It's hot. Sweltering hot. And humid. And it's not going to cool down any time soon.
So with weeks of sweating buckets looming ahead, I set out on a mission to find cool and refreshing places to swim around Tokyo that don't include sitting on piping hot, ray-blasted beaches. I'm on a hunt for the city's cleanest rivers.
First stop: Mitake (take the Chuo Line from Shinjuku to Ome and then get on the Ome Line to Mitake — ¥890 and about 90 minutes). Just outside the station is a tourist booth with information (in Japanese) on the area's hiking trails (two of which extend from the concrete paths along the river bank), bus routes and a cable car that takes you part way to a couple of waterfalls.