The New year's holiday flew by so quickly. This year might fly by as well. Before January is over, I'm going to show you the topic for my New year's break.
Hamarikyu is a representative Japanese-style garden in the city center of Tokyo. This garden is located next to Tokyo Bay and its tidal ponds are filled with seawater. Hamarikyu was constructed in the 17th century, and registered as a Special Scenic Beauty and Historic Site of Japan in 1952. I visited this historical garden with my family. After a stroll, we took a break, and enjoyed Maccha green tea and Japanese confectionery at the teahouse by the pond. I felt completely comfortable.
To visit Hamarikyu, we got off at Shimbashi station on the JR East Keihin-Tohoku-Negishi line. Taking this opportunity, let me briefly introduce this urban commuter route. Connecting Ofuna and Omiya, the Keihin-Tohoku-Negishi line penetrates the metropolitan area from south to north. There are 47 stations over a total operating length of 81.2 kilometers. It connects three prefectural capitals in the Tokyo Metropolitan area. They are Yokohama City of Kanagawa Prefecture, Tokyo, and Saitama City of Saitama Prefecture. A 10-car train with blue colored stripes named the EMU E233-1000 series is operated every 2-3 minutes during rush hours and every 5 minutes during the daytime. To speed up, all trains are operated as rapid services during daytime on the section between Hamamatsucho and Tabata stations. On the other hand, The Yamanote line train, which runs in parallel, stops at all stations on the above section. The railway system in Tokyo is too complex.
