Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide

Mount Fuji sits on the path of the winter-solstice sunset

I calculated the direction and distance from the approximate coordinates of Tachikawa Station to those of Fuji’s summit. The result: an azimuth of about 239 degrees, and a straight-line distance of about 72.6 km. Southwest, about 30 degrees south of due west.

“One Hundred Views of Fuji from Kanto” (関東の富士見百景), compiled by the Kanto Regional Development Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, describes Fuji as seen from the Tama River green space in Tachikawa as rising to the southwest, behind the point where the Tanzawa and Chichibu mountain ranges meet. My calculation agrees with that description.

Now put it beside the observatory’s figure. The winter-solstice sunset is at 241.4 degrees. Fuji is at 239 degrees. The difference is just over two degrees. Seen from Tachikawa, Mount Fuji sits just a little short of where the sun sets around the winter solstice.

The point where the sun sets moves south from 300 degrees, in the north, around the summer solstice, through autumn, reaches its limit at 241.4 degrees at the winter solstice, and then turns back north. On the way there and on the way back, it passes over Fuji at 239 degrees once each. Because Fuji rises well above the horizon, the exact position and time at which the sun touches the summit shift slightly with the terrain and where you stand. But the logic — that it passes twice, once before the solstice and once after — does not change.

That is the answer to our opening mystery. According to a 2019 notice from the Tama Monorail company, from the platform of Shibasaki-Taiikukan Station, next to Tachikawa-Minami, “Diamond Fuji” — the moment the sun sits on Fuji’s summit like a jewel — can be seen at about 16:09 to 16:12 from around 6 to 12 December, and again from around 31 December to 6 January. Once before the 22nd, the solstice, and once after. The setting sun does not land on Fuji’s summit to avoid the solstice. It passes twice, on the way to the solstice and on the way back. Diamond Fuji from the monorail’s windows and stations is covered in detail in this series’ story on the Tama Monorail. Note that to watch from the platform you need an admission ticket (nyujoken, a platform ticket). Along the line as a whole, the company’s 2023 notice gave the viewing period for the section from Tama Center to Tachikawa-Minami as 14 November to 29 January the following year. The further south the station, the earlier; the further north, the closer to the solstice. The setting sun hands Fuji’s summit along the monorail line from station to station.

Fuji also survives in a Tachikawa place name: Fujimicho (富士見町), “the town with a view of Fuji,” one of the town names created in 1942. As this series’ story on place names explains, the name comes from the fine view of Fuji to the west from the edge of the river terrace. Perhaps the people who chose that name watched, on winter evenings from the top of the terrace, as the sun sank toward Fuji.

The Tama River green space in the “Hundred Views” is not the only place to see Fuji. A local blog that has recorded more than 5,000 night walks contains a passage from February 2026 about Fuji in the sunset seen from the connecting passage at Seibu-Tachikawa Station. The writer notes that, perhaps because of snow the day before, it was cold and the air was clear; seeking a spot even a little higher, they looked out from the station’s connecting passage and saw a mountain range spread sideways, with Fuji’s head poking out above it. A station passage can be a fine observation deck. In a flat city with few high places, the stations themselves are the lookouts.

The same writer lists, among the principles of night walking, “Walk for peace of mind and to put your thoughts in order.” Night walks have their weaknesses, of course. In a record from the summer of 2022, they honestly write that they went to see the Zanbori River, which drops down the Tachikawa Cliff Line and turns almost at a right angle; after watching the water fall down the cliff’s difference in height like a dam, they could not get close to the lower bend — and besides, it was too dark to see properly. You go out looking for a night view, and it is too dark to see. That is probably the truth of night walking. Which is exactly why seeing Fuji is such a pleasure.

Incidentally, it is no coincidence that the winter Fuji the writer saw was so sharp. Tachikawa’s winters are sunny.

January is the sunniest month

There is no Japan Meteorological Agency observation point inside Tachikawa. The nearest is the AMeDAS station (the agency’s automated weather network) at Fuchu, about 6 km to the east. According to the normals for 1991–2020, Fuchu gets 1,986.2 hours of sunshine a year — about 60 hours more than the 1,926.7 hours at the “Tokyo” station in Otemachi in the city centre. Tama’s sky is a little sunnier than central Tokyo’s.

Look month by month, and an even more surprising number appears. Fuchu’s sunniest month is not midsummer. It is January, with 201.3 hours. December follows, at 182.0 hours. Midsummer July gets 148.1 hours, August 178.0. The least is June, the rainy season, at 123.6 hours. Summer’s blue skies leave a strong impression, but counted in hours of sunshine, winter is far longer.

Less rain falls in winter, too. Fuchu’s January precipitation is 56.9 mm, not even a quarter of the 246.7 mm of September, the wettest month. Dry air and a sky with few clouds. Fuji is easy to see from Tachikawa in winter not because the mountain is near, but because the conditions in the sky line up. When the “Hundred Views” description says Fuji is seen especially well in winter when the weather is good, the weather statistics back it up.

The price is cold mornings. Fuchu’s normal January minimum temperature is −0.7°C, nearly 2 degrees lower than the 1.2°C of “Tokyo” in the city centre. In the city centre, January mornings do not, on average, fall below zero; around Tachikawa, a normal January morning is below freezing. A morning when Fuji looks crystal clear is usually also a morning when you need gloves. Winter Fuji at dawn is a view you are shown in exchange for the cold.

A wayfarer’s quiz

At Fuchu, the Japan Meteorological Agency station nearest to Tachikawa, which month has the most hours of sunshine in the year? (A) August (B) May (C) January. The answer is at the end.

On a frozen winter morning, if you go down to the Tama River, the surface is sometimes smoking white. Is that fog?

Morning mist on the Tama River: fog, or haze?

The Japan Meteorological Agency’s definitions of forecasting terms are surprisingly strict. Fog (kiri) is a state in which visibility is less than 1 km because of tiny water droplets suspended in the air. Mist or haze (moya) is a state in which visibility is between 1 km and 10 km because of tiny suspended water droplets or moist fine particles. The only difference is how far you can see.

We usually call the whiteness of a river in the morning “morning mist.” But by the Meteorological Agency’s terms, as long as you can see the far bank 1 km away, it is not fog but moya. At the “Tokyo” station in the city centre, fog is observed on just 1.3 days a year on average. In the middle of a city, a morning when you cannot see 1 km ahead is that rare.

By the Tama River, things may be a little different. The usual explanation for something white drifting over a river on a cold morning is that the river water is warmer than the chilled air. As we saw, January morning minimums at Fuchu fall below freezing in a normal year. Mornings in Tama, colder than central Tokyo, ought to line up the conditions that turn a river surface white. But I could not find, in what I looked into, any figure for how many days fog or haze is observed on the Tama River at Tachikawa. So here I leave the naming of the morning whiteness on the Tama River to the eyes of whoever is looking. If you can see the trees on the far bank, it is moya. If you cannot, it is fog. And anyone who walks the morning embankment worrying about the difference is probably a bit of an oddball.

To see the morning mist on the Tama River, a good route runs from near Shibasaki-Taiikukan Station, south of central Tachikawa, along the Negawa Greenway and out onto the Tama River’s riverbed. The Tama River green space of the “Hundred Views” lies beyond it. On a clear winter morning, beyond the white river surface, to the southwest, you may see Fuji just catching the morning sun. Over the Tachihi Bridge, a monorail not long after the first train of the day crosses. The Negawa Greenway and the Tama River riverbed are walked in this series’ story on the Negawa and the Tama River.

Showa Kinen Park in the morning opens at 8:30

One more destination for a morning walk: Showa Kinen Park (Showa Memorial Park, a national government park). According to the park’s guide, the paid area opens at 9:30. Closing time varies with the season: 17:00 from March to October, 16:30 from November to February, and 18:00 on weekends and holidays from April to September. And only the free area of the Green Culture Zone opens at 8:30.

Around the summer solstice, the sun rises at 4:25, so there are more than four hours before the free area opens. For an early-morning walker, the park is still asleep. In those hours you walk paths with no set opening times, like the Negawa Greenway or the path along the Tamagawa Aqueduct. Set out with the sunrise, and by the time the gates open you will already have worked up a sweat.

Around the park in the morning, the first man-made sound you hear probably comes from the sky. Tachikawa Airfield, next to the park, is now a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force airfield, and according to the City of Tachikawa, flights normally begin at 8 a.m. on weekdays, with an average of roughly 50 regular take-offs and landings a day. On Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, as a rule, there are no training flights. On weekday mornings, shortly before the park’s free area opens, the airfield’s day begins too. On land that was once a single airfield, one part wakes at 8:00 and the other at 8:30. If the park feels quieter on weekend mornings than on weekdays, it may not only be because of the crowds.

In winter, the story changes. Around the solstice, the sun rises at 6:47; in early January, at 6:51. When the free area opens at 8:30, the sun is still low, and frost on the meadows and the long shadows of trees remain. On Wikimedia Commons there is a photograph taken in the park’s Green Culture Zone just after 10:30 a.m. on New Year’s Day 2021. The park’s trees spread across the foreground, and beyond them, above a line of mountains, a white Mount Fuji floats. The clarity of the New Year’s morning air is captured just as it was.

The closing time reflects the turning seasons, too. In winter the park closes at 16:30. The earliest sunset in early December is at 16:28, so on the days with the earliest dusk of the year, the sun sets almost exactly as the park closes. Leave the park and walk to the station with the sunset glow still lingering in the western sky behind you. Beyond that western sky is Fuji.

From night to morning: one full turn of a Tachikawa day

Let me lay out the hours we have walked as a single winter day.

At 16:28 in early December, the sun sets. On the platform at Shibasaki-Taiikukan Station, with luck, the setting sun touches Fuji’s summit a little before that. On the North Exit deck of Tachikawa Station, the tide of 24,000 people who gathered during the day spills over on their way home. At 5 p.m., about 600,000 lights come on in the zelkovas of Sun Sun Road. After 8 p.m., the sky over the airfield north of the station falls quiet, and overhead only the lights of the monorail come and go. The GREEN SPRINGS plaza stays open all night.

The next morning, in air that in a normal year at Fuchu drops below freezing, the surface of the Tama River smokes white. If that whiteness hides things 1 km away, it is fog; if not, it is moya. Before 7, at last, the sun rises. At 8:30, the gates to the free area of Showa Kinen Park open. If it is clear, under the January sky with the year’s longest hours of sunshine, Fuji shows above the mountains to the southwest.

At the start, I asked whether Tachikawa has a night view. Now I can answer. Tachikawa’s night view is not a sea of light seen from the windows of a tall building. It is a station front where light layers up on the ground, on the second floor and in the air; a Fuji that sits on the path of the winter-solstice sunset; and the whiteness of a river on a morning below freezing. Precisely because this is a flat city with few tall buildings, the sky is wide and you can see time moving.

More than half a century has passed since the days when the noise of transport planes was a problem. Today, Tachikawa’s sky has been handed over to the setting sun, to Fuji, and to the lights of the monorail.

Early December, 16:28. On the North Exit deck, the earliest night of the year begins.

Quiz answer

The answer is (C), January. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency’s normals, Fuchu gets 201.3 hours of sunshine in January, the most of the year. Midsummer July gets 148.1 hours, and the least is June, the rainy season, at 123.6 hours.

Before you go

• Getting to Tachikawa: From Shinjuku, take the JR Chuo Line; Tachikawa Station is on the line. Check the current timetable before you set off.
• The North Exit deck: Right outside the North Exit ticket gates of JR Tachikawa Station. For the night view, walk from the North Exit deck toward Tachikawa-Kita Station and you can see three tiers of light: ground, second floor and monorail.
• Night views and Fuji from the Tama Monorail: From Tachikawa-Kita or Tachikawa-Minami Station. After Shibasaki-Taiikukan Station, the line crosses the Tama River above the Tachihi Bridge. The company announces the Diamond Fuji season and times for each station every year. You need a platform admission ticket to watch from the platform, and some days the weather will hide it: https://www.tama-monorail.co.jp/
• Tama River green space (one of the “Hundred Views of Fuji from Kanto”): From Shibasaki-Taiikukan Station on the Tama Monorail, head southeast along the Negawa Greenway; it lies beyond the greenway, about 15 minutes’ walk from the South Exit of JR Tachikawa Station. Description (Japanese): https://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/chiiki/fujimi0057.html
• Showa Kinen Park: The paid area opens at 9:30, the free Green Culture Zone at 8:30. Closing times vary with the season. Latest details on the official site: https://www.showakinen-koen.jp/
• Tachikawa Illumination: Sun Sun Road in winter. Check the dates and lighting hours for each year on the official site: https://tachikawaillumination.com/
• Sunrise and sunset times: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Ephemeris Computation Office (values for Tokyo; Tachikawa is slightly later): https://eco.mtk.nao.ac.jp/koyomi/dni/
• Practical tips: Carry an IC transport card such as Suica or PASMO; it works on JR trains and the monorail alike. Winter mornings by the river drop below freezing, so bring gloves and a warm layer. The airfield next to the park is an active Self-Defense Force airfield; follow any notices around it.
• Combine it with: the history of the night-time bars and alleys in this series’ story on Tachikawa at night; the monorail’s windows and Diamond Fuji in the story on the Tama Monorail; the Tama River and the Negawa Greenway in the story on the Negawa and the Tama River; and, for a day under a roof, the story on rainy days.

At the start of the night, by the North Exit of Tachikawa Station

Wait for Fuji in the winter dusk, watch the night view from the deck, go down to the river in the morning. Walk to the timetable of Tachikawa’s sky and your body ends up thoroughly chilled — all the more if you stood on the embankment on a morning below freezing.

One minute’s walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), a hot yoga studio heated by lava-stone plates. Besides lava-stone hot yoga, it offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lesson.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30. Whether you are back from the Tama River in the morning or finishing a night walk on the deck, there is time to drop in. It is already open half an hour before the free area of Showa Kinen Park opens.

A trial yoga lesson costs ¥1,980 including tax, with two bath towels, one face towel and a yoga mat included in the rental. Take off your gloves and come as you are.

Pregnant guests cannot take part in 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.

Studio information: https://ontheshore.jp/ — trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

Below the deck, one of the last buses of the night pulls out. Will Fuji show in the southwestern sky again tomorrow morning?

Cover photo: The North Exit of Tachikawa Station at night, with Isetan Tachikawa lit up beyond the pedestrian deck. (Photo: Hector Martin / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

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