Ota Ward near the river mouth, the ten wards and cities on that list are joined by a single path.

This route was set out, from the start, as a path for people walking and running. To cyclists, the metropolitan page states it plainly: on Tama River 50 km, collisions between bicycles and pedestrians happen frequently. Cyclists should ride slowly and give way to pedestrians. When passing someone coming the other way, slow right down; when overtaking, check carefully around you. And to all users, it warns that cars use some sections of the route, that some sections are not asphalt-paved, and that you use the route at your own risk.

In other words, the Tama River path is not a road where the bicycle is king. That is where it differs from the bike-only course in Showa Kinen Park. In the park, a cyclist can ride without minding pedestrians. On the river path, the cyclist rides minding them. In a single day, a Tachikawa cyclist gets to be both king and servant.

Forty kilometres from the sea: the Tachikawa bank

On the Tama River walking map produced by the Keihin River Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, distances are marked along the river. The numbers, counted from the river mouth, read 40 to 42 km along the Tachikawa bank. Around Hino Bridge and Tachihi Bridge — the one the Tama Monorail runs across — it’s 40 km; the bank at Shibasakicho is 41 km; “Tachikawa Mizube no Gakko” (a riverside nature-learning area) is 42 km. Tachikawa sits a little over 40 kilometres up the river from the sea.

The map also notes that around Tachihi Bridge, in the Edo period, travellers on the Koshu Kaido highway crossed the Tama River, and that the Nekawa Ryokudo is a green path laid out along the Nekawa stream. Where the lowest end of the Nekawa path meets the Tama River is told in detail in another article in this series. Follow the green path down from the station’s South Exit and you come straight out on the river path.

Head upstream along the river path and, beside the walking path around Tama Ohashi Bridge, there is a monument. According to the walking map, it is the “Monument to the Second Checkpoint of the Cycling Event,” erected to commemorate the course of the Tokyo Olympics’ team cycling road race; the Netherlands won in 2 hours 26 minutes 31.19 seconds. That was the 1964 Tokyo Games.

Sixty-odd years ago, the world’s riders raced along the river a little upstream of Tachikawa. When I ride the river path, I don’t feel like timing myself at the monument. If I did, the gap between me and the Dutch team would make me want to get off the bike for good.

Besides the Olympic monument, the same map lists some oddly intriguing things on the banks a few kilometres upstream of Tachikawa. Around 44 km from the mouth, on the Akishima side, there is “Kujira Undo Koen” — Whale Sports Park — named after the fossil of a whale found in 1961, and now home to a baseball ground, tennis courts and a youth football pitch, it says. A whale, on the bank of the Tama River, more than 40 kilometres upstream from the sea. A little further upstream, around 45 km, is a sewage treatment plant that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began operating in 1978; on its grounds they grow kenaf, a plant used to make paper, and there is even a “Tamagawa Fureai Aquarium,” the map says. An aquarium inside a sewage treatment plant. Ride the river path and, every so often, you run into the world’s most unexpected combinations.

Ride upstream from Tachikawa and you find the whale-fossil park, the sewage plant’s aquarium, the Olympic monument. Ride downstream and you pass through Fuchu and Chofu until, near Daishi Bridge in Ota Ward, you finally catch a hint of the sea. Which way to go can be decided by the day’s wind. On a day with a headwind, I would advise against trying to reach the sea.

Tachikawa cycling by the numbers

• 14 — Kilometres of bike-only course in Showa Kinen Park. Walking on it is forbidden.
• 2,000 — Rental bikes at the park’s three cycle centers (about 900, 600 and 500).
• 1 — Number of cycle centers where you can rent a unicycle. Tachikawa Gate only.
• 125 — Metres above sea level at Nishisunacho, the highest point in Tachikawa. From there, a long, slow downhill runs southeast.
• 53 — Kilometres: the real length of “Tama River 50 km.” The extra three are a bonus.
• 40 — Kilometres up the Tama River from its mouth to the Tachikawa bank. The sea is quite far away.

The traveller’s detour quiz

At Showa Kinen Park, which of these can be rented only at the Tachikawa Gate cycle center? (A) A tandem bicycle (B) A unicycle (C) A bike with a child seat. The answer comes at the end.

Behind the fun of cycling, there are always traffic rules. And Tachikawa once had some rather eye-catching people who taught those rules on its street corners.

The traffic wardens in red, and today’s cycling rules

The “Tachikawa Okkobore-banashi” column (“spilled-over stories” — odds and ends) in Volume 1 of Tachikawa Monogatari introduces people who stood on Tachikawa’s street corners in the Showa era. From around 1965, Japan was swept by an unprecedented miniskirt craze. At the same time, traffic accidents were so numerous they were called the “traffic war,” and there were loud calls for something to be done.

The newsletter carries a photo taken at the North Exit of Tachikawa Station on 27 March 1971. At Expo ’70 in Osaka the previous year, the newsletter notes, the miniskirt was adopted even for the uniforms of female staff, and the women crossing at the crosswalk in the photo are dressed in the fashion of the day. And the skirt of the woman directing traffic beside them is on the short side too.

They were called traffic wardens (kotsu shidoin), and in Tachikawa they began work around 1970. Wearing red uniforms, they stood at key points in the city such as Azuma Bridge and Akebono Bridge, and went into schools to give road-safety classes using kamishibai — picture-card storytelling. Akebono Bridge was the name of a bridge over the Midori River, a channel dug to carry rainwater away from the north side of the station. The river was put underground in a culvert from the decade after 1955, and the bridge’s name now survives only as the name of an intersection. From 1973 the wardens worked as city employees. Until their work ended in 1981, they looked after road safety in Tachikawa, the newsletter says.

In the middle of the traffic war, wardens in red uniforms stand at the foot of Tachikawa’s bridges. With picture cards under their arms, they teach children how to cross the road. Doing serious work in the latest fashionable uniform — I see in that something of the spirit of Showa-era Tachikawa. Today’s road-safety posters rarely have that kind of flair. Among those who grew up in this town, there must be more than a few who once crossed a crosswalk with a hand held by one of those red uniforms.

Today’s cycling rules have changed in a plainer way, but a real one. Through an amendment to its ordinance, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has since 1 April 2020 required cyclists to carry insurance covering injury they cause to others in an accident. It applies to anyone in Tokyo who uses a bicycle for commuting, school, shopping or leisure, and, when a minor rides, to their guardians. Showa Kinen Park also states that bikes brought into the park must be insured. The ordinance also requires rental and bike-share operators to carry insurance. The red TS mark on the park’s rental bikes is one answer to that. According to the metropolitan guidance, if a blue or red TS mark is attached and it is within a year of the inspection date, the bike has insurance that helps cover compensation if you injure someone. Look for that little sticker somewhere on your rented bike.

As for helmets, under the revised Road Traffic Act that came into force on 1 April 2023, wearing a helmet when cycling became a duty to make an effort — a non-binding obligation — for riders of all ages. A Tokyo Metropolitan Government document says it has been confirmed that wearing a helmet lowers the fatality rate. It also cites figures released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department: in more than 60 percent of fatal cycling accidents in Tokyo, the rider suffered a fatal head injury, and in Tokyo from 2018 to 2022 the fatality rate without a helmet was about 2.3 times that with one. That figure, 2.3, suddenly raises the value of my head.

Then: at the foot of Akebono Bridge stood a warden in a red uniform. Now: at the Akebono Bridge intersection, where both the river and the bridge are gone, cyclists in helmets ride across.

The wardens are no longer on the street corners. In their place, there is a helmet on our heads.

Flatness, handed down from airplanes to bicycles

Why is Tachikawa so good for cycling?

Half the answer lies in the ground. Spread across the Musashino Plateau, Tachikawa’s streets fall from 125 metres at Nishisunacho in the northwest toward the southeast at an angle you hardly notice. Apart from the Tama River cliffs at the southern edge, it is broadly flat.

But the other half lies in who has used that flatness, and for what. At the end of the Taisho era, the army came looking for “vast, flat land” and built an airfield in Tachikawa. A runway stretched across the flat ground, a freight branch line was laid, and Japan’s first scheduled civil passenger flight took off. After the war it became a base, and in 1977 it was returned. On the returned flat land the national government built a park, and through the park it ran a 14-kilometre path just for bicycles. The old railway became a footpath.

The flatness was here from the beginning. But it was the building work done for airplanes, and the work of those who came after, that shaped it into something wide, continuous and open for anyone to ride. The ground chosen for a runway now catches children who have just had their training wheels taken off. Tachikawa’s bicycles run on a parting gift from the airplanes.

A town that is a joy to cycle through can be proud in a different way from a hilly town or a seaside one. There are three things you can tell people about Tachikawa. Its land was flat enough for Japan’s first scheduled civil passenger flight to take off from it. The park on that land has a 14-kilometre bike-only course, about 2,000 rental bikes and a center where you can even rent a unicycle. And head south, and you reach a 53-kilometre river path linking ten wards and cities. A town people tend to think of as plain turns out, once you start pedalling, to be rather generous.

It is a single ride on the Chuo Line from Shinjuku, a single ride on the Nambu Line from Kawasaki. You don’t need to bring your bike in a carry bag: walk from the station to the park gate, and 2,000 bicycles are waiting. If you want to test your legs one weekend, there are not many stretches of flat ground in Tokyo as generous as this.

In the evening, on the short slope back up from the river path to the plateau, I think: this may be the steepest hill in Tachikawa. That’s how few hills this town has.

Quiz answer

The answer is (B), the unicycle. According to the official website of Showa Kinen Park, the Tachikawa Gate cycle center is the only cycle center that rents unicycles, in sizes from 14 to 24 inches, which you can ride on the adjoining unicycle course.

Before you go

• From central Tokyo and Kanagawa: Tachikawa Station is a single ride from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line. A walking-route leaflet from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Environment gives Shinjuku to Tachikawa as 30 minutes on the Chuo Line. From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line links Kawasaki and Tachikawa stations with no change of trains.
• Cycling in Showa Kinen Park (official): https://www.showakinen-koen.jp/facility/facility_rental/ Prices, rental hours, bike types and how crowded it is can change, so check the official site before you go. Park opening hours vary by season (normally opening at 9:30).
• Directions (according to the official guide): Tachikawa Gate (about 1 minute on foot to the Tachikawa Gate cycle center) is about 18 minutes’ walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, or about 16 minutes from Tachikawa-Kita Station on the Tama Monorail. Nishi-Tachikawa Gate (about 2 minutes to its cycle center) is about 2 minutes from Nishi-Tachikawa Station on the JR Ome Line. For Sunagawa Gate (about 1 minute to its cycle center), take a Tachikawa Bus from stop No. 2 at the JR Tachikawa Station North Exit bus terminal, about 13 minutes, get off at “Showa Kinen Koen Sunagawa-guchi,” and walk about 2 minutes.
• All the ways to the park: https://www.showakinen-koen.jp/access/
• Bringing your own bike: According to the official FAQ, enter by any gate (Tachikawa and Nishi-Tachikawa have dedicated bicycle entrances) and always ride on the cycling course. Bikes with training wheels cannot use the course. Bikes you bring must also be insured, as required by the Tokyo ordinance. Bring a helmet if you can.
• Time needed: The bike-only course is about 14 km. The basic rental charge is per 3 hours, with extra for every 30 minutes beyond that (official price list). Allow time to park and walk among the flower fields and lawns too; planning for about half a day takes the pressure off.
• Tama River 50 km (Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Bureau of Urban Development): https://www.toshiseibi.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/kiban/tamariver/index.htm The route map can be downloaded from this page and is also handed out by the Parks and Green Spaces Division of Tachikawa’s Urban Development Department. Pedestrians first; cyclists ride slowly.
• Combine with: For a slow walk through Showa Kinen Park, see this series’ Showa Kinen Park article. Beyond Sunagawa Gate on the north side of the park run the Tamagawa Aqueduct and the long, strip-shaped fields of old Sunagawa village. For the Tama River, the route down the Nekawa green path from Tachikawa Station’s South Exit is the nearest (about 15 minutes on foot from the station to the path). Watching the monorail cross Tachihi Bridge from the riverside is a pleasure too.
• General tips: Carry an IC transit card such as Suica or PASMO for trains, the monorail and buses. Most official pages are in Japanese; a browser’s translate function helps.

After the ride, by Tachikawa Station’s North Exit

On a day when you’ve ridden the park’s 14 kilometres and pushed on to the river path, it isn’t only your legs: your shoulders and back, which have been gripping the handlebars all day, are stiff too.

A one-minute walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the 3rd floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), a hot yoga studio laid with lava-stone plates. It also offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30. You can take a lesson in the morning before heading to the park, or ride until closing time and drop in at night.

A trial yoga lesson costs ¥1,980 (tax included), with two bath towels, one face towel and a mat to rent included. Bring your helmet and backpack, and that’s all you need.

Pregnant guests cannot join the lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available. Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, who holds Japan’s top English qualification (Eiken Grade 1) and a perfect TOEIC score and once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and who lived in Alaska for three years, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself (visitors from abroad have even left Google reviews about the care they received in English); if you would like an English-friendly lesson, just say so when you book.

• On the Shore: https://ontheshore.jp/
• Book a trial lesson: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

On flat ground where airplanes once landed, a bicycle that has only just lost its training wheels wobbles along again today.

Cover photo: The riverside path on the Tama River’s left bank near Nekawa Kaigarazaka Bridge, Tachikawa, running through trees (Photo: MWE / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

• Tachikawa Air Raids: WWII History and a Memorial Walk Guide
• Tachikawa Autumn Leaves Guide: Ginkgo, Zelkova and Where to Walk
• Tachikawa Base Town History: Cola Bottles, Yuming, the Laundry Gate
• Tachikawa Air Base History Walk: The Sunagawa Struggle and After
• Tachikawa Sento Guide: Public Baths, Their History and Bath Etiquette
• Tachikawa Disaster Base and Life Safety Learning Center: A Guide
• Tachikawa Bridges Walk: ‘Nameless Bridge’ to a Double-Deck Crossing
• Tachikawa Cinema City Guide: Tokyo’s First Multiplex and Its Big Sound
• Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do
• Tachikawa Festivals Guide: Bon Dances, Flamenco, Nebuta and Yokai
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People, from Seiji Ozawa to a Comet
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People Who Passed Through the Town
• Tachikawa Public Art Walk: A Guide to the 109 Works of Faret Tachikawa
• Tachikawa Farms Guide: Farm Stands, Harvest Days and Tokyo’s Fields
• Tachikawa History: Japan’s Firsts, from Electric Cars to Sazae-san
• Tachikawa Folktales and Legends: A History Walk Through Old Stories
• Tachikawa Walk: Fusai-ji Temple’s National Treasure and Suwa Shrine
• Tachikawa Business Guide: Where West Tokyo Works and Starts Up
• Tachikawa Culture Guide: Ballet, Ice, Anime and Art Near the Station
• Tachikawa’s Green Future: Zero Carbon, Farmland and Springs Guide
• Tachikawa for Foreign Visitors: Haneda Bus, Things to Do, Future
• Tachikawa Population and Family Life: A Guide to the Town’s Future
• Tama Monorail Extension: When It Opens and Tachikawa’s Future Guide
• Tachikawa and Tokyo’s Next Big Earthquake: Disaster Base Guide
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: The Future of Tachikawa’s Unfinished Park
• Tachikawa Station Redevelopment: A Guide to the Future Station Area
• Tachikawa’s Next Decade: Tachihi, GREEN SPRINGS and a New Hotel Guide
• Tachikawa GREEN SPRINGS Guide: Goats, a Rooftop River, Things to Do
• Tachikawa Travel Guide: Things to Do, Walks and History West of Tokyo
• Tachikawa Walk: Slopes, River Terraces and a Flat City’s Hidden Tilt
• Tachikawa History Walk: How a Mulberry Village Became Tama’s Hub
• Tachikawa Airfield History: The 2:12 a.m. Flight to London, 1937
• Tachikawa Was Once in Kanagawa: A History Walk to the 1893 Transfer
• Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome: History, Guide and the Grand Prix’s Home
• Tachikawa Childhood History: Candy Shops, a Base Christmas, Showa Kids
• Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: Komorebi Village, Japanese Garden and Bonsai
• Tachikawa Libraries Guide: Raccoon Dogs, Lucky Cats, Local History
• Tachikawa Live Music Guide: Basement Venues and Where TM Meant Tama
• Tachikawa Manga Park Guide: 40,000 Manga in a Former City Hall
• Tachikawa Fireworks Festival Guide: History, Tips and Things to Do
• Akishima Day Trip from Tachikawa: Whale Fossil, Wisteria and History
• Fussa Day Trip from Tachikawa: Yokota Air Base History, Route 16 Walk
• Fussa Sake Brewery Walk: Day Trip from Tachikawa, Water and History
• Hachioji Castle Ruins from Tachikawa: History Walk and Silk Town Guide
• Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest
• Hino Day Trip from Tachikawa: Shinsengumi History Walk and Guide
• Kokubunji Walk from Tachikawa: Otaka-no-Michi Springs and History
• Kunitachi Walk from Tachikawa: Daigaku-dori, History and Yaho Tenmangu
• Mount Mitake Day Trip from Tachikawa: Wolf Shrine, Valley Walk Guide
• Ome Day Trip from Tachikawa: Showa Retro Walk, Things to Do, History
• Tachikawa Walk: Nekawa Green Path to the Tama River, a Riverside Guide
• Tachikawa Cat-Return Shrine Guide: History, Ema and Suitengu
• Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide
• Tachikawa at Night: Bar Alleys, Black Markets and Cinema History Walk
• Tachikawa Ramen and Udon Guide: Ramen Square and Noodle History
• Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky
• Tachikawa Old Villages Walk: History Guide, Shibasaki to Nishisuna
• Tachikawa Oni Park Guide: A Red Demon Slide and Trains for Kids
• Tachikawa Parks Guide: Things to Do Beyond Showa Kinen Park, a Walk
• Tachikawa Place Names: A History Walk Through Its Town-Name Origins
• Tachikawa Antarctic and Arctic Science Museum: Free Guide and History
• Tachikawa on a Rainy Day: Indoor Things to Do, a Local Guide
• Tachikawa History Museum Guide: Local History and Folklore, Free
• Tachikawa Cherry Blossoms Guide: Where to See Sakura, and the History
• Tachikawa Schools Walk: History of Night Classes, Bells, Antarctica
• Tachikawa Filming Locations Guide: Anime Pilgrimage and TV Dramas
• Tachikawa Silk History Walk: Japan’s No.1 Mulberry Village, Sunagawa
• Tachikawa Shopping Guide: Why It Has Everything, a History Walk
• Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa: A Walking Guide to Highlights and History
• Tachikawa and San Bernardino: The History of Tokyo’s First Sister City
• Tachikawa Souvenirs Guide: What to Buy, from Tokyo Sake to Paper
• Tachikawa Sports Guide: Things to Do for Fans, Runners and Walkers
• Tachikawa Station Guide: The History Walk of Tama’s Busiest Station
• Tachikawa in Summer: Things to Do, Water Play and Heat Tips Guide
• Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights
• Tachikawa Tachihi History Walk: Aircraft, a Beach and Things to Do
• Tachikawa History: The Samurai Clan Behind the City’s Name, a Walk
• Tama Monorail from Tachikawa: A Guide to Views, Mt. Fuji and History
• Tachikawa Tama River History Walk: Floods, Ferries and Bridges
• Tachikawa Walk: Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa History Guide
• Tachikawa Udo Guide: History of Tokyo’s Underground White Vegetable
• Tachikawa Trains Guide: Railway History and Where to Watch Trains
• Tachikawa Water History: Where the Tap Water Comes From, and Wells
• Tachikawa History: Why Tokyo’s First IKEA and Cinema Complex Came Here
• Tachikawa Wildlife Guide: Birdwatching, Fireflies and Tanuki Walks
• Tachikawa Yagawa Green Space Walk: Springs, Hake Cliffs and History
• Tachikawa from Yokota Air Base: A Weekend Guide and Things to Do

All Tachikawa Walks (English)