Weekend/CULTURE & MORE: Take the time to enjoy river city Tokyo

Fallen cherry blossom petals colored the river pale pink as I toured the Nihonbashigawa river in a 12-seat electric boat on a sunny Saturday afternoon in April. Although trucks and cars roared on expressways overhead, the river was quiet and calm.

Cherry blossoms cover the water as an electric cruise boat sails on the Nihonbashigawa river.(SHOKO AZUMA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

A local group, Tokiwabashi Forum, organized the tours as part of an annual cherry blossom festival at Tokiwabashi park near Tokyo Station in Chiyoda Ward.

The tours--offered for the first time--were designed to familiarize passengers with the river lifestyle and neighborhood history. I'd always wanted to see what the city looked like from a boat on the Nihonbashigawa river, so it suited me perfectly.

About 80 people took the tours that left from Tokiwabashi pier.

Tokiwabashi Forum was set up in November by locals in the public and private sectors on both sides of the Nihonbashigawa river--Otemachi and Nihonbashi--to revitalize the area around Tokiwabashi bridge and the park.

The 4.8-kilometer river, a branch of the Kandagawa river, runs through Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward and Chuo Ward, to join the Sumidagawa river.

Our volunteer tour guide, Yosuke Hasegawa, 61, reminded us to put on our life preservers before getting on the boat. He then shouted, "All aboard." We clambered aboard eagerly, ready for a 30-minute tour that would pass under 13 bridges.

We glided away from the pier and soon arrived at one of the tour's highlights--the famous arched stone bridge at Nihonbashi. "Take a look at the lion reliefs on the side of the bridge below the roadway," Hasegawa said. "You can't see them clearly from land."

Nihonbashi bridge was first built in 1603 and reconstructed many times. The current bridge dates from 1911.

When we reached the Edobashi bridge, our captain turned the boat around and we cruised up river to the Takaradabashi bridge.

Hasagawa said the Nihonbashigawa river is largely influenced by the ebb and flow of the sea, with the current running up or downstream depending on the time of the day. The difference in tide levels is about 2.8 meters. "At ebb tide, big boats could get their hulls scraped. But we don't have to worry about our boat," he said.

Soon we came to a railroad bridge adorned with another relief: a symbol of the Japanese National Railways (now Japan Railways). As we moved further upstream, we reached a spot where the riverbank was lined with stonewalls built during the Edo Period (1603-1867). I was pleased to see the old stones. Almost everywhere else, the riverbanks are buried under concrete. "Tokyo used to be one of the world's great lagoon cities. Large parts of the rivers and canals were reclaimed, but you can still find some signs of the old days," Hasegawa said. "The cityscape would be far better without the expressways."

The 30-minute adventure was over. It seemed too quick. I enjoyed it so much. Hasegawa then told us of another river tour opportunity: "If you prefer longer tours, you can join ours next month."

When he talked about "ours," Hasegawa was referring to tours offered by the Kandagawa Fune no Kai (Kandagawa riverboat tours society). He set up the organization in 1979 with friends from the Tokyo Green Y's Men's Club, a YMCA group.

Twice a year, the society gives a tour of the Kandagawa, Nihonbashigawa, Sumidagawa and Onagigawa rivers. The tour takes about two and a half hours.

Hasegawa said: "We started out inviting elementary school children. We wanted them to become interested in local history and the importance of our ecosystem. Soon after, it became apparent that their parents were eager to take the tours, too, and we began offering paid tours for adults. As of October 2006, more than 11,000 people have taken our tours."

As the number of waterborne tourists attests, more Tokyoites are becoming interested in checking out their neighborhood waterfront environments. The nonprofit organization Enjoy Eco School started offering three different waterfront tours in 2004. More than 1,500 people have joined the tours.

The most popular is the Kandagawa-Nihonbashigawa rivers tour. "A wide range of people have taken our eco tours," said an NPO staff member. "But families and middle-aged and older people make up the majority."

Hasegawa at the Kandagawa Fune no Kai said: "Before World War II, our father's generation used to swim and fish in the Nihonbashigawa river. Although it was polluted during the postwar high-growth period, it's much cleaner these days. The river certainly doesn't smell as bad as it used to."

This might be partly thanks to local efforts. People are not just riding on the rivers; some are actually cleaning the local tributaries themselves.

The Meikyo Nihonbashi Hozonkai group, hoping to preserve Nihonbashi bridge and other local landmarks, has led the Nihonbashigawa beautification campaign since 2006. Their "secret weapon" is dumplings of effective microorganisms (EM). They contain, among other things, lactic acid bacteria, yeast and phototrophic bacteria. The EM dumplings improve water quality by breaking down ammonia and methane in sludge at the bottom of rivers.

Akinori Nagamori, 66, the director of Hozonkai, said: "Our group has hosted a big clean-up event for Nihonbashi bridge every July since 1971. A few years ago, we decided to use more eco-friendly detergent. That's when we became seriously concerned about the river environment. After learning about river-cleaning efforts using EM in several places in Japan, we thought it would be significant if we could do it in central Tokyo, too."

During the cherry blossom festival held by Tokiwabashi Forum, Hozonkai provided 3,000 EM dumplings, each the size of a tennis ball.

I watched as many salary men and women hurled the dumplings from Tokiwabashi bridge into the Nihonbashigawa river during their lunch break. It looked like they were having fun.

According to Nagamori, about 70,000 EM dumplings have been thrown into the river. Has it been effective?

Nagamori said: "Last November, we cast a net into the river and caught two fish. Another time last year, we caught five gobies right under Nihonbashi bridge in 20 minutes. We were glad to see the fish coming back to the river.

"I don't think we should just wait for the authorities to do something. If local businesses and people can continue to work together, we can have a clean Nihonbashigawa in the near future. That's what we call real community development."

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Kandagawa Fune no Kai is offering boat tours May 31. For more information, visit < http://homepage2.nifty.com/sn98/kandagawa.htm >. For info on eco tours by NPO Enjoy Eco School, visit < http://enjoy-eco.or.jp >.(IHT/Asahi: April 18,2008)