Ask, and it will be given to you: Universal Access to Yokohama Citizen Forests, Kami-Sugetacho Citizen Forest I 上菅田町市民の森 I

 

The number of forests where wheelchair people can visit is limited around here. So far in this series, such forests I told you are Koishikawa Botanical Garden (; my post on February 25, 2024) and Wild Bird Park (; my post on last month, April 12, 19, 26). Both are in Tokyo and heavily landscaped places. When we talked about Yokohama’s Citizen Forest, there were none with such facilities. For the sake of argument, Yokohama Nature Sanctuary may have some degree of universal access, to the admin office perhaps. But the large part of its courses are steep slopes and steps. It will not be feasible in the end for people with wheelchairs to have a relaxing experience in forest. Yokohama is a port city. Our city is inevitably very hilly. Flat walking road in nature becomes difficult to find. That’s pity. We people of Yokohama know the issue. People in this case include planners for the Town Hall of Yokohama, who oversee establishing new citizen forests.

A road in Wild Bird Park.
Well, this place is in the end completely man-made.

Steps in Yokohama Nature Sanctuary.
This is a well-managed trekking road,
but for wheelchairs …

Yokohama’s system for Citizen Forests is a unique arrangement nationwide. Landlords with forests are offered options. They can continue having their forest with a reduced tax rate AS LONG AS it is a part of productive farmland. Familiar story in this case is “Who’s continuing the ag business in this society of rapid aging and shrinking population.?” Or they can sell the property to developers for housing, shopping centres, etc. if they want. Unlike ordinary rural areas of Japan, such opportunity is abundant here since Yokohama is a VERY large city with lots of business, and we’re a neighbor to the capital city Tokyo. When the landlord chooses this selling option,

1. They lose their title of landlords often inherited for centuries from the ancestors. Normally they also abandon family business of agriculture which too is hereditary for generations. This is a serious issue for the psyche of landlord’s entire family.

2. Sure, they receive a nice sum of money from their ancestral land which happens to be in rich Yokohama. But, they have to pay rather hefty taxes of many kinds, for land transaction, new usage of land for commercial and/or residential purposes, inheritance, etc. 

3. There is a reputational issue. Their neighbors who can be their neighbors for centuries would say anything they want, if they want, you know?

 A few days ago,
in a farmland adjacent to Niiharu Forest.
The landlord of this place is Non-profit Org
serving for people with disabilities.
They often lend their property NHK
to program production for allotment how-to.
Could you find people in the left of this photo?
They are now filming the spring farm work.

So, the Citizen Forest System offers another option to landlords. They can choose to keep their ancestral forest including farmland with impressively reduced tax rates. When an inheritance incident occurs, the City provides very preferential treatment too. The condition of this favored handling is, the landlord has to allow public to stroll in their land. When they choose this option, development of trekking roads and, when the forest is large enough, providing resting facilities for visitors such as toilets are built by the City. The private property is now Yokohama’s Citizen Forest. After the forest becomes Citizen Forest, the maintenance of landlord’s property is in the hands of Lovers Association. Often the association is formulated by family members and close friends of landlords. But if the area is very wide with many landlords who made a consortium to make the area Citizen Forest, such as Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 with more than 90 landlords, the Lovers Association could welcome complete strangers as volunteer members who love and maintain landlords’ property. The Lovers Association contracted with the landlords via the City and receive municipal grants to run forest management activities. All these processes are funded by municipal Green Tax. A landlord may lose exclusive right for his/her ancestral land, but the ownership remains in the hands of his/her family. This could be a not-so-bad deal. Have you noticed something here? In the entire process, the idea for universal access did not enter unless somebody during the negotiation, like city officers, landlords, or neighbors of the forest, requested the needs for possible wheelchair strollers in the forest.

Spring in Niiharu Citizen Forest.
Basically Niiharu’s trekking roads were once
commuter roads for locals before gasoline cars came.
They are narrow, hilly, and of course not paved.
i.e. Difficult for wheelchair users to come in.

Well, to be fair for the people of mountainous Yokohama creating Citizen Forest, I must say it WAS so. I mean, a “past tense.” Last February, it was opened the very first Yokohama’s Citizen Forest where the development of the Citizen Forest was intentionally designed for the Universal Access. It is Kami-Sugetacho Citizen Forest上菅田町市民の森 , opened on February 27, 2026. The forest is located right next to the Kami-Sugeta Special Support School. Special support school system of Japan is educational arrangement for kids who need particular procedure, such as continuous medical care, to attend for school diplomas starting from kindergarten to high school. Yokohama has 13 such municipal schools, among which 6 schools are for kids requiring wheelchairs or stretchers. Kami-Sugeta School is one of them. For the development of a Citizen Forest right next to their campus, the school advised the landlord and the people from the City Hall. The product is this newly opened Citizen Forest. Next week, let’s visit the place with wheelchair access in bumpy Yokohama. The forest has a viewpoint for Mt. Fuji. 😊

Kami-Sugeta Special Support School

If you have any questions about Yokohama’s Green Tax and Green Up Plan, please make a contact with

Strategic Planning Division, Green Environment Bureau, City of Yokohama
横浜市みどり環境局戦略企画課

Phone: 045-671-2712
FAX: 045-550-4093

Email: mk-kikaku@city.yokohama.lg.jp

Tis the Season … Wasps are busy

 

In Yokohama, we’re talking about roller-coaster temperatures at the beginning of May. From the end of April to the beginning of May, we Japanese have a “Golden Week” of consecutive national holidays. It is supposed to be a continuation of fine days with low humidity and so-so hot temperature. Now we expect the most comfortable season of year. This year … low pressure systems are coming from the west, i.e. the Eurasian Continent, often with still cold air, and the south, i.e. Pacific Ocean, with hot air from the equator. Just a day or so of fine days are followed by cold rain. A “fine” day becomes dead-hot summer in some parts of our neighborhood. Cold rain morning requires winter coats. What’s happening? we murmur.

Even though, our forests are growing with bursts of many hues of green. Whateva. Tis the season of refreshingly jolly and beautiful nature. … Er, maybe some dangerous creatures (for us) have the same opinion. Please be careful when you stroll in forests in southern Kanto region in early May. Poisonous snakes like Mamushi (Japanese pit viper) and Yamakagashi (Tiger keelback) become active. Unless somebody releases Cobra or something, these two snakes are the only poisonous snakes in mainland Japan. (Okinawa and south islands of Kagoshima have super-aggressive Habu snakes.) Unless you make them surprise, or intentionally attack them, they will not bite you. So, be careful during your trekking by telling them you’re coming. Chatting with your friends, ringing bear bells, carrying radio, or simply drumming the bush before you with a long stick (like Nordic poles) would work. Despite all the precautions taken, you could be bitten. In such a case, please call 119 (Japanese emergency number) immediately and wait for the professional rescuers to come. Before they arrive, it could save your life by taking standard emergency procedures on site, including rinse the bite wound immediately with soap and fresh water, rest in a posture to make patient’s heart in higher position than the wound, and drink lots of water as poison of snakes could cause dehydration. All these measures are standard by Japan Red Cross, 2020 First Aid Guideline.

Tiger keelback I’ve met recently.
It was busy going to a pond of tadpoles
rather than attacking humans.
Have a nice lunch, mate.

Another danger of animal bites around Yokohama is hornets. From late April to May, the queen hornet is busy building her empire castle in bush. When you’re strolling along a trekking road more or less enclosed by bushes in Yokohama’s forest, DO NOT drum these shrubs especially in late spring to early summer. The typical nest of hornets during this season has a size of adult’s fist, and looks like a mushroom hanging in a bush.

This is the hornets’ nest!

It’s difficult to notice them quickly. On the other hand, the number of hornets per nest at this time of the year is still not much and they are busy making their home bigger. Unless you smash the nest suddenly (and unintentionally maybe), they will not attack you. “Don’t stir up a hornets’ nest,” and leave the site quietly. If you know a contact info for the people who manage the forest, such as Niiharu Satoyama Welcome Centre, please let them know ASAP you’ve encountered the nest in such-a-such corner of the forest. They will take care of the “thing” quickly … I think it was before I started this blog there was big nation-wide news from Niiharu Citizen Forest. A group of visitors to Niiharu Forest was attacked by hornets, and a person died. Since then, people in Niiharu are attentive to the risk, so do the rest of the forests near the human settlements in Japan. In any case please be careful always in a forest.

Thank God, we in Yokohama do not have risks of encountering bear. But in the other parts of Japan, including Yadoriki Area of Kanagawa Prefecture, there are several information about bears. The latest official announcement of the Prefecture is here, and the up-to-date aggregation site of private internet posting is here. The situation is not serious so far this year, it seems to me. Anyway, better safe than sorry. Please carry bear bells. These days it is recommended to carry several with different frequencies, if possible. They can tell bears you’re coming even if you’re walking in the forest of conifers then move to a road along a babbling steam. The bells can also let the bears think you’re not alone. And a can of bear deterrent is MUST-HAVE. Having said that, last year, I tried to obtain a bear spray in early summer, and found all were sold out around here. It might be wiser if you start early to procure such essential item for walking in Japanese mountains. Safe outdoors.

Ramulus mikado. No harm from it. 😇

If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with

Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター

657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121　厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/

Comfy: Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, III 東京港野鳥公園

 

We enter the Wild Bird Park from only one gate. In front of the ticket booth on our right we find small another entrance. (The map of the Park in English is here.) It leads us to the main part of West Park where rice paddies and a small freshwater pond locate and volunteers are active for tending the place. There are two observation-hides by the pond for bird watching. Also kids can ask the admin office to borrow an insect net and a cage to hunt butterflies et al around the rice paddies, provided they release their catch after the observation. (Private nets and cages are prohibited.) Even though we had “semi-draught” this winter, the pond kept water and small flocks of migratory water birds stayed here over the winter. As the West Park was opened first in the making of Wild Bird Park, the reclaimed ground here could be the most stable.

Admin Office with ticket booths

The entrance to main part of West Park

Turning left in front of the ticket booth, there is a wide lawn field with a pergola. This is also a part of West Park. The space is surrounded by probably planted trees of garden variety and a chimney that is for venting the gas from underground, i.e. the foundation material for reclamation = ancient garbage of Tokyo. Including this space, the paths for the West Park are all more or less flat and easy to walk, including for wheelchair users. The atmosphere of the place is open and incredibly relaxed. It’s easy to forget we’re in the middle of big warehouses for Tokyo. Though, at the south-east corner of the open field we are suddenly reminded our neighbor is Ota Wholesale Market for Megalopolises stomach. There, a long bridge passes over the industrial road entering the Market. We have to cross it to arrive the East Park.

Open field

The road circling the open lawn field

The bridge is big and long.

The beginning of East Park

East Park is larger with a substantial mass of water, fresh or otherwise. Before opening the entire area of East Park in 2018, the Metropolitan Government did massive civil engineering work to stabilize the water area. When I’ve been there this winter, I could not see the erosion from the sea to the park. Rather, because of the draught, the freshwater pond was almost dried up. The rangers for Wild Bird Society of Japan told us this winter they could not record meaningful visit of water birds there. That’s sad. The area for freshwater ponds in East Park is large. It also situates almost side-by-side with the sea water of Tokyo Bay. I imagine environmental wise the biota of East Park is very interesting. The dry grasses in the freshwater area were still common reeds and bulrush. The existence of Chines silver grass was limited … no serious aridification yet. Let us keep crossing our fingers the wetland there remains even with the climate change …

All dried up this winter for
the freshwater pond in the East Park

The freshwater part and tidal pond, sitting side by side

The tidal pond

The strolling path in East Park from the bridge is more or less one way. It should be difficult to lose. There are several work paths branching out from this wide road. Such roads are close　 to the public with barricade, but a couple of days in a year the Park hold events for the visitors to enter the path, including the Bay shore, circling the entire East Park. Please check their HP if you’re curious about the event. Still, walking the year-round open way is interesting enough to experience the “man-made natural” forest. Some of the trees are apparently horticulturally planted, but the majority sprouted some 50 years ago and has grown big this much by 2026. The undergrowth is also “wild.” There are some patches where it looks the management tried to make this route “elegant park way” but the power of weeds easily overrode the human intention. The road itself is wide enough and well managed for a pickup truck would come and go, i.e. wheelchair users can come. Normally our neighborhood is hilly. Handicapped people are often denied access to enjoy the forest. Not here!

It’s impressive these trees naturally
came out decades ago …

The “wild” forest surrounds the tidal pond.

Along the open path in East Park, there are 4 observation hides/blinds for birdwatching. All are sturdy wooden structure facing to the water. However, this winter due to the draught, East Observation Blind to the freshwater pond did not work as the intended site. *Sigh* The other 3 points are all facing water connected to Tokyo Bay. You can come here and stay as much as you like to admire birds. Caution: the entire Park is popular for birdwatchers in Megalopolis Tokyo. Securing a nice seat in any observation hide could be a matter of fierce competition. Please be polite to your fellow watchers whichever camera and lenses you carry. Thank you. 😊

A sight from Maehama Tidal Flats Observation Blind.
This body of water is really Tokyo Bay.

Yet, one of the most comfortable birdwatching hide is in a big building that is Nature Center standing on the shore of the tidal ponds. This is the place where the Wild Bird Society stations. It also has nice toilets, vending machines for snacks, lots of educational displays for the nature of Wild Bird Park, and a playroom for toddlers to crawl around. Moreover, inside has powerful air-conditioning, i.e. cool during boiling summer and warm in dead winter. It has very large glass windows that make us possible sitting on comfy benches to observe the entire tidal ponds. Wheelchair users also can birdwatch there without bumping shoulders with others. I’ve been there in January and found the arrangement super comfortable. Yeah, it is no-no to have lunch on observation benches, but inside the building there is a corner where we can open our sandwiches. Also, there is no time restriction to sit. It seems to me the regulars of bazooka-sized camera lenses situate themselves by the window and wait for a long time to capture “this” moment of osprey, etc. hunting over the tidal pool. Knowing enough technique to refine the photo taken in this condition, it can produce a satisfactory picture of birds, I guess.

The Main Entrance to Nature Center

Inside

A photo I took from the building.
Could you see there is a bird resting on the post over there?

I’ve found a Siberian sand plover from the room.
It was cute.

So, the birdwatching Park artificially created for a wholesale market provides us with completely artificial observational blind to admire nature. Er, I know. You will say the point for enjoying forest is to feel winds rustling trees while smelling the air. Yup. But sitting for hours to wait for a small bird to come does not have to require endurance game, don’t you think? Anyway, this is the season for Sandpipers and Plovers in Wild Bird Park. On May 17, the Park will have an annual festival for families to enjoy. Some of the programs, like free distribution of blueberry saplings, require reservation. The acceptance of reservation starts on May 8th. Please check their HP for detail. Oh, one more thing. Tokyo has another seaside park with a similar story near the border to Chiba Prefecture. If you’re interested in the place, please try. The name of the Park is Tokyo Metropolitan Kasai Marine Park 葛西臨海公園.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園管理事務所

3-1 Tokai, Ota Ward, Tokyo, 143-0001
〒143-0001　東京都大田区東海3-1

Phone: 03-3799-5031
FAX: 03-3799-5032

You can send an enquiry to them from here: https://www.tptc.co.jp/support/contact/park/yatyo

Pls. Visit There NOW for Sandpipers and Plovers!: Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, II 東京港野鳥公園

 

So, I tell you the beginning of the place. The bayside area of Tokyo, and to Yokohama’s Kan’nai 関内 area for that matter, was all shoal as a delta created by old Arakawa River 荒川. The reclamation of the swampy ground began long years ago, including the biggest and oldest civil engineering project in the middle of the 15th century by Ota Dokan 太田道灌. Come to think of it such endeavor is still going on. The bayside is expanding the land not only for Tokyo, but also Chiba and Kanagawa Prefectures … more than 600 years of human intervention … Yet, 60 years ago, the area around Haneda Airport was still a shoal. There were several fishing villages where fishermen engaged in nori cultivation. They caught fishes for Edomae sushi. Though especially after the end of World War II when Japanese economy entered the high growth period, the villages were rapidly encircled by huge plants for heavy industries. Haneda Airport was expanding as THE international gate for Tokyo. These conditions produced serious sea pollution. Fishing as a livelihood became difficult. Former fishing villages were now a part of Ota Ward, one of Tokyo’s special districts. Fishermen changed their business.

The moat surrounding the Imperial Palace is
the remnants of old delta that became Tokyo.
This part was reclaimed by Tokugawa Shogunate
 during the 16^th century.

Meanwhile, Tokyo was becoming more and more megalopolis. Before the wholesale food markets, including Tsukiji Market, were located around Akihabara 秋葉原 due to the historical legacy from the 16th century. By the second half of the 20th century, everything became cramped for Tokyo’s young (oh, yeah, it was so before) stomach. In the 1950s the Metropolitan Government began searching for wide open space not far from the center of Tokyo. The only, and to some extent traditional, choice was the land reclaimed in Tokyo Bay. Then, there was a shoal next to the airport some 20 minutes train ride from Tokyo Station, where traditional fishing villages were disappearing. Bingo. The former nori-farming shoal was quickly filled up to make a huge enough space for metropolitan wholesale food market. The story becomes interesting from here.

In Wild Bird Park, we can watch birds and airplanes fly together.

I don’t know if it could happen with today’s 21st century technology. But during the 1960s, it took time to convert the sea shoal to dry land, to make it sturdy enough to build large warehouses and wholesale market, and to build operational structures including the industrial wide roads. No one was lazy to make a large food market for hungry Tokyo, but it was 1990 when the current system of Ota Wholesale Market was completed. The project took 30 years to finish. i.e., during this civil engineering process, large reclaimed areas were left as “reclaimed land” waiting for their turn to receive constructions. Then, something interesting happened. Whatever the human intention, Tokyo Bay is a part of the Pacific Ocean. Especially at the edge of filled-up area, the Mother Nature “reclaimed” the space as sea. Moreover, the artificial hill that was expected to retain its above-sea height started to subsidence, if not to collapse. The depression did not reach the original sea level, but deep enough to gather rainwater as a pond. Meanwhile, the drainage system for the cities surrounding Tokyo Bay was continuously updated and the sea pollution became an episode in history books.

Water surface for Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, now.

In addition, even if the area remained dry and waited for buildings, it did not remain as the original construction site. Similar to new volcanic and coral islands, lots of plants started sprouting. Maybe, the soil used for reclamation contained lots of dormant seeds. Or some could come from the sea, and the other would be thanks to animal dispersal, mainly by birds and from the soil carried by boots of human construction workers. They were not only herbaceous, but also woody plants. The put-off area became more and more a landscape of original Arakawa delta that could be seen 500 years ago. When plants started to thrive, small animals such as insects, rats, birds, etc. came from somewhere nearby and stayed there as their new home, just like many new Tokyoites coming to Megalopolis. The old residents of nori-farming shoal, i.e. fishes, crabs, etc. also returned to the new shoal next to Ota Wholesale Market. The food for seabirds, and then hawkeyed raptors became more and more abundant in this artificial site. Humans were also sharp-eyed.

Admitting some trees were later planted
by professional landscapers,
many of these plants in Wild Bird Park
came out naturally, really.

In the 1970s, many local nature lovers started to come here to watch birds, dragonflies, crabs, flowers, fishes, etc. Some noticed the area was important for migratory birds at least for a resting place. The voices from people pushed the Metropolitan Government to demarcate the area as Bird Sanctuary, and hence to decouple from the development of the Ota Market. In 1978, the Met government completed the construction of the Sanctuary Park, and in 1983 the Park changed its name to the current Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園. At that time, flattened against the Ota Market the size of the Park was modest 3.2ha. By 1989 the Park was extended for 24.9ha and the Nature Center was opened where the rangers from the Wild Bird Society of Japan stationed. In 2000, the shoal of the Park was registered for the East Asian–Australian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) as an important transit stop for migratory Sandpipers and Plovers traveling between Australia and Siberia. In 2018, the Metropolitan government re-reclaimed the filled-up shoal and made it 3 times wider than the area where the Tokyo Bay naturally regained after the landfill construction. So, now, the Wild Bird Park has the size of 36ha.

The exhibit in the Nature Center for
Little Tern, the species for Plovers

The story is a bit stupid, I felt. Now the Wild Bird Park envelops the entire north side of the Ota Market in the middle of industrial warehouses of Tokyo. People paid tons of money to have a new land 60 years ago, and in the 21st century paid another tax-money to return the artificially reclaimed space to the original shoal … Never mind. Mother Nature is stronger than human convenience for quick access to a large food market. Good tuition fee. Oh, by the way, Sandpipers and Plovers visit the Park every April and May, i.e., NOW! If you have a chance to go there within few weeks, please try. Next week, I tell you how comfortable the observation facilities in the Park are for bird watchers. 😉

The rangers showed us the observation-points
for Sandpipers and Plovers.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園管理事務所

3-1 Tokai, Ota Ward, Tokyo, 143-0001
〒143-0001　東京都大田区東海3-1

Phone: 03-3799-5031
FAX: 03-3799-5032

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at https://www.tptc.co.jp/support/contact/park/yatyo

The other way round: Ota Central Wholesale Market and Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park, I 東京港野鳥公園

 

This week, I divert a bit from Kanagawa to tell you my adventure in Tokyo. As long as I know, Kanagawa does not have such forest. I think not many forests with similar stories exist in Japan. Why is this place so unique? It’s because the forest is completely man-made, including its ground. Or, I should say at least the beginning of the place was artificial some 60 years ago. The climate of Tokyo gave ecological succession, which has given the biota there a “natural” forest. Don’t you think it’s interesting? It’s an ultimate “Nature Positive” place where a collaboration of nature and humans is still on-going. The name of the place is Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園.

First, the location. Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park is in Ota Ward of Tokyo, embracing Ota Central Wholesale Market which is more or less next to the Haneda International Airport. Toyosu Market is world-famous with lots of touristic attractions, but for ordinary Japanese living in coastal area of Tokyo, Kawasaki, and Yokohama, Ota Market is the place where vegetables, et al come from. As such Ota Market is BIG. The Park is encircling this huge wholesale market. The geographical feature is exactly due to the origin of the place. More to it later. To go there, please take a commuter bus from Shinagawa or Omori Station. From Shinagawa Station, take Metropolitan Bus Shina-98 品-98 and get off at Daitō-Ōi-Butsuryū Center (Mon-Sat) or Ota Market North (holidays) and walk 5-15 minutes. There are more services from Omori Station by Keikyu Bus, Mori 森 -24, 32, 36, 41, 43, 45, 47. Please get off at Wild Bird Park Stop or Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park Stop both of which stand 5 minutes’ walk distance from the Park Entrance. During your bus ride, you may feel uneasiness if this is the right way to visit a forest. Many passengers are working in Tokyo’s logistics center. The scenery from the bus window becomes more and more industrial. Never mind. Just get off the destination stop. Ota Market North, Wild Bird Park, and Tokyo Port Wild Bird Stops are facing the Park itself which suddenly appears as a mass of greenery within rows of warehouses. The journey may give you a very “Tokyo” experience.

One weekend winter morning,
I took a bus to the Park from
commuter bus gate 5 of Omori Station.
This Keikyu Bus route employs fuel cell cars.

Near the park, there is a huge warehouse of JR East.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park Stop.
The greenery on our right is the Park area.
The Park is circled by 8-lane industrial roads.

The notice board near the above stop says
“Park Entrance this way, 300m ahead.”
Just follow it.

We’ll find the gate.

The Wild Bird Park is now owned and operated by Tokyo Port Terminal Corporation. The entity’s origin was a public corporation for the development and management of Port of Tokyo. After several organizational transformations, in 2007 it became company limited. With this background, the entrance fee to the Park is free for kids in elementary school or younger. If a 7-9th grader studies in Tokyo, s/he can use the facility free of charge. Adults pay 300 yen at the ticket booth, but on every October 1 entrance is free for all as this is the day for Citizens of Tokyo. The management of the Park is done by Terminal Corporation, but the operation of Nature Centre in the Park is by Japan Wild Bird Society. So, the facilities here for bird watching is, I would say, excellent. The data gathered and published from Wild Bird Park is also very interesting. If you’re a birdwatcher and in Tokyo with some reason, this is the place you can come at least once. It is closed every Monday and New Year holidays. Otherwise, the place opens 9:00-17:00 (February - October) or 9:00-16:30 (November – January).

From the gate, walk up this slope,
which is, by the way,
a completely artificial geographical feature.

At the end of the entrance
there is an admin office with ticket booths.

The panel explaining how to for the usage of the park,
 with English translation.
The place has parking spaces.

Tickets are sold by vending machines.

Entering the Park.
Before going through the gate,
Park volunteers check your ticket.

The Park is “divided” by a wide industrial road coming in Ota Market from the north. Hmmm, I think this expression may give you an impression the human activity destroyed the original wild forest for economic activity … actually the story is completely the other way around. I tell you about it next week. Well, so, the Park has two sections: West and East. West Park is smaller and contains rice paddies and veggie patches where volunteers engage in organic farming. This section also allows kids to catch and release insects with nets lent by the management office at the entrance. i.e. West Park has more facilities for human activity, and, I would say, is “garden-like.” East Park has Nature Center where rangers of the Wild Bird Society are resident. East Park directly faces Tokyo Bay and has tidal flat. I had an impression the area is more “forest-like.”. Let me continue the next week why the East and West are like that. Please stay tuned!

Ota Market, a Sunday morning

West and East Parks are connected by
 a long bridge that goes over the Market.

Tokyo Port Wild Bird Park 東京港野鳥公園管理事務所

3-1 Tokai, Ota Ward, Tokyo, 143-0001
〒143-0001　東京都大田区東海3-1

Phone: 03-3799-5031
FAX: 03-3799-5032

You can send an enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at
https://www.tptc.co.jp/support/contact/park/yatyo