Kawasaki

Kawasaki is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, between Tokyo and Yokohama on the south bank of the Tama River. The Kawasaki Daishi temple, founded in 1128, draws crowds in the first days of each new year, and the shops along its approach sell daruma dolls and hand-cut candy.

Kawasaki grew as a post station on the Tokaido road between Edo and Kyoto, where travelers rested before crossing the river on the Rokugo ferry, which marked the edge of the Edo region. In the early 20th century factories for steel, electrical goods and food were built on land filled along the shore of Tokyo Bay, and the town was made a city in 1924. The coast became one of the main industrial areas of Japan, while the hilly northern districts grew as suburbs of Tokyo.

Fujitsu, the computer and information technology company, has its head office in Kawasaki. Ajinomoto, the maker of the seasoning monosodium glutamate, runs its main plant on the waterfront of the city. JFE Steel produces steel at its works on the reclaimed islands of the bay.

The Fujiko F. Fujio Museum shows the drawings of the creator of Doraemon, the robot cat of Japanese comics. Nihon Minka-en, an open-air museum in Ikuta Ryokuchi park, gathers old farmhouses with thatched roofs from across Japan, some of them with their hearths still lit. Kawasaki Frontale, the football club of the city, has won the J1 League several times and plays at Todoroki Stadium. In the evenings, boat tours take people to see the lights of the factories along the bay.