Kanto in Summer

Yutaki Falls (湯滝) is one of the three famous waterfalls of Oku-Nikko along with Kegon and Ryuzu and cascades like a veil 70 metres down a 110 metre rock face that splits into two streams near the bottom, fed by the Yugawa River as it leaves Lake Yunoko (湯ノ湖) at around 1,478 metres elevation in the highland area above Nikko in Tochigi where summer temperatures run around 10 degrees cooler than Tokyo. An observation deck at the basin gives close views of the falls and a steep 10 minute path links the crest at the lakeshore to the foot, with the Yugawa River continuing south from the base through Senjogahara Marshland (戦場ヶ原), one of Japan's largest highland wetlands and a Ramsar listed site at around 1,400 metres elevation. A 6.3 kilometre boardwalk trail crosses the marsh between Yutaki in the north and Ryuzu Falls in the south in around 2.5 to 3 hours and supports alpine wildflowers through July and August with Mount Nantai's volcanic cone visible across the marsh to the east. The wildflower season starts earlier on the other side of Nikko at Kirifuri Kogen, where the Kisugedaira meadow on the flank of Mount Akanagi carries its colonies of Nikko Kisuge, the wild yellow day lily the area is named for, from late June into mid July, spread between 1,300 and 1,600 metres and climbed by the 1,445 step Tenku Kairo stairway, around 30 minutes by bus from Nikko Station. From Tobu-Nikko Station the Tobu Bus toward Yumoto Onsen runs to the Yutaki-iriguchi bus stop in around 1 hour 20 minutes for the start of the walk, with bus service from April through November and the All Nikko Pass covering trains from Asakusa and all area buses.

A train ride from Shinjuku Station on the JR Chuo Line as far as Ome, changing there to the JR Ome Line, reaches Okutama Station at the western edge of Tokyo prefecture, where the mountains of Okutama (奥多摩) rise above the upper Tama River within the wider Chichibu-Tama-Kai National Park as one of the most accessible escapes from the city heat in summer. Okutama Lake (奥多摩湖), officially Ogouchi Reservoir, was created by the completion of the Ogouchi Dam on the river in 1957 and supplies around 20 per cent of Tokyo's drinking water, with around 12 kilometres of deep blue water surrounded by forested ridges and two pedestrian floating bridges, the Mugiyama Drum Can Bridge and the Tozura, crossing the lake. The Okutama Mukashi Michi old road follows the upper Tama River for around 9.7 kilometres from Okutama Station to the lake in a 4 hour walk through suspension bridges, old tunnels, abandoned teahouses and small shrines. The lower Tama River around Hatonosu Gorge is one of the most accessible places near Tokyo for river swimming, kayaking, SUP and canyoning through the July and August summer season, with the gorge cliffs rising 40 metres above the river and a suspension bridge crossing the water at a 10 minute walk from JR Hatonosu Station. Summer temperatures in Okutama run several degrees cooler than central Tokyo.

A 15 minute ride on the Tanigawadake Joch ropeway from Doaiguchi Station climbs to the Tenjindaira upper station at 1,319 metres on Mount Tanigawa (谷川岳) on the Gunma and Niigata border in the Minakami area of northern Gunma, where summer wildflowers across the highland plateau between July and August include the Nikko-kisuge yellow daylilies, iwakagami and ezo-ajisai of the short alpine season. The Tenjintoge Observation Deck at 1,502 metres is accessible from Tenjindaira in around 10 minutes by optional chairlift or a 1 hour walk past the small Tenmangu shrine on the peak, with views across the Joshin'etsukogen National Park range. The mountain itself is one of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains with twin peaks rising like cat's ears, Tomanomimi at 1,963 metres and Okinomimi at 1,977 metres, and the full traverse from Tenjindaira is a 6.4 kilometre round trip taking 5 to 6 hours with steep rock sections and iron chain scrambles, with Tanigawa's notorious reputation for sudden weather and difficult routes requiring serious preparation for any attempt at the peaks themselves. The ropeway return fare is ¥3,000 and operates year round. From Tokyo Station the Joetsu Shinkansen runs to Jomo-Kogen Station in around 70 minutes, with a bus from there to the Tanigawadake Joch ropeway base in around 50 minutes.

Summer vegetables come into season across the growing regions of Kanto through July and August and the variety available is one of the pleasures of eating through a Japanese summer. Tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, okra, and bitter melon all hit their peak through the hottest months and appear across restaurant menus and market stalls in ways that reflect the season directly. 夏野菜の天ぷら (Natsu Yasai no Tempura), summer vegetable tempura, is a particularly good way to experience the range of what the season produces, with the light batter of a good Tokyo tempura restaurant allowing the individual character of each vegetable to come through.

Shaved ice is the most ordinary and the most reliable summer thing to eat in Kanto, sold from a stall at every festival under a red 氷 (Kori / ice) banner and, in a more considered form, from shops that build their entire summer around it. The plainest version is crushed ice under a bottle of coloured syrup, eaten standing up in the heat for a few hundred yen. The version people travel for is made from a block of hard, slowly frozen ice shaved so finely that it collapses on the tongue rather than crunching, served with 練乳 (Ren nyu / condensed milk), a fruit purée made from whatever is in season, or a bowl of red bean paste alongside. Chichibu in the western hills of Saitama is the part of Kanto most associated with the careful version, where ice houses still cut and store natural ice through the winter for the summer trade, and the shops there run long queues on hot weekends. In central Tokyo the same style has spread well beyond the traditional sweet shops, and a good bowl is a legitimate reason to plan an afternoon around a particular street.

Watermelon is the fruit that marks the season more plainly than any other in Kanto, sold whole, halved and quartered from greengrocers and supermarkets through the hot months and eaten cold in wedges, lightly salted, often over the course of a long afternoon rather than as a course at the end of a meal. 富里市 (Tomisato City), on the sandy Shimosa upland in northern Chiba, has built its identity around the crop and marks a hundred years of 富里スイカ (Tomisato Suika) growing, and the fields there are close enough to the capital that fruit cut in the morning is on Tokyo shelves the same day. Watermelon also has a place in the summer festival landscape as スイカ割り (Suika wari), the blindfolded game of trying to split a melon with a stick, which is played along the Chiba and Kanagawa beaches through the swimming season and is as much a fixture of a Japanese summer as the melon itself.

Japanese pears come into season across the Kanto orchards in the second half of summer, with the early 幸水 (Kosui) variety picked from August and 豊水 (Hosui) following it. The Japanese pear is nothing like a European one. It is round rather than tapered, its skin is a matt russet brown, and the flesh is crisp and faintly granular and floods with juice instead of turning soft, which is why it is peeled, cut into wedges and served cold and is treated as a way of getting through the heat as much as a dessert. Chiba is the Kanto prefecture most closely associated with the fruit, with orchards concentrated around Ichikawa, Kamagaya and Shiroi in the northwest, many of them selling directly from roadside stands and small farm shops through the season, and Tochigi and Ibaraki grow it in quantity as well. Buying one from a stand near the orchard it came from, rather than from a Tokyo supermarket, is the difference worth going slightly out of the way for.

Dried gourd shavings is made in high summer, and within Kanto it is a Tochigi crop. The 夕顔 (Yugao / bottle gourd) fruit is cut in the early morning through July and August, peeled by machine into a single continuous ribbon several metres long, and hung on open racks to dry white in the sun, which is why the work falls in the hottest weeks of the year and why the drying racks are a familiar summer sight on the farmland of the southern Tochigi plain around Oyama and Shimotsuke. Rehydrated and simmered in soy and sugar, the finished ribbons become the filling of 干瓢巻き (Kanpyo maki), the thin sushi roll that has been a fixture of the Tokyo sushi counter since the Edo period, and they also go into 太巻き (Futomaki) and into simmered home cooking. It is one of the few foods in the region where the season is set by the weather needed to make it rather than by when anyone eats it.

Conger eel is the other summer fish of the Tokyo table, far less fussed over than eel but eaten much more casually. Conger taken from 東京湾 (Tokyo Bay) has been a 江戸前 (Edomae) staple since the sushi stalls of Edo, and the fish is at its best through the warm months, when it is at its fattest and the flesh is at its softest. The classic treatment is 煮穴子 (Ni anago), simmered slowly in a sweet soy stock until it can be cut with chopsticks, then brushed with a reduction of that stock and laid warm over sushi rice so that it comes apart as you pick it up. It is equally good as tempura, the fillet fried long and straight and served with nothing but salt, and as 穴子丼 (Anago don) over rice in a bowl. Anago is lighter than unagi and a good deal cheaper, which makes it the version of the summer eel meal you can order without planning the day around it.