Kawasaki

Kawasaki has been an important city of trade since the days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, as a stop on the Tokaido road between Tokyo and Kyoto. With a population of over 1.5 million (2020), Kawasaki is the ninth most populated city in Japan, but it's sandwiched between Japan's two largest cities, Tokyo and Yokohama, and consequently ignored by the vast majority of tourists zooming between the two. There are attractions, though, that make Kawasaki a unique side trip, including a Buddhist temple that ranks as one of Japan's top three most visited temples during the New Year, a Shinto fertility shrine that hosts one of Japan's wackiest festivals, and an underrated open-air museum.

Geographically, Kawasaki lies in the middle of the Keihin (Tokyo-Yokohama) region, separated from the Tokyo metropolis by the Tama River, which it roughly follows, and is divided into seven wards. The eastern part of Kawasaki, along Tokyo Bay, contains industrial work areas and blue-collar housing, while more upscale buildings can be found in the Tama Hills further west and inland.

Kawasaki is largely an industrial area and residential suburb — as typical in Japan, not much distinction between the two is made. But there's one very large temple and one very offbeat shrine to draw in the occasional curious tourist.

• 🌍 Kawasaki Daishi (川崎大師, officially Heikenji 平間寺). A large temple dedicated to famed monk and scholar Kobo Daishi (see Mt. Koya). Featuring a 8-sided, 5-storied pagoda and more large temple buildings than you can shake a stick at, Kawasaki Daishi is a textbook example of a Japanese temple and remarkable primarily for the fact that on a weekday you can pretty much have the place to yourself. Easily reached on foot from Kawasaki Daishi station, a 10-minute stroll through a shopping arcade. Being one of the largest temples in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, this place is phenomenally popular as a place for locals to pray in the New Year at midnight. 
• 🌍 Wakamiya Hachiman-gū Shrine (若宮八幡宮). A quiet Shinto shrine that would be indistinguishable from your average neighborhood shrine if not for one thing: this happens to be one of Japan's few remaining fertility shrines, and the deity venerated here assumes the form of a meter-long iron phallus, known as Kanamara-sama (金まら様, lit. "Iron Big Penis Lord"). There are a number of stories behind this, and while the most entertaining one is certainly the official legend (see box), the more likely explanation seems that prostitutes from nearby brothels — still a large industry in Kawasaki — used to pray here for protection. To get to the shrine, take the only exit from Kawasaki Daishi station, cross the intersection and follow the road that branches off second from the right. There is a hospital on the corner visible from the station, and the shrine is just beyond it. It inexplicably shares its grounds with a kindergarten. Definitely best visited during festival time (see Do). 
  • In the shrine building you can also find a small sex museum, showcasing mostly Japanese erotic art. A few notable exhibits include a version of the Three Monkeys with two extra monkeys and life-sized brass model of a vagina; if you buy an amulet from the shop (see Buy), you're supposed to rub it against this. Opening hours are erratic, but the shrine shop attendant will usually be happy to open it up on request. Entry is free, but donations are accepted.
• 🌍 Japan Open-air Folk House Museum (日本民家園 (Nihon Minka-En)) (12 min walk from Mukogaoka-yuen station on the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku, or 20 min from Noborito on the JR Nanbu Line). The large grounds display over twenty traditional Japanese houses (and the gate of Nagoya castle), dating from the late 17th to early 20th century and transplanted from around the country. Rarely crowded. See website for free English guided tour (reservation needed). ¥550 admission. (updated Jan 2024)
• If you like to gamble, Kawasaki is also home to a horse racing track and a keirin (bicycle racing) track. The horse track is located next to the Keikyu Daishi Line Minatomachi station, while the keirin track is a 15 minute walk from the JR and Keikyu Kawasaki train stations.
• Summer fireworks displays Whilst summer fireworks are ubiquitous across Japan, especially Tokyo, the one outside Futako-Tamagawa station between Tokyo and Kawasaki is perhaps the hidden gem of the calendar. It has a "boom-factor" rivalling some of the larger ones, but is instead split into two on the roster each with half the notoriety (thus bumping it to the end of the listings) as half the fireworks are launched in Tokyo Prefecture and half in Kanagawa Prefecture. On the one night. They take turns so it comes across as somewhat as a competition of one-upmanship. Happens near the end of summer, check local schedules.

• Kawasaki's best-known event is the Kanamara Matsuri (金まら祭り), also known as the Iron Penis Festival, held on the first Sunday in April. Penis-laden temple floats (o-mikoshi) are paraded down the streets of Kawasaki and everybody gets sloshed. The festival has been to some extent hijacked by foreign tourists and Tokyo's transgender ("new half") community, who often make up half the audience, but as you can imagine the people running the show aren't terribly uptight and nobody seems to mind. Penis (o-chinko) and newer addition vagina (o-manko) boiled candy popsicles are on sale. The manko ones in particular tend to be produced in smaller quantities and sell out early in the morning, the chinko typically selling out before midday. For a souvenir to take home, pick up as traditionally dyed cloth as a headscarf... with penis insignias on it.
• Ride the World's Shortest Escalator, located in the basement of the More's shopping complex near Kawasaki station. 🌍 More's is the small, thin, dirty looking one just to the south of the two stations, over the road with the entire ground floor one games arcade. Pop down the escalator and find the lowest entrance to the underground car park and there you have it. The actual act of riding it takes 8 seconds so you can easily sandwich this into a day trip somewhere else. The legend varies considerably as to just why this thing exists, especially considering it is placed between two sets of stairs making it pointless even for the disabled. The popular version states that they simply ran out of cash and ceased construction after the 5 metallic steps were made. Local drunks may tell you tales of a child dying there. Perhaps more plausible is that they simply messed up the measurements? You decide. (In fact, it was an engineer's mistake: he found there was a structural beam in the way only after the first section had been installed. Now the city's official site has a page on the "petitcalator" under the section "Modern Industrial Cultural Properties".)
• Tour the Kawasaki Industrial Zone at night. Located on a bunch of man made islands and split up by a network of canals and bridges, the combination of smoke, piping and lighting makes it quite spectacular and a big drawcard for local photographers. The easiest way is to get there promptly is simply take the Keikyu Daishi train to the end, walk south and then find one of the east-trending roads leading on to one of the larger islands. There's a lot of long dead-ends that don't quite reach the islands so print off an aerial photo or map from Google Earth or Yahoo! Maps beforehand. The more luxurious way is a nighttime boat cruise or Hato bus tour: the latest unusual craze for Japanese domestic tourists in 2010.
• Kawasaki Racecourse (川崎競馬場) (5 min walk from Keikyu Minatomachi station; 12min from Kawasaki station). One of the most accessible racecourses in Japan. Meeting on weekdays, including night races (March to December). Has a modest English website. \100. (updated Feb 2024)

Wakamiya Hachiman has a wonderful selection of amulets promising fertility, sexual prowess and protection from disease. Prices ¥500-1000, and some of the revenue goes to HIV/AIDS research.

In festival time, a little market selling penis-shaped candies and other sexual paraphernalia pops up on the shrine grounds.

Previously long thought of as a working-class, blue collar, industrial city with little to offer in terms of the sophistication of Tokyo or the internationalized flair of Yokohama, central Kawasaki was revitalized and is a modern city. The area around the station is quite clean and modern, very safe and convenient and offers good value in terms of eating establishments. You will not find much in the way of notable or must-eat culinary restaurants but you will find very competent and reasonable dining, particularly on the east side of the station and in the Azalea Underground Arcade connected to the east exit of the station, where about 40 restaurants line on a straight corridor.

• 🌍 HUB Kawasaki, Biko Bldg B1, 5-1 Ekimae-honcho (3 minute walk from JR Kawasaki Station), ☏ +81 44-223-5082. Part of the HUB chain of British-style pubs. Picture menus with some English descriptions are available. Happy Hour specials every day from opening time until 19:00. 

There is no compelling reason to stay here overnight and most visitors daytrip from Tokyo, but if you are splitting time between Tokyo and Yokohama and your destinations are on the JR Tokaido Line or the Keihin Kyuko Line and the hotels in Shinagawa are all sold out, Kawasaki might be a good alternative as there are many inexpensive business hotels in the Kawasaki area. Outside of the central business districts there's a large highwayside cluster of motels in Shin-Maruko, near the Tama River.

• Yokohama
• Yokosuka
• Miura
• Kamakura
• Fujisawa
• Fuchu
• Machida
• Chofu
• Tama