As a tourist there are so many sites to see.. places you’ve always read about and seen on television. From shrines, gardens, temples, shops and sky views. But have you ever thought of getting a view from the river?

You may not realise but there are rivers throughout Tokyo… which have meandered their way through the different areas, which were once used by businesses and people to move around the city.

As a tourist there is a company called Tokyo Great Kayaking Tours… which does as the name suggests.

We’ve always thought about doing this tour… and said back in 2019… ‘next time we will do that to see Tokyo from a different perspective’… so here we are 4 years later.

Kym had booked online for the 3 hour tour before we came… and the weather gods treated us well as it was a perfect day for it.

As you can see by the photos the weather was perfect. Although while it looks calm in these photos… going across the Sumida River (no photos here… as we had to paddle and control where we were going) it certainly was choppy when a boat went past!

We were told yesterday was very windy and had resulted in lots of debris.. so they recommended to take the route through the residential area. As we had been around the area on our bikes previously we were more than happy to go with the recommended route. As part of the route It also involved going in the lock… (okay we were the only people there) and experiencing the water level change being so close to it. While there we could see a number of jellyfish floating in the water – did not expect to see them in the water!

Half way along the journey we stopped for tea and a snack. It was so relaxing just floating on the water… and watching the birds. Ah….

For those lucky few who have kayaked with us previously- you know we can kayak, just not in a straight line….we only rammed into the wall twice and according to Kym nearly capsized once (.. no harder on the left.. tell me when your paddling!) But we survived!

If you follow either of us on Strava you will notice we did 10km…! Which is impressive for us… although we think winking paddling increased the distance.

As for our Seeing Tokyo skyline from the river view was certainly a fabulous experience, and one we highly recommend.