Tokyo Ferries: Waterbuses, the Izu Islands and the Bay Crossing, and What to Check First

Tokyo has three quite different kinds of boat service, and they leave from different places. Our Tokyo ferry hub lists the Tokai Kisen routes to the Izu Islands. This guide puts them next to the Asakusa waterbuses and the Tokyo Bay crossing, and sets out what the operators' own pages say.

1. Three services, three operators

Tokai Kisen runs jet ferries and large passenger ships from Tokyo to the Izu Islands. Tokyo Cruise Ship Co., Ltd. (the copyright holder of the Tokyo Cruise site) runs the waterbuses from Asakusa. Tokyo Wan Ferry runs Kurihama to Kanaya, which its page calls a roughly 40-minute voyage (the Japanese page says "約40分"). Tokai Kisen's timetable and Tokyo Wan Ferry's schedule pages are in Japanese; both operators also offer English pages that we only partly read.

2. Getting to the boats

For a cruise ship at the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, GO TOKYO, the site of the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau (a destination organisation, not the terminal operator), says the terminal is in the Odaiba area. It says the Yurikamome line's Tokyo International Cruise Terminal Station is about an 8-minute walk away, with about 20 minutes on the Yurikamome to Shimbashi. It also says Tokyo Teleport Station on the Rinkai Line is about a 15-minute walk or 10 minutes by bus, and that a free shuttle bus runs between that station and the terminal when cruise ships are in port. It lists escalators and elevators in the terminal.

Tokai Kisen's Japanese terminal page gives the Takeshiba passenger terminal's address as 1-12-2 Kaigan, Minato-ku. It lists about 1 minute on foot from Yurikamome Takeshiba Station, about 8 minutes from the north exit of JR Hamamatsucho Station and about 10 minutes from Daimon Station. We did not read an official page that plans the journey between the cruise terminal and Takeshiba, so use a journey planner on the day. The waterbuses leave from Asakusa pier; see our Asakusa riverside day for the walk to it.

3. The routes, as the operators list them

The Tokai Kisen page covers 29 October 2026 to 31 January 2027, shows the days of operation as calendars in images, and lists dates when the large ships do not sail, so a sailing on the table may not run on your day.

A disruption to check before you plan

Tokai Kisen's Japanese news page, read on 30 October 2026, lists notices with these dates and titles: 5 October, a passenger substitute timetable following a vessel use suspension order; 20 October, a change in the suspended vessels; 28 October, a final update on repairs to the large ship Tachibana Maru during an emergency dry dock; and 29 October, a notice to all users. The English site lists the substitute-timetable and related notices as Japanese-only. The timetable page offers PDF timetables for 1 October 2026 to 4 April 2027 in two versions, labelled after and before the change that followed the suspension order, and we cannot tell which version the web tables follow. We have not read the notices' contents, so we cannot say which sailings are affected. Before you plan an island trip, open the operator's current timetable and notices or call its customer centre.

4. Tickets and timing

• Tokai Kisen's English site gives its customer centre as 03-5472-9999 or 0570-005710, 9:30 to 18:00, and an internet reservation site. Its Japanese terminal page lists advance ticket issuing at Takeshiba from 9:30 to 18:00. We did not open the boarding-procedure pages, so we cannot state a check-in time.
• The timetable page says the departure port for each island on the day may change with the weather; check the day's operating status or call the customer centre.
• Tokyo Cruise's FAQ says tickets are sold on the day on a first-come, first-served basis, and that online bookings are collected at the ticket counter by showing the reservation number. Its timetable page says the cruise might be cancelled without notice due to bad weather, and that one Hinode Pier to Odaiba route takes no online reservations.
• Tokyo Wan Ferry's pages that we read do not describe booking for ordinary crossings.

5. Access, luggage and comfort

• Tokai Kisen's accessibility page (Japanese) says Tachibana Maru has an elevator from the boarding entrance to a step-free area, and Sarubia Maru has wide aisles and wheelchair storage space. It says both large ships have a barrier-free toilet, and places Tachibana Maru's on deck 4.
• On the jet ferries, it says the jet ferry "Yui" has 10 barrier-free seats, a barrier-free toilet and a stair lift, while "Tomo" and "Tairyo" have no barrier-free seats or toilet and offer two front box seats on the upper deck to wheelchair users. The page says Yui's schedule may change on the day.
• The same page says wheelchair loans are limited and only for boarding and disembarking, and asks you to say when you book whether you need help boarding. Ask the customer centre which ship is on your sailing. The Takeshiba terminal page we read does not describe lifts.
• Tokyo Cruise's FAQ says "all of our vessels are wheelchair accessible" and allows one luggage of total dimensions of 2 meters per person.

6. Weather and your return to the ship

Operators say sailings can be cancelled or change port because of weather. Tokyo Wan Ferry's pages that we read give no weather rule. For a cruise call, work back from your all-aboard time with a wide margin, remembering that a changed departure port can add time. Our guides on separate tickets and a buffer and the all-aboard worksheet show how, and the Tokyo ferry hub has the island routes.