Travel Around Tokyo & Surroundings
Day Trip to the Todoroki Valley in Tokyo
TRAVEL TOPIC: B-Movie Style of Attractions in Tokyo
Tokyo is just one prefecture (province) in Japan and its shape is kind of long and slender. The area called the center of Tokyo is not actually located in the center of the prefecture, but in the eastern area composed with 23 districts. See this map...
In western Tokyo, there are many mountainous areas with beautiful scenery where you can enjoy hiking. However, you might feel it is too far from the central Tokyo and you might have limited time. If you want to enjoy a walk in the forest for the day here's a good place: Todoroki Keikoku in Setagaya-ku (ward).
Todoroki Keikoku is a park and forest in a tiny valley. In Todoroki Park, you will quickly forget the noisy urban streets of Tokyo.
You can get there by a small train Ohi line from the Ohi Station, but it is easier to take a bus from a major JR station.
In my case, as I wanted to enjoy a long bus trip, I took the Toei-bus (Tokyo City Bus) from JR Tokyo station. The fare is 200 Yen.
Since I was going to stop over for a few times, I bought a one-day ticket that is 500 yen. With that ticket, you can get on / off Toei-bus as many time as you want for one day. You can buy the ticket on the bus.
When you buy the ticket, just say to the driver 500 yen no Tobasu ichi-nichi Joushaken kudasai
There are 2 types of one-day tickets, one if for Toei-bus and Toei-subway, and other one is only for Toei-bus. One-day ticket for Toei-bus and Tokyo-Metro is 700 Yen and is a bit complicated to find which subway you can take with the ticket. If you take only buses, you should definitely buy 500 Yen ticket.
To go the Todoroki Valley, take a Toei-bus No.98 from the South Exit of Tokyo station.The Toei Bus
This is the Toei bus I took. You can recognize the Toei Bus by the green color.
This bus is also No.98 and goes to Todoroki. However, it is not a Toei bus. It is Keio Bus and you can't use the One-day ticket for Toei Bus.
The bus travels along some major spots in Tokyo, like the Imperial park, Tokyo Tower, so on, you will not get bored by a very nice city tour on the way to Todoroki
From the Tokyo station to Todoroki Keikoku it takes about 1 hour. The bus goes via JR Meguro Station and it takes about 30 minutes from Meguro Station to Todoroki Keikoku.
The bus stop you are to get off at is called Todoroki, one stop before the terminus. Actually, I didn't know where to get off, so I went to the terminus in mistake. But, I could easily walk back there.
From the bus stop, it is only a few minutes walk to Todorki Keikoku.Since train and subway is convenient in Tokyo, Toei-bus is not well known as a good transportation for travelers. However, Toei-bus is a really good way to look around Tokyo. Plus, it is cheap.
The fare I spent to go Todoroki Valley was only 500 Yen there and back although I stopped over at Meguro Station and Tokyo Tower.
Todoroki Keikoku (Valley) http://www.todoroki.net/ (in Japanese only)
Various photographs of Todoroki Keikoku(valley)
