JapanDo: Walk Across Rainbow Bridge

building with elevators to enter the pedestrian paths on bridge

south route looking towards Tamachi... might see Fuji

north route where you can see Tokyo Tower and Skytree

Take the East Exit of Tamachi Station 田町駅, go down the steps on the left and basically just walk straight for 20 minutes or so, over the canal, under the monorail tracks, then over another canal towards Rainbow Bridge. When Rainbow Bridge becomes visible, you'll start seeing signs pointing to the pedestrian paths, some of which say Rainbow Promenade in English. Follow the signs to the building at the foot of the bridge called レインボーブリッジ遊歩道入口 (shown in the photo on the left) and take the elevator inside to the 7th floor. You can also take your bike (on the South Route only), but you can't ride it.

The elevator on the right takes you to the north route for views of the Tokyo side, whereas the one on the left takes you to the south route for views of Odaiba. Basically, you choose to walk on the left or right side of the bridge :

⇪ north route : see Tokyo Tower & Skytree
⇩ south route : see Odaiba & some islands

The views are fantastic especially when it's just starting to get dark, which is around 5 in the evening in November. It's quite romantic but note that you're walking right next to pretty loud traffic so it's not really the place for chit-chat.

We chose the south route and after 45 minutes, with very frequent photo breaks, ended up in Odaiba Marine Park (Google Map レインボーブリッジ台場側入り口) where the beach is - more awesome views of the bridge and little dinner cruise boats. If you're just walking without stopping, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes since the bridge is just 1523 meters long. Shortly before you can get off the bridge, there's a sign pointing to where you can cross over to the north side.

The following week we did the north route in 40 minutes and ended up in the same place. We saw real life Mario Kart racers in costumes around 5:10 pm just like the week before. It's hard to say which side looks better so just do both! You can have dinner in AQUA CiTY ODAIBA for more views of Rainbow Bridge. There's also a creepy robot receptionist there who can give you directions while blinking way too often.

It's open from 9 am to 9 pm from April to October and 10 am to 6 pm from November to March. Final entry is half an hour before and you won't be able to exit from Odaiba after-hours. It's closed on the 3^rd Monday of the month.

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