Trains were never just a way to get around for me, they’re half the reason I travel. So on my first trip to Tokyo I skipped the usual checklist for an afternoon and went looking for the best spots in the city to watch trains. I didn’t have much time to cover all of Tokyo, but I found three spots worth building a trip around, plus one bonus stop for lunch that ended up being the best part of the day.
Ochanomizu Station
If I had to pick one place, this is it. Ochanomizu sits right on the Kanda River, and from Hijiri Bridge you get a view that is Tokyo in a nutshell, trains crossing the river one after another with the city skyline stacked up behind them. The bridge was finished in 1927 as part of the rebuild after the Great Kanto Earthquake, and its name actually came from a public competition, “hijiri” means sage or saint, picked because the bridge connects a Confucian temple on one bank to an Orthodox cathedral on the other. The Chuo Line running underneath is no joke either, trains come through every 2 to 3 minutes during rush hour. I stood on that bridge for close to an hour waiting for the next one to cross. Never got bored once.
Aoyama-Kaido
My number two is a level crossing next to Yoyogi Station. Nothing fancy, just a street-level railway crossing where commuter trains cut through everyday traffic. When a train approaches, the barriers come down and pedestrians and cars wait it out together. Crossings like this one are common enough in Tokyo that there’s a name for the really stubborn ones, “akazu no fumikiri”, literally a crossing that never opens. Some of them stay barred for 40 minutes out of every hour during peak times. The shot I was after was timing a train crossing at ground level with another one passing on the elevated tracks behind it. Took a couple of crossings to line up, but worth the wait.
Yurakucho
Across from Yurakucho Station you can watch Shinkansen trains glide past on elevated tracks with the city stretched out behind them. To get the view, head to the outdoor garden on the 3rd floor of Tokyo Kotsu Kaikan, a shopping center right by the station that’s been there since 1965. Since these Shinkansen are either just leaving or just arriving at Tokyo Station, a couple of minutes away, they’re not at full speed yet, which makes them easy to photograph even without fancy gear. I went in the afternoon and had the whole terrace to myself, no crowds, no waiting for a spot by the railing.
Bonus tip: Lunch with a view
For lunch I went to Platinum Fish, a short walk from Ochanomizu Station, and this one might beat all three spots above. The restaurant sits on what used to be the platform of Manseibashi Station, a grand red-brick terminal on the Chuo Line that opened in 1912 and was designed by Tatsuno Kingo, the same architect behind Tokyo Station. It closed in 1943 and just sat there for decades until it was reopened in 2013 as mAAch ecute, a small shopping and dining complex built into the old viaduct. Platinum Fish took over the platform itself and turned it into a glass-walled terrace, so you’re eating with active Chuo Line trains passing close enough on either side to feel the air move. Not a quiet meal, but that’s exactly the point. Go off-peak so you can actually enjoy your food between trains instead of constantly looking up.
There are people in Tokyo who treat trainspotting as a serious hobby, with favorite platforms and timetables memorized down to the minute. I’m not that deep into it. But Ochanomizu, Aoyama-Kaido, Yurakucho and lunch at Platinum Fish gave me a good first taste, and I’d go back to all four.