Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights

Zelkova and magnolia: Sun Sun Road through the seasons

The stars of Sun Sun Road are its trees.

In its 2024 illumination announcement, the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association describes the road as a lively, special area lined mainly with zelkova trees, a symbol of the city of Tachikawa. The same announcement counts 48 zelkovas as the trees that represent Sun Sun Road.

The zelkova is the city tree, and it is a tree that local life has long relied on. At the Komin-en, an open-air museum of old farmhouses in Saiwaicho in the north of the city, stands a three-storey pawn storehouse moved from an old family home in Sunagawa, believed to date from the late Edo or early Meiji period (the mid-to-late nineteenth century). According to the city, its beams and plank walls make lavish use of expensive zelkova wood. Trees that once became beams and storehouse walls now stand in a row of forty-eight in front of the station, waiting for people. Wood that once guarded pawned goods in the back of a storehouse has become the landmark where people say “meet me by the trees”. That is a promotion.

In spring, while it is still chilly, white flowers open. These are the kobushi magnolias the city booklet mentions. Kobushi bloom before their leaves come out, so it looks as if white lamps have suddenly been switched on at the tips of winter branches. The zelkovas bud afterwards.

Summer is the season of shade. The monorail track and the zelkova branches block the sun twice over. The Chiba University report notes that ground-floor restaurants and cafés set out terrace seating and bring life to the street. The same report lists among the area’s features benches and tree shade that invite you to linger, bollards and benches that blend into the town, signs that are fun to discover, and directional signs that foreign visitors can understand. For anyone avoiding the sun, this must be one of the coolest passages near the station. On a road named Sun Sun, people in midsummer walk along hunting for shade.

In autumn the zelkovas change colour. From the upper floors of GREEN SPRINGS, on the west side of the road, you can look down and see a band of red and yellow trees running north beneath the monorail. Then in winter the zelkovas drop their leaves and become bare branches. Those branches become the stage set for the winter show.

Sun Sun Road in numbers

• 40 — width of the road in metres. In city planning, it belongs to the “40 metres or more” class. Not one car is allowed in.
• About 550 — length in metres. End to end in under ten minutes if you hurry. Almost nobody hurries.
• 1,865 — entries in the nickname contest. Only one was chosen, but more than one person may have written “Sun Sun”.
• 48 — zelkovas that represent Sun Sun Road. In winter each one carries about 10,000 bulbs.
• About 600,000 — bulbs in the winter illumination. Even at 10,000 per tree for all 48, there are some 120,000 left over. Presumably the other trees and decorations get them.
• 5 April 2003 — opening day. In Japan you come of age at twenty; this road is well past it.

The wanderer’s quiz

The official name of Sun Sun Road is “Tachi 8-1-1 Urban Axis Line”. What does the first number, 8, stand for?

• A. The road is as wide as eight traffic lanes
• B. The road is for bicycles and pedestrians
• C. It was the eighth road to be planned

The answer comes near the end of this article.

The road becomes a festival stage

A wide road is also a vessel for gathering people.

The event the city booklet names first among those held on this road is the Tachikawa Yoito Festival (立川よいと祭り). According to the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association, its floats and festival music (ohayashi), its mando mikoshi — portable shrines hung with lanterns — and its minyo nagashi, a procession of folk dancing, have been handed down since 1989, the first year of the Heisei era. The 2026 festival is the 38th, so the arithmetic works. Sun Sun Road opened in 2003. The festival is fourteen years older than the road it now takes over. Thirty-eight festivals: since 1989, local people pulling the floats, shouldering the lanterns and practising the music have carried it all the way to that number. The wide road came later. The festival knew this town’s autumns first.

In 2026 the 38th festival is held on Sunday 11 October, on Sun Sun Road, from 13:00 to 21:00. There will be processions of lantern shrines and floats, festival music, folk dancing, taiko drumming, YOSAKOI dance, torch twirling and a show of popular songs. This year a talk show by a rakugo storyteller with Tachikawa connections and a monkey performance are also planned. The organiser is the Tachikawa Yoito Festival executive committee, with the city and the Tachikawa Regional Culture Promotion Foundation as co-organisers. The subtitle is “A Symphony of Light and Sound”. The association’s notice invites people to enjoy the festival from the bustle of the afternoon into the night, when the lantern shrines and festival music take over. Under the monorail, the lanterns sway. Winter is not the only time this road becomes a road of light.

There are even practice sessions for the folk dancing. According to the foundation, the 2026 practice repertoire was the “Shin Tachikawa Ondo”, the “Tokyo Ondo”, the “Tanko Bushi” (a coal miners’ song that every Japanese summer dance seems to include), Yukio Hashi’s “Koi o Suru Nara” and Haruo Minami’s “Chanchiki Okesa”. The practice venue was the third-floor meeting room of the main building at the Tachikawa Keirin velodrome. Rehearsing festival dances at a bicycle-racing stadium: I think that is a very Tachikawa combination. Bring a towel and a drink.

Autumn on Sun Sun Road has other faces too. During the Faret Tachikawa Art Museum Day in October 2026, a market of craft art and goods opens on Sun Sun Road on the 10th and the 12th. One of the events is a theatre parade: a troupe based at Tachikawa Sozosha, a culture centre near the Tama River, processes along the road with local children and giant puppets. The association’s event archive also records “Sun Sun Road Open Cafe” events in 2022 and 2023. The open-air cafés the 2004 guidelines “strongly requested” did reach this road — at least as events.

After the festival the road goes quiet for a while. Then, on the first day of November, it wakes up again.

Tachikawa Illumination: 600,000 lights on 48 zelkovas

According to the association’s 2024 announcement, Sun Sun Road had for a long time been home to an illumination called “Tachikawa Sansan Illumination”, which coloured Tachikawa’s winters. Sansan, written with the characters for brilliant light. Here, half of the mystery of the name is lit up, just a little. For the winter months at least, the road shines exactly as its name says.

In 2024 that illumination was reborn as “2024 Tachikawa Illumination: Avenue of Stars”. It ran from 1 November 2024 to 13 January 2025. The organiser was the Tachikita Area Management association, with the Tachikawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association and Tachihi Holdings cooperating, and the city of Tachikawa supporting. According to the announcement, the trees along Sun Sun Road were decorated with about 600,000 bulbs, and the 48 zelkovas that represent the road were each given about 10,000 lights. A fir tree at the southern end became the “BIG TREE”, the entrance to the light. The announcement treated the line of trees as a starry sky and called it “a 550-metre avenue of stars”.

In 2025 the illumination ran from 1 November to 18 January 2026. The lighting ceremony was held on a special stage in front of the head office of Tama Shinkin Bank. According to the city, no fewer than thirteen mascot characters with Tachikawa connections gathered for that year’s ceremony: the city’s Kururin, Tachihi Group’s Tappi-kun and Tappi-chan, the bank’s RISURU, the monorail’s Tamao, the toy maker Kotobukiya’s Udora, and more. Less a lighting ceremony than a class reunion. (Japan’s towns and companies have mascot characters, called yuru-kyara, the way other countries have logos.) The special guest was the idol group Rosy Chronicle. According to the association, they sing the theme song of the TV anime Kaiju Sekai Seifuku, which is set in Tachikawa, Tokyo. A song from an anime set in Tachikawa switched on the lights in Tachikawa’s trees. Characters from that anime were also listed as expected guests at the ceremony.

Then 2026. According to the official Tachikawa Illumination website and the association’s notice, this year it runs from 1 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, lit from 17:00 to 24:00, with Sun Sun Road decorated with about 600,000 bulbs. The lighting ceremony on 1 November is planned again for the special stage in front of the Tama Shinkin Bank head office, starting at 17:30. The guest, following last year, is Rosy Chronicle; according to the official site, viewing places are allocated by lottery, with applications closing at 20:00 on 15 October. Dance and gospel performances follow the ceremony. During the illumination there is a photo campaign for posting pictures and a coupon for exploring the area.

On five days — 18 to 20 December, and 24 and 25 December — the “TACHIKAWA WINTER MARKET” brings food trucks, a market and music stages. Look at the line-up on the official site and you see how deep this town’s bench is. An ensemble, a brass octet, piano and violin, opera arias, kids’ dance, cheerleading. The professional sports talk shows list eight clubs and groups, including teams carrying Tachikawa’s name, and even the Tokyo branch of the Japan Keirin Cyclists’ Association. Among the performers is a group called the “Shibasaki Curling Association”. In the programme, its act is listed as “band”. I confess I am a little curious what they slide down the ice instead of stones. The first line of the official website reads: “This is the Milky Way of winter.”

The illumination is not the same every year, though. Its name and dates have changed over time. Before you go, always check that year’s official website.

One blogger who walked around Tachikawa recommends Sun Sun Road, the promenade that runs from the station towards IKEA, for an evening or night walk, adding that the lights at night are pretty. The sentence is short, but most people who have walked this road in winter would say the same.

Walking under the lights on a winter night, you suddenly notice something. There are no headlights on this road. What shines is the trees, the monorail windows, and the smartphones in people’s hands. Perhaps the lights look so calm precisely because no car can come in.

Why build a car-free road in front of the station?

Back to my opening question. Why did Tachikawa put a 40-metre road that cars cannot use on the best land in front of the station?

Half the answer, as the documents reveal it, is this. The road was drawn as an “axis” to assemble a town on the site of a former base. Station-front shopping on one side, an office district on the other, a national park at the far end. To let people walk between them, the space under the monorail was handed over, whole, to people. The 2004 guidelines dreamed of open-air cafés and a “Tama’s only one” facility on that axis, endured a string of failed tenders, and sixteen years later got very nearly the town they had imagined.

The numbers offer a clue too. The city booklet cites the 2015 national census: Tachikawa’s night-time population was 176,295 and its daytime population 201,294. Divide the second by the first and you get a daytime population index of 114.2. Every day, more than 74,000 people come into Tachikawa from outside the city and more than 49,000 leave it. Daytime Tachikawa has some 25,000 more people than night-time Tachikawa. A town like that badly needs places where people from elsewhere can walk, meet up and sit down.

The other half, as I see it, is this. A road for cars is a road for passing through. A road for people is a road for stopping. Festival floats pass along it, market tents line it, giant puppets parade down it, and in winter its trees become stars. None of that could happen on a road for cars. Tachikawa kept the widest place in front of its station not for people passing through, but for people who stop. A town often called a place where you change trains made a place where you do not change trains — you stay. That is a traveller’s self-indulgent reading. The other half of the answer you can work out yourself, on a bench under the zelkovas.

On a weekend between November and January, take the Chuo Line from Shinjuku in the late afternoon. You reach Tachikawa in about 30 minutes, and by the time you go down the North Exit stairs, the lights will be coming on. Even people used to the illuminated avenues of central Tokyo have probably never seen a band of light with no sound of traffic.

Quiz answer

The answer is B: the road is for bicycles and pedestrians. According to the city’s guidelines, the 8 in “Tachi 8-1-1” is the category “special street = bicycle and pedestrian road”, and the 1 that follows is the scale, “road width = 40 metres or more”. The road numbered 8 is not an eight-lane highway. It is a road with no traffic lanes at all.

Before you go

• Getting there from Tachikawa Station: Leave JR Tachikawa Station by the North Exit, cross the elevated pedestrian deck, and head for the area under the Tama Monorail. The road starts at Midorikawa-dori Avenue and runs about 550 metres north along the monorail. It is right next to Tachikawa-Kita Station on the monorail. The tourism association describes it as “3 minutes’ walk from Tachikawa Station North Exit”.
• From central Tokyo and Kanagawa: About 30 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line (according to a Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Environment leaflet), and 40 minutes from Tokyo Station by Special Rapid service (according to the city of Tachikawa). From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line links Kawasaki Station and Tachikawa Station with no change of trains. Check that day’s timetable.
• How long to allow: No official walking time is given. At about 550 metres end to end, it takes under ten minutes without stopping — but this is a road built for stopping, so allow more.
• 2026 Tachikawa Illumination: 1 November 2026 to 17 January 2027, 17:00 to 24:00 (according to the official announcement). Check the official site for the lighting ceremony, the WINTER MARKET and what happens in rain. https://tachikawaillumination.com/
• 38th Tachikawa Yoito Festival: Sunday 11 October 2026, 13:00 to 21:00, cancelled in stormy weather (according to the Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association). https://tokyo-tachikawa.org/event/16759/
• Latest events: Tachikawa Tourism and Convention Association, Tachikawa Kanko Navi. https://tokyo-tachikawa.org/event/
• What to combine it with: GREEN SPRINGS is on the west side of the road, the Faret Tachikawa public art collection on the east side, and Showa Kinen Park beyond the northern end. The Tamashin Museum of Art is on the ground floor of the Tama Shinkin Bank head office along the road. Spend the day in the park and the museum, then walk back to the station under Sun Sun Road’s lights after dark, and you have a winter day in Tachikawa.
• Etiquette: This road is for bicycles and pedestrians, so bicycles do use it. On event days it gets crowded; keep an eye on those around you.
• General tips: Carry an IC transit card such as Suica or PASMO for the trains and the monorail, and check opening days and times on official websites before you set out, as events change year to year.

After the lights, at Tachikawa Station North Exit

An evening spent walking under the winter illumination chills you more than you expect. You walk slowly, looking up, shoulders hunched. If you want to warm up and loosen that body before heading back to the station, On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店) is a one-minute walk from the North Exit of JR Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of the Etoile Building, 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo.

It is a lava-stone hot yoga studio: you practise on a floor 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.

The studio is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30. You could take a class while you wait for the 17:00 switch-on, and then step out onto a Sun Sun Road already lit.

First-timers can book a trial yoga lesson for ¥1,980 including tax, which includes the rental of two bath towels, one face towel and a mat. Pregnant guests cannot join 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/
• Trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

From the walkway back to the station, turn around. Under the monorail, a band of light runs north. The road where no car has ever driven is, once again tonight, the brightest one in town.

Cover photo: Sun Sun Road running north beneath the elevated Tama Monorail track, lined with trees on both sides (July 2026) (Photo: 深鸣 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

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