Chiba · ChoshiNo.939★Open in map →

Tokawa Old Fishing Town

localOff the trail — and worth it

The Choshi Electric Railway ends at a timber station above a fishing harbour at the far eastern edge of Chiba. Below it, a grid of lanes laid out in the early Edo period still runs down the slope to the boats.

FromTokyo Station
~2.5 hrJR limited express, then a local line
Get off atTokawa Station (Choshi Electric Railway)
On foot
Tokawa Old Fishing Town

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

Tokawa is not a preserved heritage quarter dressed for visitors. It is a working fishing town that happens to have kept its old street plan, and the best-known stop on this line is the one before it, for the lighthouse. Tokawa is simply what lies past that.

Where it is

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What to look for — in walking order

Tokawa Station buildinga single-storey timber station from the line's opening, wooden benches along the waiting room
The preserved Deha 801 carriagea retired railcar standing on the siding beside the single platform
Tokawa Mini Local Museuma volunteer-run room near the station with shell specimens, old photographs and town maps
The grid of sloping lanescross streets dropping between low houses, each one opening toward the harbour
Tokawa Fishing Portthe working harbour at the foot of the slope, the town stacked up on the hillside behind

How to actually get there

Tokyo Station → Choshi Station (JR Sobu Main Line limited express Shiosai, about one hour fifty minutes).
Choshi Station → Tokawa Station (Choshi Electric Railway to the end of the line, about twenty minutes, roughly hourly).
Tokawa Station → the harbour, downhill through the grid of lanes.
Harbour → back up to the station for the return; the last stretch is the climb.

Shiosai limited express to Choshi, then the local line: Take the JR Sobu Main Line limited express Shiosai from Tokyo Station to Choshi, which the tourist association puts at about one hour and fifty minutes. At Choshi change to the Choshi Electric Railway and ride to the end of the line at Tokawa, about twenty minutes. The local line is roughly hourly outside the peaks, so check the departure board at Choshi as soon as you arrive.
Back from Tokawa: Return on the same line to Choshi and change to the JR Sobu Main Line for Tokyo. Both legs thin out in the evening, so settle your return before you set out rather than after you reach the harbour. Tokawa has a single platform, and the train that pulls in is the one that goes back.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The Choshi Electric Railway runs 6.4 km from Choshi Station to Tokawa, and Tokawa is where the track ends. The town drops in one continuous slope from the station forecourt down to the harbour. Because the grid was cut into ground that faces the water, the lanes running downhill open toward the port and the sea. Fishing boats still work out of the harbour at the bottom, and the quayside is public ground. There is little in the way of tourist plant here beyond a small local museum near the station; the rest is a town going about its business. Nothing is fenced or ticketed, so the town itself is the thing you have come to see.

How to enjoy it

Trains are roughly hourly outside the morning and evening peaks, so read your return departure off the board before you walk down to the harbour. Going down through the lanes and climbing back up is a short walk, and the slope is the only real effort in it. The day pass is sold on board the train, so you can break the return at other stops along the line.

Background & history

Tokawa was opened in the early Edo period by Sakiyama Jiroemon, who came from Wakayama and built the fishing port here. He set the streets out as a grid on the slope facing the harbour, and that plan survives. The Choshi Electric Railway was extended to the town in 1923, reaching the port at the end of the line, and the wooden station building dates from that opening. In 2016 the townscape was written into a Japan Heritage story that groups four Hokuso towns — Sakura, Narita, Sawara and Choshi — as places where the Edo period can still be read in the streets.

Before you go

Cash: Carry cash for the local leg; the small stations and on-board sales on the Choshi Electric Railway are not reliably cashless. The Komawari Tegata day pass was 700 yen for adults when checked and can be bought on board, covering the whole line for the day. Walking the lanes and the quayside costs nothing.
Good to know: The waiting room is the only shelter at the station, and the quayside is open to the wind off the Pacific. Counter service at Tokawa Station has been suspended, so plan on buying your ticket on the train rather than at the window.
Another way: From Choshi Station a local bus route also runs south, to the Tokawa depot stop on the prefectural road just west of the station. Coming from Tokyo by road, a Keisei group highway bus runs to Choshi from Bus Terminal Tokyo Yaesu.
After you get off: Tokawa Station is the spot itself, and the town starts at its forecourt. Step out of the station building, take any of the lanes that run downhill, and the quayside is at the bottom of the slope.