Industrial Poetry and Unlikely Shrines
Kawasaki occupies the space between Tokyo and Yokohama where factories meet residential streets, where smokestacks rise over shopping arcades, and where a peculiar shrine dedicated to fertility sits incongruously beside a kindergarten. This is not a city of famous landmarks or polished tourism infrastructure. It's a place where you find things by accident—a five-step escalator that takes eight seconds to ride, a medieval temple where you might have the grounds to yourself on a weekday, and a summer fireworks display that stages a light-show competition across a prefecture boundary. Come here not for the obvious attractions, but for the specific, the strange, and the overlooked corners of metropolitan Japan.
What to See
Kawasaki Daishi, officially called Heikenji, is one of the largest temples in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. It's dedicated to the famed monk and scholar Kobo Daishi and features an eight-sided, five-storied pagoda surrounded by numerous temple buildings—a textbook example of Japanese temple architecture. The real draw is the experience: walk through a shopping arcade for ten minutes from Kawasaki Daishi station and you'll arrive at grounds that are phenomenally crowded only once a year (New Year's Eve), but often nearly empty on weekdays. That solitude is rare near Tokyo.
Wakamiya Hachiman-gū Shrine is where Kawasaki's reputation for the unconventional becomes real. This quiet Shinto shrine venerates a meter-long iron phallus called Kanamara-sama—one of Japan's few remaining fertility shrines. The shrine shares its grounds with a kindergarten and houses a small sex museum inside its main building, displaying mostly Japanese erotic art including a version of the Three Monkeys with additional monkeys and a life-sized brass model. To reach it from Kawasaki Daishi station: cross the intersection at the only exit, follow the road that branches off second from the right, and look for a hospital on the corner. The shrine shop attendant will usually open the museum on request; entry is free, though donations are accepted.
The Japan Open-air Folk House Museum displays over twenty traditional Japanese houses dating from the late 17th to early 20th century, transplanted from around the country and set on large grounds. A gate from Nagoya Castle is also here. The museum is rarely crowded and offers free English-guided tours by reservation. Admission is ¥550. Reach it by taking the Odakyu Line from Shinjuku to Mukogaoka-yuen station (12-minute walk) or the JR Nanbu Line to Noborito (20-minute walk).
What to Do
The Kanamara Matsuri, held on the first Sunday in April, is Kawasaki's most famous event. Penis-laden temple floats are paraded through the streets, and the festival has drawn an international audience and Tokyo's transgender community alongside locals. Penis and vagina boiled candy popsicles are sold—the vagina ones in smaller quantities and often sold out by morning. Traditionally dyed cloth headscarves with penis insignias make distinctive souvenirs.
Find the world's shortest escalator in the basement of the More's shopping complex near Kawasaki station—specifically in the lowest entrance to the underground car park. It consists of five metallic steps and takes eight seconds to ride. The official version of why it exists: an engineer discovered a structural beam in the way only after the first section was installed, and the city's official site now lists it as a "Modern Industrial Cultural Property."
Tour the Kawasaki Industrial Zone at night. Located on man-made islands and divided by canals and bridges, the combination of smoke, piping, and industrial lighting creates a landscape that draws photographers. Take the Keikyu Daishi train to the end, walk south, and find roads heading east toward the larger islands. Print an aerial map beforehand, as many dead-ends don't reach the islands. For a more structured experience, nighttime boat cruises and Hato bus tours operate through the area.
Visit Kawasaki Racecourse for daytime and night horse racing (March to December), held on weekdays. It's one of Japan's most accessible racecourses, located five minutes' walk from Keikyu Minatomachi station or twelve minutes from Kawasaki station. Admission is ¥100. A keirin (bicycle racing) track also operates in the city, a 15-minute walk from JR and Keikyu Kawasaki stations.
Food and Drink
Kawasaki was once regarded as a working-class industrial city with little culinary distinction, but central Kawasaki has been revitalized. The area around the station is clean, modern, and safe, with good-value dining establishments. The east side of the station and the Azalea Underground Arcade connected to the east exit offer about 40 restaurants in a straight corridor.
Jackie Gyozarou, located at 1 Chome−1-3 2F in Isago, specializes in gyoza-stuffed chicken wings (¥2000-¥3000). It's a sister restaurant of Gyoza Mania, which holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand designation. Open 5PM-11PM.
HUB Kawasaki is a British-style pub three minutes' walk from JR Kawasaki Station, with picture menus in English and happy-hour specials from opening time until 7PM daily.
Seasonal Experiences
Summer fireworks near Futako-Tamagawa station—located between Tokyo and Kawasaki—offer something unusual: the display is split between two nights, with half launched from Tokyo Prefecture and half from Kanagawa Prefecture. The two prefectures take turns, creating a back-and-forth spectacle that resembles a competition. It occurs near the end of summer and draws less attention than larger Tokyo fireworks displays, making it less crowded.
Kawasaki rewards the curious traveler who arrives without high expectations and discovers instead a city where industrial beauty, historical temples, and unapologetic oddities coexist. Start at Kawasaki Daishi for solitude among architecture, then follow the unmarked roads toward the unusual.