Inokashira Park

Five minutes on foot from Kichijoji Station the ground drops away to a long, narrow pond lined with cherry trees, and the city noise goes with it. Inokashira Pond is the source of the Kanda River, which runs across Tokyo to join the Sumida at Yanagibashi, and its spring water once fed the Kanda aqueduct that supplied Edo. The park opened on May 1, 1917, on land granted by the imperial household, as Japan's first suburban park. Inokashira Benzaiten, a shrine to the goddess of water and music, sits at the western end of the pond. Local lore says couples who take a boat out together will break up because Benzaiten gets jealous, which has never stopped anyone renting one. Between 2014 and 2018 the pond was drained three times to clear out invasive fish and return native species. Across Kichijoji-dori, Inokashira Park Zoo charges 400 yen and closes on Mondays. The Ghibli Museum is a neighbour too, in the wooded western part of the park, with its own advance-booked tickets. In cherry blossom season the paths around the pond are packed shoulder to shoulder, so come early in the morning.