Walk the lakeshore for a quieter day out
Walking beside a lake feels quieter than a stroll through the city, with open water and wooded hills around you instead of streets. Within reach of Tokyo there are lakeshores for every length of walk, from a 20-minute loop around a small lake to a long path along a reservoir, so pick the one that fits your day.
A reservoir in the wooded Sayama hills on Tokyo's western edge, built about a century ago to supply the city with water and known locally as Lake Tama. A paved path for walkers and cyclists follows the dam and the shore, so you can walk as far as you like and turn back. The domed brick water tower standing in the lake makes a good place to start.
A lake in Hakone, the hot spring area southwest of Tokyo, where a path between the water and the road runs from Motohakone port to Hakone Shrine in about 10 to 15 minutes. At the shrine a red torii gate stands in the lake, and on clear days Mount Fuji rises beyond the water. To see more of the shore, ride one of the sightseeing boats that cross the lake.
A small lake that formed in 1923, when the Great Kanto Earthquake set off a landslide that dammed a stream in the hills of Hadano, Kanagawa. A path circles the wooded shore in 20 to 30 minutes, passing a small shrine to Benzaiten, a goddess of water. It is about 15 to 20 minutes by bus from Hadano Station, roughly an hour from Shinjuku on the Odakyu line.