Kawagoe Travel Guide

To check off January’s resolution requirement of going on a day trip, Andrew and I headed off to Kawagoe city in Saitama prefecture!

Kawagoe had never been on my radar before- I blame my Tokyo elitism. “Saitama?! What could possibly be in Saitama?” I’ve actually been to a couple of dope places in Saitama (perhaps a write-up on Chichibu and it’s beautiful nature is next…), and am looking to change my mind about suburban Saitama. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions for places to visit out there!

Kawagoe is known as a Little Edo town, or “coedo.” The Edo era in Japan was from 1603 – 1868 and was characterized by surging economic growth and booming patronage of arts and culture. The Edo era emerged from the chaotic warring states period, known as the Sengoku era, and saw Japan taking a relatively inward look to bolstering their own cultural legacy.

In Japanese, “coedo” would be written as 小江戸 and the kanji, 小, can be phonetically pronounced as “ko.” The imagery of Little Edo has been deeply engrained with the city and has even birthed a popular craft beer brand called “Coedo” that takes pride in creating beer that is paired with the history of Kawagoe. Often times in Western society, we have cities that tout themselves as miniature pockets of a bygone era, and whether or not they are successful in constructing that mood and feeling is a crap-shoot. It ranges from the fabulously gaudy mini-isms of Las Vegas to the gentrified, but still teeming with history, Chinatowns.

Kawagoe is a town that relies on its “little” status, but definitely worth a visit as it’s not just solely a miniature pantomime of a by-gone era. The town knows it’s a tourist spot and it seeks to offer a top notch experience for that reason.

Get there

The best station to get off at is Hon-Kawagoe station on the Seibu-Shinjuku line. It is the closest station to tourist attractions.

• From Seibu-Shinjuku station take the Seibu Shinjuku line directly to Hon-Kawagoe station. It takes about an hour and costs 500yen.

Getting off at Kawagoeshi station on the Tobu Tojo line is also a good option as it is only a five minute walk to Hon-Kawagoe station. This is a good option if you are staying close to Ikebukuro.

Get Around

If you’d like to skip the write-ups, I’ve made a map of all the places listed in the blog post!

Do

Take the Coedo Loop Bus

Kawagoe is a walkable city, but not all the tourist attractions are close together. You will end up walking about 15-20 minutes between each popular site. I recommend taking the Coedo loop bus at least once as it offers some reprise from walking, and the bus drivers in this retro-style bus offer some fun tourist trivia. Although the bus drivers mainly speak Japanese, it’s still a cute ride!

Kita-in Temple

Kita-In temple is the head temple for the Tendai Sect in Kanto which means the temple still has a functional role in providing Buddhist rituals and practices. When we went to Kawagoe, several New Years (Oshogatsu) rituals were occurring, such as: daruma eye-painting, the burning of last-year’s good luck charms, and chanting by the monks. This temple is also the place where, it is believed, the third son of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, Tokugawa Iemitsu, was born.

January is a perfect time to go if you’d like to catch any Oshogatsu festivities and traditions live in person. It was also a great time to go because they had a lot of food vendors out and we were able to even buy hand-tossed shichimi (spicy chili powder with 7 herbs)!

One of the highlights at Kita-in, is visiting the Gohyaku Rakan statues. The Gohyaku Rakan  are 540 unique statues of the Buddha’s disciples. It is said that if you go walking late at night amongst the Gohyaku Rakan and touch a statue that feels warm to the touch, this statue is meant to the resemble yourself the most!

A friendly guide at the Gohyaku Rakan booth told us about a challenge we should embark on whilst looking at the statues. He told us to look out for the statues that had all twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. We took our time looking at each statue and eventually found all twelve! It’s good luck to leave a coin on your zodiac sign, so make sure to keep an eye out!

Kumano Shrine

I haven’t stumbled upon much written on Kumano shrine but this might be one of my favorite shrines that I’ve ever visited! It is quite a small shrine, but it is really amusing and fun because there are a lot of activities that get you engaged in earning good luck and good health!

The road leading up to Kumano Shrine is known as “足踏み健康ロード” which literally translates late to the Road for Stepping to Good Health, or I just call it the reflexology road. There is a pathway full of reflexology stones that help massage your feet and also aiding your balance and health. It hurts like crazy though! At least for me it did, I couldn’t help but yelp out “ouch” the entire time I was walking it. (Truthfully, I did not even finish walking the entire road.) There are also several other activities including a ring toss for good luck and a money washing station to bring good fortune. While it may seem a bit campy and carnival-esque, I whole heatedly welcomed the whimsical atmosphere of this shrine!

Kashiya Yokocho

If you have a sweet-tooth or fancy retro nostalgia, you must go to the kashiya yokocho. Kashiya yokocho translates to candy alley and this little block is filled to the brim with shops slinging sweets. During WWII, sugar was rationed and candy production almost completely ceased in Japan. Kawagoe city was one of the only cities allowed to continue to make candy and this one block radius neighbourhood is an homage to this sweet history. There are old-style kashiya, or penny candy shops, that sell candy at low nostalgic prices. We got a large haul of candy for less than 2000 yen! There are also many shops selling lots of delicious treats and junky delights like balloon candy and takoyaki stuffed in a cracker!

Eat

This was the main surprise of the day as I didn’t expect to eat anything special or find many local delights in Kawagoe. It isn’t a food mecca like Osaka is known to be, but we were able to find a lot of amazing snacks and nibbles to eat!

Yayuyoke Dango

Seeing as we were in Kawagoe just after the new year, we were able to snag yayuyoke dango at Kita-in temple which are soy sauce coated grilled rice cakes meant to ward off bad vibes! Soft, salty, and supple.

Miso

Kawagoe is known for a darker style of miso that is lathered on food as a sauce, and we saw miso dipped delights in most places we went to. We snacked on miso konnyaku at Kita-in, a sort of gelatinous and rather tasteless, jelly made from the devil’s tongue (seriously) root, but the highlight was eating miso dipped yakitori promoted by these lovely ladies.

Takosen

Touted as the ultimate junk food in kashiya yokocho, takosen is the lovechild of takoyaki and senbei. It is simply, a takoyaki ball stuck in between a wafery senbei rice cracker. The takoyaki had a large piece of octopus inside and the rice cracker had a faint taste of shrimp. This was a seafood fragranced delight that I could eat about twenty of. If 420 were legal in Japan, this would be an ultimate Japanese stoner food – bless the person who thought to invent takosen.

Mini Chocolate Fondant Cakes

Chefs revile in horror if asked to make one, the snootiest of food critics pish-posh a restaurant’s menu if they serve it, this is it, the most basic of cakes – THE CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE. I have to admit, I have often felt like the former when I see an uninspired lava cake on a menu, but damn, they are tasty. And when you’ve been walking around all day seeing sights and only being powdered by the foods you eat on the go, a 200 yen mini chocolate cake with oozing ganache in the middle is a much welcomed bite. This cake was so good, and I ain’t ashamed to recommend it to you.

Balloon Candy (Amefusen)

While we were walking around dagashi yokocho, we kept seeing kids holding these sticks with massive, bulbous sugar orbs perched on them and I knew I needed to get one as well. I’m a kid at heart and a sucker for sugar. We spotted the man making balloon candy and he gets you to work for your candy! He puts a tempered ball of sugar on one end of a straw which he then hands to you, and asks you to blow as hard you can to inflate it into an orb! This was way harder than it looks as you really gotta huff and puff. After you manage to get it into an orb, he fixes up the shape and hands it over to you to suck on like a lollipop. The candy itself is, unsurprisingly, not so tasty, but you’re paying for the sweet sweet nostalgia!

Kawagoe || Coedo

For me, “Little ___” often has me thinking of poorly made replications, but this wasn’t clearly the case at Kawagoe. When you enter the kurazukuri area you instantly feel transported to the Edo era from the well-maintained Edo era style merchant buildings; but you can also easily take a small misstep and almost walk onto the busy road where oncoming traffic intrudes dispels the atmosphere of a by-gone era. There seems to be a push and pull of a town that relies on the tourist economy while also asserting itself as a town where people simply live and work. However, Kawagoe is historically rich and offers an entertaining glimpse back into the Edo era. I recommend taking a day trip to Kawagoe and experiencing coedo for yourself.