Tokyo: Recommended Boat Date Route Around Tokyo Bay (Tokyo → Kamakura → Kurihama → Ferry → Kanaya)

Introducing a slightly different, unusual Tokyo date: the “Around Tokyo Bay Date Course.” Even for couples who have fallen into a rut and bored with date courses, this date course is full of charm: eating, drinking, feeling the sea breeze, and spending a fun day—a new way to enjoy Tokyo.

In this article, based on information from the course actually experienced by the author, we introduce the charms of the “Around Tokyo Bay Date Course.”

Introduction of the Tokyo Date Course (Around Tokyo Bay Course)

The Beginning is Riding the Yokosuka Line Green Car from Tokyo Station

A date course encircling Tokyo Bay in one day—the beginning is Tokyo Station. Tokyo Station Marunouchi is a representative architecture of Japan, fully worth seeing right from the start. The collaboration between Tokyo Station’s exterior conveying history and the modern buildings of Marunouchi is also quintessential Tokyo.

The arches on the ceiling of Tokyo Station Marunouchi North Exit are beautiful, so they are worth a look. If you take a photo and post it on Instagram, a beautiful photogenic spot is complete. It might also be fun for the two of you to take photos of each other. However, since it will be a photo looking up, pay attention to the shooting angle.

Moving from Tokyo to Kamakura, you board the Yokosuka Line from the deepest underground platform of Tokyo Station. The passage leading underground is simple as you just descend via escalator.

Since it’s a day-off trip with so much effort put into it, let’s go relaxingly in a Green Car (you can also drink beer). In the Green Car, endure, endure bento lunches, and stick to alcohol like beer only. Delicious things are waiting in the subsequent itinerary.

For the First Sightseeing, Do “Kamakura Sightseeing,” Which is Fun Whenever You Go!

Arriving at Kamakura Station in about 1 hour from Tokyo Station via the Yokosuka Line. The moment you step off at Kamakura Station, your mood switches to travel and sightseeing mode. Because it’s a wonderful town, it’s a town where you think “I want to live here in the future.” Exiting Kamakura Station, head toward “Komachi-dori.”

Funly strolling through “Komachi-dori” heading from Kamakura Station to “Tsurugaoka Hachimangu.” It is a small path crowded with school trip students, but the objective of course is deliciously partaking in sausage grilled right in front of your eyes as a savory aroma approaches under a sunny sky.

Entering inside a shop, beer from daytime is irresistible. The collaboration with a sausage snack is the strongest. The sausage is very large, so even this alone seems like it’ll fill your stomach.

Is it OK to enter a German cuisine (ham & sausage) shop after coming all the way to Kamakura? Such a casual question is ultimately no match at all for a supreme lunch of sausage and local beer. If you get drunk and drop out, the trip you took the trouble to take will end here, so keep it in moderation!

A Suggestion When Going to Kamakura: Worshiping at “Tsurugaoka Hachimangu”

With our bodies having become heavy after eating sausage, let’s go to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. Thinking normally, steep stairs you shouldn’t recklessly go to right after eating food are waiting! The order of going might have been reversed!

Sightseeing the Essence of Kamakura: “Hasedera Temple” then “Kamakura Daibutsu”

Riding the Enoden to “Hase Station”—when you ride the Enoden, you unintentionally want to go all the way to Enoshima to look at the sea, enter Enospa (pool), and see ladies’ swimsuits, but today is Kamakura sightseeing, so hold back firmly and please get off at Hase Station.

Hasedera Temple is about a 10-minute walk from Hase Station. Let’s walk with a stroll-like feeling. Inside the temple serves as a strolling path, which is wonderful.

Strolling through the precinct enveloped in the beauty of a Japanese garden that feels colorful and refined, koi in the pond dance elegantly, and in June beautiful hydrangea flowers bloom proudly.

The garden is colorful and pretty, but the red seal office is also colorful. A color tone where you feel “It’s modern~”—this too is a spot where you want to take photos. It is an Instagrammable spot.

There is an eatery “Kaikoan,” so let’s take a break. Hasedera Temple climbs quite a few stairs, so your feet get tired without you noticing. Take a break here!

From the eatery “Kaikoan,” the view of Sagami Bay is very beautiful. Kamakura beer with dango is comfortable—Phaa, it feels comfortable.

About a 10-minute walk from Hasedera Temple is Kamakura Daibutsu-den Kotoku-in Temple. It is the back of the Great Buddha of Kamakura that makes one feel the grandness of the principles of the human world.

Sitting grandly and side-by-side. It’s huge! This Kamakura Great Buddha, you can actually go inside the Great Buddha. Being a spot with many tourists, being crammed inside the narrow Great Buddha is a bit tough.

A giant “waraji” (straw sandal) was dedicated. It might be for the Great Buddha. Even so, it’s huge.

Moving to Kurihama and Feeling the Sea on the Tokyo Bay Ferry

From Kamakura to Kurihama on the Yokosuka Line—buses from JR Kurihama Station bound for the Tokyo Bay Ferry terminal rarely come, so I think about taking a taxi, but at the taxi stand in front of the station there are no taxis at all. If you wait for the bus after all, depending on the time you’ll miss the ferry, so when you start walking from the station toward the main street out of necessity to look for a taxi, a taxi comes to the taxi stand! Waiting quietly is the best choice!

From JR Kurihama Station to the Tokyo Bay Ferry Terminal takes about 15 minutes by taxi. The fee is around 1,100 JPY, so it is not that far. From the moment you step onto the ferry terminal, the sea breeze wrapped in the scent of the sea feels great.

On weekday daytime, it is completely empty. On holidays, it’s a ship with many people carrying fishing sets or golf bags on their backs. Weekday dates are recommended.

On weekday daytime it is completely empty, so sofa seats are all-you-can-sit. Coming on a date, the two of you can monopolize a sofa.

On weekday daytime, it’s completely empty~! Stepping onto the ship’s deck, you feel a very pleasant sea breeze. The sea viewed from Tokyo Bay is also fun.

Beer drunk on top of the ship starting from daytime is the best! Drinking beer while looking at the sea and receiving the sea breeze on deck feels great.

You can do Titanic play! I think the eyes of those around would be embarrassing, but weekday daytime is completely empty, so please do Titanic to your heart’s content.

Savoring Fresh and Delicious Seafood in “Kanaya,” Chiba

The final destination port of the Tokyo Bay crossing ferry that departed Kurihama is Kanaya Port. It is a 40-minute boat trip from Kanagawa to Chiba.

Going to the restaurant “The Fish” next to Kanaya Port, it has become a stylish restaurant overlooking the sea. The ordered dish is a recommended menu item called “Instagrammable seafood bowl,” unique to the seaside.

It’s inside a huge shell! The appearance has impact, but the taste is of course top-notch. Paired with the local beer “Nokogiriyama Beer,” it makes a supreme dinner (closing at 18:00, so let’s eat an early dinner).

After eating food, return to Tokyo from JR Hamakanaya Station via the Sobu Line / Uchibo Line. Inbound trains run at an interval of 1 per hour, so while thinking about the time from the restaurant to the station, going at a good time when you can board a train is recommended. There are no shops around the station at all.

If you mistake the time, you end up waiting 1 hour for a train on a station platform with nothing… Just when you think a train finally arrived and board it, the return train takes 2 hours and a half, so please be prepared for this (Hamakanaya Station → Tokyo Station)—inside the train it’s a long trip where deep sleep is mandatory. (If you go on a date with this, isn’t the final train an ordeal?)

Please spend a fun day on the Around Tokyo Bay Date Course.

Weekend-Exclusive: Let’s Enjoy a Tokyo Bay Night Cruise

Speaking of Tokyo dates, night views—if you want to enjoy a slightly unusual, special night, “Weekend-Exclusive: Tokyo Bay Night Cruise” is also recommended. Make your best memories as a pair even better with Tokyo Bay’s night view!

Summary: Tokyo Date Course (Around Tokyo Bay Course)

This course circling around Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Chiba in one day is an active date plan where transferring between trains, ships, and buses makes “movement itself a trip.” Starting from the hustle and bustle of the city center, strolling through historic Kamakura, and then a ship journey on the Tokyo Bay Ferry feeling the tide breeze—the greatest charm is the scenery changing dramatically with time.

This date course, which gives a fresh surprise to a date that feels a bit like a rut, will deepen the bond between the two of you further.

Especially if you target uncrowded weekday time slots, you can spend a luxurious moment such as monopolizing a sofa seat on the ship. The end becomes a long return journey by train, but that too is proof of having played to your heart’s content all day. Along with pleasant fatigue, looking back at the photos taken while returning slowly to Tokyo is a wrap-up unique to this course.