For the people of Tokyo, the wide banks of the Tama River are among the most popular places to have a barbecue.
What many of them don't know, however, or maybe they just don't care, is that cookouts along most of the river, especially in the parklike areas inside the levees where the Tama flows through the metropolis, are prohibited.
Many municipalities tolerate barbecuing, though, unless they receive an overwhelming amount of complaints about smell, noise or bad manners.