• Shikoku Pilgrimage
• Amy Katoh
• Kumamoto Castle
• Uchiwa
• Enoden
• Ekiben
• The On Matsuri
• Kusatsu Onsen
• Interview with a Geisha
• 'Anime' Fatasy at the Ghibli Museum

Yakatabune - Tokyo's Party Boats

July 2004

by Robert Cameron

Summer in Tokyo can be a wonderful time -- it's the season of beer gardens, pretty girls in yukata, and pleasant, breezy evenings aboard yakatabune, the traditional Japanese party boats.

Partying on the flat-bottom boats ("yakatabune" literally means "roof-shaped boat") is an ancient tradition. Long before the advent of air conditioning or refrigeration, the boats were a fun and effective way to escape the stifling heat of summer. They still are. On a recent trip, a group of us enjoyed the cool breezes off Tokyo Bay that offered a pleasant respite from the oppressive humidity and grind of life in Tokyo.

These boats are great fun, and Tokyoites have been doing this for centuries. It was already a well-established tradition 1858 when Hiroshige carved his famous ukiyoe woodblock print "Fireworks at Ryogoku," of yakatabune and other boats under a shower of fireworks. The boats first appear in the literature in the 8th century as a popular way for aristocrats, and later samurai and wealthy middle-class types, to escape the heat. These days all kinds of people enjoy them, for special occasions like school trips, office parties, and wedding receptions, or just as an excellent venue for a party.

The experience hasn't changed much over the centuries -- lots of great food, served Japanese-style on floor-level tables on tatami mats. Of course today's yakatabune also include karaoke and other entertainment. Our boat was relatively soundproof, so we could escape outside to the foredeck and close the door, muffling the roar of the Ricky Martin (or whoever) wannabes. Other boats nearby were less fortunate (or maybe they just left their door open), as we could hear drunken voices belting out karaoke at full throttle.  Our boat, the Mutsumi Maru, carried a cosmopolitan crowd, about 30 of us in all, who boarded the boat at a pier near Shinagawa Station. Most of us were there with the Tokyo Professionals Association, a networking/partying organization for foreigners and Japanese. The Mutsumi is a fairly standard-size yakatabune, with a capacity of 82 passengers. Fully loaded with people, it would have been a little snug, about as relaxing as the Yamanote Line at rush hour.

There are bigger boats, harbor cruise ships and the like, but the little yakatabune have a traditional charm all their own. You feel like you're participating in a centuries-old tradition.

We threaded our way down the canals of Kita-Shinagawa, gliding past a harbor landscape of docks and ships and the exposed girders of half-finished buildings, then under a couple of bridges and out into the bay.

A crewman dropped the anchor, and the boat's rocking motion steadied. Outside on the foredeck the view was dazzling. We were floating just off Odaiba Waterfront Park, beneath the striking bulk of the two towers of the Fuji TV building, with its massive spherical conference room suspended between them. About 20 other boats drifted around us. To the north loomed the Rainbow Bridge, its lights a string of pearls in the night sky.

We could also see several small islands silhouetted against the city lights. In the 19th century these were heavily fortified and bristling with cannons. The panicked Tokugawa shogunate government hoped they would defend the capital against the return of the dreaded Black Ships of the U.S. Navy's Commodore Matthew Perry, which in 1853 had appeared at the mouth of Tokyo Bay, shocking Japan out of centuries of self-imposed isolation.

But that was then. Things are peaceful now, at least out on Tokyo Bay on a Saturday night. The crew put on a fine spread of sashimi, o-tsumami (beer snacks) such as edamame (green soybeans, boiled and salted) and tsukudani (little sweet shrimp and fish), and great piles of wonderful unagi (sea eel) tempura, as well as a seemingly bottomless cooler of beer, sake, and shochu, a liquor made from sweet potatoes.

Yakatabune can be a little pricey -- Y12,000 per person is typical for an evening on the bay.  That price includes all you can eat and drink and compares well to dinner and drinks at a decent restaurant in town. And you get the sea breezes, the view, and the rocking motion thrown in -- as well as the "entertainment" of your fellow passengers belting out karaoke.

Back at the Mutsumi Maru's berth, the group, a little tipsy now, toddled off the boat and split up, some to continue the revelries at Ichi-ryu, a little yatai-mura (food stall area) set up next to the yakatabune berth. The stalls serve yakitori, oden (various delicious doodads boiled in broth), and Japanese barbecue, like amiyaki (grilled corn), squid, and clams. You walk around ordering what you want and then go sit outside, and your food is brought to you. This kind of yatai ambience used to be found in every neighborhood in Tokyo, but now, sadly, is becoming somewhat hard to find.

Like the wonderful yatai food, the yakatabune experience is something to savor. It gives you a whole new perspective on Tokyo -- a bobbing perspective, from water level.