Totoro Forest - Between the Water and the Trees on the Saitama Border

I picked a good time and place for a cycle ride. 1/13s 39mm F16 ISO 64.

One thing high on my agenda when I moved to Japan was buying a bicycle, which many say is the best way to get around Tokyo. It’s always been my favourite mode of transport, as I love getting somewhere under my own steam and it’s the perfect balance between the speed of getting there and having enough time to appreciate where you are going. At times Japan feels a bit ambivalent to cycling (taking your bicycle on a train is a real pain here), but in day-to-day life you are well catered for with numerous cycle paths and very lax enforcement of many of the supposed rules. Like the UK cycling on the pavement is illegal but also like the UK everybody does it and nobody cares.

Muyama Upper Dam, there’s plenty of roads and cycle paths around Tama Lake. 1/200s 49mm F5.6 ISO 64.

The Toyota Century is the ultimate in Japanese luxury motoring. This one caught my eye for being out in the countryside in an old wooden garage. 1/200s 70mm F4.0 ISO 64.

While the first thoughts of Tokyo are that of the giant metropolis, the suburbs are radically different. When I first moved here on the western side of the city, I was very surprised by just how quiet it was given that Shinjuku or Shibuya are less than half an hour away by train. Then by looking at a map of the area I began to realise just how many parks there were and zooming out further I noticed two large reservoirs on the Tokyo/Saitama border – Tama Lake & Sayama Lake. It’s more than a 30km roundtrip to get there but handily most of that is one straight cycle path. However, navigating these on a weekend is not without its challenges as most of the pedestrians seem to insist on walking on not using the designated walkway.

The Okunoin Gojunoto pagoda caught my attention from the road. 1/10s 24mm F16 ISO 64.

Huge stone dragons wrap themselves around the temple complex, like something straight out of Dragonball. 1/6s 24mm F5.6 ISO 64.

Prayer wheels adorning the temple 1/50s 24mm F4.0 ISO 64.

I had a picked a perfectly hot and sunny day in October and upon arriving I could simply put my bike against the barriers and create a perfect postcard shot. It’s also no accident that I bought a very photogenic bike in red. Then I simply had the whole day to explore and there was certainly much to see. Tama Lake has cycle paths that wind all the way around, making it very accessible. Sayama Lake is a little tricker to navigate and you can only really go along its eastern edge while still seeing the water. What I have found a little bit frustrating in Japan is that I will often encounter lots of fences that close of much of the countryside to the average person. It’s probably different much further out into the mountains, but here there was never an opportunity to actually get down to the water’s edge. I guess open access land is not really a thing in Japan, at least not near urban areas.

The tiers of Jizo statues at Yamaguchi Kannon. 1/5s 24mm F16 ISO 64.

Mother pray at these statues for the safety and health of their children. 1/30s 24mm F4.0 ISO 64.

The bonshō bell. 1/25s 24mm F4.0 ISO 64.

As I was cycling I very serendipitously came across the temple of Yamaguchi Kannon, with a sizeable temple complex, pagoda and the tiers of jizo statues built into the hill, guarded by huge stone dragons. This place really caught my imagination, not only as it was the first time I’d ever seen anything like this and also because it was simply so quiet. This is clearly not a tourist hotspot, and I finally enjoyed being able to visit a temple in Japan in real peace. It gives you far more appreciation for the solemn places of worship that they are. I even encountered a Japanese man who spoke a bit of English who pointed a few things out to me and for the first time I rang the bonshō, big bronze bells that all Buddhist temples in Japan have. As it resonates and reverberates, it’s a magical sound.

The joro spider nests were astonishing, collections of webs that created a structure the size of a small car. 1/25s 70mm F8.0 ISO 64.

Tokorozawa Village nestled in Totoro Forest. 1/25s 34.5mm F8.0 ISO 64.

Later in the day I tried to see how far I could get around Sayama Lake and I quickly realised I was heading much deeper into the countryside. The roads and cycle paths gave way to very rough dirt track, not something my bicycle with its road tyres was best suited for. It’s here however that I found Totoro Forest, somewhere I didn’t even know existed at the start of the day. If you think that name sounds familiar it isn’t a coincidence. It turns out that Totoro Forest is indeed the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki to create the animated film My Neighbour Totoro. It’s not hard to see why.

With the film’s success and the popular characters are used as part of the promotion of the forest. 1/5s 24mm F4.0 ISO 64.

Capturing an essence of the magic. 1/25s 70mm F16 ISO 64.

A lovely old wooden sign marking trail no.4. 1/6s 45mm F4.0 ISO 64.

There is a kind of magic to the place, it’s so quiet and the forest surprisingly dense for somewhere so close to a big city. It’s also teaming with life; I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many spiders in one place. A popular hiking area for Japanese families and there are different numbered trails complete with signs displaying characters from the aforementioned film. Certainly a great place to inspire children to be outdoors and I am sure it is even more magical when the Autumn colours are out in full force.

This bright orange van caught my attention in the village car park. 1/10s 49mm F16 ISO 64.

I returned to where I started at Tama Lake to watch the sun set. 1/80s 31mm F8.0 ISO 64.

As the day was drawing to a close I decided to watch the sunset over Tama Lake, and I was far from alone. The Japanese locals and day-trippers were all lined up along the edge of the lake as the light faded in a glow or orange. In winter it is even possible to see Mt. Fuji in the distance and reflected on the surface of the lake and I will definitely be returning for that. Given there are few obvious landmarks I tried to take a leaf out of Thomas Heaton’s book and go minimalist which I think worked well. Though whether it worked better in monochrome or colour I still haven’t decided. Still, if this day out taught me one thing, even if you live in the biggest city in the world, you don’t have to trek for days to find a bit of peace and quiet in the countryside. Much to my great relief.

I tried to shoot a minimalist image. This one I converted to monochrome… 1/25s 70mm F8.0 ISO 64.

…And this one I kept in colour and cropped it to square. Which is your preference? 1/25s 70mm F8.0 ISO 64.

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