Kashiwa

Tourist information:

kamon (Kashiwa Information Center), Family Kashiwa 3F (take the south exit from kashiwa stn. turn left and climb one set of stairs), ☏ +81 7168-8686. 09:00-19:00. If you need to quickly check or send emails, this center offers 30 min free access. Also a good place to pick up Tokyo listings magazine Metropolis and get general Kashiwa info. Occasionally there will be English speakers here to help out but all the staff are very friendly and will make an effort

The local tourist association has a multilingual guide site.

From Tokyo

Kashiwa is served by the JR Joban Line (JR常磐線 Jōban-sen) from Tokyo's Ueno station. Rapid services take approximately 30–35 minutes from Ueno (some mid-day services take 25 minutes) at a cost of ¥450. The Joban Line serves 3 station in Kashiwa city - Minami-Kashiwa, Kita-Kashiwa and Kashiwa stations. Kashiwa station is main and is served by all type of trains on the Joban Line.

Local trains continue onto the Chiyoda Line (千代田線 Chiyoda-sen) of Tokyo Metro(東京メトロ Tōkyō-metoro), with some going all the way to the Odakyu Line (小田急線 Odakyū-sen) on the other side of Tokyo. Given the number of stops and routing combinations, taking the local service will be reasonable only if your starting or ending point on the Chiyoda Line. In other cases, taking rapid or special rapid trains on the Joban Line and transferring from/to other lines at major stations in Tokyo (Kita-Senju, Nippori, Tokyo, Shinagawa) will generally make the ride faster and easier.

Another major line connecting north-western part of the Kashiwa city with Tokyo is Tsukuba Express. There are only 2 stations, main one being Kashiwanoha-campus station (served by up to commuter-rapid trains), another one is Kashiwatanaka station (served by only local trains). Since the line is quite new and private, and also starts only from Akihabara station, fares are relatively high. Using Tsukuba Express will make sense only if you are coming from Akihabara/Asakusa area or you need to get exactly to north-western part of the city (with university campuses, Kashiwanoha stadium, baseball field and National Cancer Center).

From Funabashi/Chiba or Omiya/Saitama