A Track of Dreams: Tokyo's Arakawa Line

From the four winds at the center of the Earth..., come the color of the seasons.

Exploring the four seasons of Japan.

A streetcar runs in the streets of Tokyo.

Oh, here it comes! It's yellow.

He loves it.

We just found out you could
get this close to the Arakawa Line.

You like it, don't you?

The Arakawa Line is cute, isn't it?

It has so many colors, right?

He waved at us.

He sounded the horn.

The Toden Arakawa Line operates small one-car trains.

The line runs 12.2 km long, heading west through the downtown of Arakawa Ward in the east of Tokyo.

Locals call the Arakawa Line "Toden."

"Toden" is an abbreviation of "trains operated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government."

These streetcars once ran all over Tokyo.

The Arakawa Line is the last "Toden" to run in Tokyo.

The small streetcars also carried the romance of young couples.

These two commuted on the same Arakawa Line and became close friends on the train.

It's been exactly 60 years
since we got married.

Eventually, we would go out for tea.

We did those kind of things as friends,
then later started dating.

At a shopping street in front of a station, these men walk on the arcade roof dreaming of its renewal.

To accomplish this kind of project, you
need strangers, fools, and young people.

- Which one are you?
- The fool of course.

This man fulfilled his childhood dream to become a Toden driver.

I was popular then. It was a cool job.

Taking people for a ride.

Blending into the landscape and running through the daily lives of locals.

In this episode of Seasoning the Seasons, we ride the Toden Arakawa Line, which connects the stories of the people living on the line.

The metropolitan-run streetcars run through downtown Tokyo.

The Arakawa Line operates in the northeastern part of Tokyo.

Starting from Minowabashi in the east, to the terminal station Waseda in the west, the line makes 30 stops in 56 minutes, at a leisurely and peaceful manner.

The official nickname for the Arakawa Line is the Tokyo Sakura Tram.

Sakura means 'cherry blossoms,' a flower that the Japanese love.

The predecessor of the Arakawa Line was the Oji Electric Railway, a private railroad that opened in 1911, about 110 years ago.

The starting point at that time was Asukayama, located almost in the middle of the route.

About 300 years ago, during the age of the samurai, the shogunate planted 1,200 cherry trees and opened the area to the people of the city.

The streetcar operation was started, hoping to attract the large number of tourists who come to enjoy the cherry blossoms.

This trainline also linked the local industrial area consisting of paper, spinning, and chemical plants, with central Tokyo,

played a role in revitalizing the economy at the time.

In spring, Asukayama puts 15 kinds of cherry blossoms on display, attracting many visitors.

The Arakawa Line runs through the northern part of Tokyo, which was once home to many small factories.

When seen together with the JR Yamanote Line, one of the main trainlines in Tokyo, we can see that the Arakawa Line is located between central Tokyo and two rivers to its north.

The name of this stop is "Arakawa-shako-mae," "shako" meaning train depot.

This is where the Toden cars gather.

Nearby, there is a small factory whose name is well known throughout Japan.

Since its establishment in 1935, the factory has specialized in making gear pumps and boast a large share of the domestic market.

These devises can pump out any liquid from oil to chocolate, except water.

We call this a gear pump.

There are 2 gears in here, which are interlocked
with the motor and rotate at high speed.

Liquid enters the gear grooves, and with this
pump, enters here and is pumped out here.

Inoue Hiroshi, the Managing director shows us the heart of the pump.

The fastest one can do
1,800 revs per minute.

The angle of the gear, their number, and also
the gap between the teeth when they engaged, we design all that differently for each one.

This represents 86 years of
our accumulated know-how.

Arakawa Ward was once one of the leading industrial areas in Tokyo, with over 7,000 factories before the war.

The industrial area has its origin in 1879.

The Sumida River was used as a water supply source to build a government-run woolen textile factory.

In its heyday, workers commuted to this industrial town, filling up the Arakawa Line.

Now the factories' number less than 20% of their peak.

Despite that decline, there are words that keep Inoue going as he continues to manufacture things.

70 years ago, my grandfather said that gear
pumps and bicycles would always be around.

Gear pumps and bicycles include all
elements of mechanical engineering.

So grandfather said they
would never disappear.

Some things survive the changes of the times, never going away, and are handed down.

This is the Koshinzuka stop.

There is a shop here that's only three steps from the train.

It's a confectionary shop popular by women.

A favorite among travelers is an "ohagi" filled with cherry blossom bean paste.

Decorated on the walls are pictures of the Toden streetcars.

Our customers make and bring them.

One by one. They are regulars, or people
who like Toden streetcars, who take photos.

Those are drawings.

People using the line started bringing in photos and drawings, and soon the shop became a small Toden gallery.

Welcome.

Hello.

On this day, Inaba Itoe visits the shop.

Once in a while, she brings paper cutouts that her husband has made.

Her husband, Yukichi, who loved the scenery along the line, made paper cutouts of all 30 stops.

But, 15 years ago, he passed away due to a sudden illness.

I'm really happy to have the shop display them.

Even though my husband is not here,
he lives on in my heart.

I say to him, "Oh, they're on display,
let's take a good look."

The Toden once extended all over Tokyo.

And many longed to be a driver when they were children.

Here we go.

Sato Koichi became a Toden driver in 1960.

He has a lot of memorabilia.

Take a look at these.

A necessity for train drivers.

This is a timetable for a round trip
from Arakawa Shako to Waseda.

This is my driver's license from
the Tokyo Transport Bureau.

They used to be this big.

After junior high, Koichi worked at a local factory, but took on the challenge of the driver's test, his longtime dream, which he passed.

I was happy, yes. My whole
family was clapping with joy.

He got a better salary.
So he could support his parents.

When Koichi's wife Kinuyo was about to give birth to their child, she was in a hospital near the Machiya-itchome stop.

There was a maternity hospital on
the street where the Toden ran.

So he would sound the
horn when he passed by.

I told her while she was there, I would sound
the horn three times when I passed the hospital.

I thought my wife would feel a sense of
relief knowing that I had just gone by.

I would know it was my
husband on the Toden.

At its peak, the Toden had 41 different lines in Tokyo.

Koichi was the driver of lines 27 and 32, operated by the Arakawa Branch.

In 1955, an average of 1.75 million people used the Toden every day.

In the 1960s, however, automobiles spread rapidly.

The Toden came to be seen as the main cause of traffic congestion.

In 1963, the Toden began its phase-out, and eventually it was decided that they would discontinue all the Toden lines.

Were you worried?

Yes.

The fact that the Arakawa Line
might disappear someday.

I was told that it could go away.

So, I was a little worried.

In 1972, Koichi gave up his favorite job as a Toden driver and took another job in Tokyo.

But, things took an unexpected turn.

There was a growing demand for the continuation of the line at the shopping street at the Kumanomae stop.

Akaishizawa Kenshi was the president of the youth group in the Kumanomae shopping street board.

He worked hard to collect signatures.

We wanted to keep at least one line.

- Was there any opposition?
- None at all.

The number of signatures collected totalled 43,000, one-fifth of the residents of Arakawa Ward at that time.

The Toden allowed the residents to easily go shopping at various shopping streets on the line.

Each shopping street has
its own characteristics.

We don't have many food
stores in our shopping street.

But in Minowa, there are many.

Even if they had to spend
money on the Toden, locals will do so if they can
buy something cheap and tasty.

They're very organized like that.

The Toden costs close to nothing.

In 1974, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government revised its policy of abolishing all Toden lines.

The deciding factor was that 90% of the entire line were dedicated tracks with no vehicular traffic, and minimal impact on traffic congestion.

I didn't think the line would survive.

I felt I made a mistake by quitting.
I should have stayed longer.

Residents worked together to protect the Toden line from the danger of being abolished.

The two remaining lines were connected and newly named the Arakawa Line.

The people of Arakawa acted,
and saved the Arakawa Line.

I think their reward was
they got the line named after them.

Omokagebashi is the stop next to the terminal station Waseda.

Along the Arakawa Line, there are many workshops that convey the culture of the times of the Samurai.

Here in an area near the Kanda River, dyeing is a popular craft.

In the old days, they used to
wash kimonos in the river, removing the starch and dye.

About 100 years ago, many artisans moved near this river, which was suited their work.

The Arakawa Line was convenient for transporting the finished fabrics and kimonos to wholesalers.

We dye kimonos with a technique
using these patterns.

We have about 120,000 patterns like this,
and consider them our treasure.

This pattern is called "Edo komon."

"Komon" is the fine pattern that covers the entire cloth.

The 120,000 pieces of carefully preserved paper patterns tells of the fashion trends of the past.

This is a festive pattern called "Takara-zukushi."

This is "Tsurukame," a pattern for longevity.

While respecting the traditional patterns, they combine the patterns to give them a modern twist.

"Always be thinking about fashion trends,"
is what my ancestors would say.

Which I think is very important.

Minowabashi is the first station on the east side, a stop built in 1913.

The shopping street was named "Joyful Minowa" in 1978, when its arcade roof was completed.

Joyful Minowa runs parallel to the Toden line for abut 400 meters, and boasted as many as 150 stores in its heyday.

Hi there.

This is a popular delicatessen that people come to shop from other towns on the Toden.

Our guide is Takagi Yoshitaka, the committee chairman of the shopping street.

How are you doing?

Yoshitaka made new history on the Arakawa Line 20 years ago.

The location of that history is at the western "end" of the shopping street.

Oops, we shouldn't say 'end.' We want to say that this is the
western entrance, not the 'end.'

Fact is, in this area, the number of vacant stores increased a lot,

so we wanted to somehow enliven
the entire shopping street.

We thought it would be great
if there was a new stop.

In 2000, Arakawa-itchu-mae became the first new stop on the Toden in 70 years.

Yoshitaka was able to gain the understanding of the district council with a proposal to fund part of the construction with donations from residents, making the new stop a reality.

With an addition of an extra station, the number of customers walking from one end to the other increased.

Oh, one. Only one person from this train.

Yoshitaka got into the habit of counting the number of people getting off each time a train arrived.

When three to five people get off,
I feel kind of happy.

There we go.

These are the over 18,000 signatures he collected at the time, which he still keeps.

It's like our living testimony.

Our former chairman used to say, you need strangers, fools, and young people.

He meant that to accomplish
this kind of project, you need people from out of town,
the cooperation from young people,

and fools, or people who are passionate.

- Which one are you?
- The fool of course.

I'm probably a big fool.

Yoshitaka has an idea that he definitely wants to realize someday.

It was Takasugi Mitsunori, a bento shop owner, who came up with the idea.

He is literally an 'stranger' and a 'young person' from Oji on the Arakawa Line, who was drawn to the charms of this shopping street.

The two climb up on to the 9-meter-high arcade.

Their idea is to bring visitors up here to enjoy the downtown scenery.

They call it the 'Skywalk.' The Skywalk also overlooks the Arakawa-itchu-mae stop, the fruition of Yoshitaka's dream.

I would like to have Tom Cruise run along here
and film a Mission Impossible film.

I hope one day we can do something like that.

The most popular stop for children on the Arakawa Line is Arakawa-yuenchi-mae.

It is the stop for the Ward-operated Arakawa Amusement Park.

In business for 72 years, the Arakawa Ward recently invested four billion yen to renovate the park in hopes of attracting visitors from all over Tokyo.

This a little scary.

Yes, it's not for everyone.

The main attraction is the Ferris wheel gondolas with glass floors, and a 40-meter-high view from the air.

The park was closed for three years and four months for renovations, but reopened in April 2022.

Welcome to the new
Arakawa Amusement Park!

Before its reopening, we met a family who seemed to be excited about what the new amusement park would be like.

So they've kept that after all.

This is the family of Takase Keiichi, a barber from two stations away.

His family used to visit the park almost every month.

It was already an old amusement
park when we were kids.

Its old-fashioned looks gave
it a unique ambience.

I wonder how it will turn out?

The Takases' barber shop was started by Keiichi's father and mother in 1961.

When his parents opened the shop, they worked selflessly.

We had our parents babysit our kids.

Keiichi was born the year after the shop opened.

When they did have a day off, they would take the Toden to the Arakawa Amusement Park.

It was a paradise where you could enter for only 20 yen for adults and 10 yen for children, when bus rides cost 30 yen for adults.

The Arakawa Amusement Park was often part of the Takase family history.

Keiichi got married in 2007.

Five years later, when Ryunosuke was born, they naturally took him to the Arakawa Amusement Park.

But now there's something else he likes more.

I guess I started taking pictures
of the Toden after he was born.

After Ryunosuke was born, I kind of became a fan of the Toden.

Today both father and son are crazy about the Arakawa Line.

What did you like about the Toden trains?

The railroad crossing, and the sound
of its doors opening and closing.

As a child, Keiichi would stop crying when his parents carried him on his back and came to a railroad crossing.

The sound of the railroad crossing; the sound of the doors; These are part of the 'Soundtrack of the Arakawa Line.'

For me, the Toden and the amusement
park is a normal part of my life.

They were there since I was born,
so I've kind of grown up with them.

New landscapes in a familiar scenery.

The Arakawa Line runs its course creating stories in the hearts of people.