Arakawa Onsen

Arakawa Onsen is a community thermal bath in Arakawa Ward in northern Tokyo, whose unique pride is the Toden Arakawa Line—the last surviving tram line in Tokyo proper, a nostalgic relic of the extensive pre-war tram network, now running 12.2 kilometers between Waseda and Minowabashi through some of the city's most traditionally residential and artisanal neighborhoods in a slowly moving encounter with old Tokyo streetscape. The siliceous mineral waters serve a ward whose tram rides past jizo statues, shitamachi shotengai arcades, temple gates, and small workshops offer the most intimate and human-scaled transit experience in the Tokyo metropolitan area, creating a corridor of old Tokyo neighborhood life visible from the tram windows. The Toden Arakawa Line's romantic anachronism, the ward's artisan heritage, and the warm mineral waters of the neighborhood onsen give Arakawa Ward a distinctly Tokyo shitamachi personality where the city's working past remains visibly present in the textures of everyday life.