5th Day - Kawagoe

The most important day of my life came and I'm going to celebrate it in Japan. This has been scrapped on its supposed schedule but we pushed through with this in the end and made it as our 5th day adventure. When we made our itinerary, we made sure we have options for unforeseen circumstances.

Kawagoe is a Japanese city northwest of Tokyo. It's located in Saitama prefecture. An Edo-period castle town, it’s known for its old clay warehouses and merchant homes, called Kurazukuri. Oh how I love the place from the first time I saw it on the net. 

Kawagoe is 30mins away from Ikebukuro station on the Tobo Tojo Line. At the Ikebukuro station, we purchased the Kawagoe Discount Premium Pass. I think we bought the premium pass thinking we could ride the bus but my cousin who is in Japan met us and we got a ride.

Kawagoe Discount Premium Pass : Adult 970 yen Child 490 yen

For more info, please visit : https://www.tobu.co.jp/en/ticket/kawagoe/premium.html

From Kawagoe Station, we rode a bus (TOBU KOEDO Loop Bus) at bus stop 3  and alighted at our first destination Kitain Temple-Mae.

📍 Kitain Temple

We probably spent more than 2 hours in this place and even missed out on the 500 Rakans. Rakans are the statues of the disciples of Buddha, each with its own facial expression. 

There's also a pagoda you can see before the museum.

                      We explored the grounds to the left of the Kitain temple and Voila! Found some spots which are not touristy.

Natural flare.

Semba Toshogu Shrine

This shrine is related to the shrine in Nikko. This is a Toshogu shrine built within the Kitain temple. An artificial hill was made by 2,000 followers before building the main shrine and a worship hall. This was the Semba Toshogu Shrine. The original Kitain temple and the Semba Toshogu Shrine was burned down during the Great Fire of Kawagoe. The buildings we see now were just rebuilds.

The "Torii" Gateway at the entrance to the Semba Toshogu Shrine

View from the museum.

Caught a Japanese girl walking through the museum in her cute OOTD.

Relaxing view and a "do it or else" pose.

Garden of the Museum. 

 While waiting for my cousin, we pass the time by eating. This is the most expensive kamote (sweet potato) I ever tasted. Price 300 yen. 

Total time spent: 2hours

Entrance fee : 400 yen (Adult), 400 yen (Child) (Entrance fee is for the Museum but it's worth it)

At Lunch time, we ate at a restaurant near the Renkeiji temple. My cousin paid for it as a birthday treat to me!!!

📍 RenKeiji Temple

Total time spent: 30mins

Entrance fee : FREE

📍 Warehouse District

📍 Toki No Kane (Bell of Time)

This tower is an exact replica of the 17th-century original and continues its role as the symbol of Kawagoe and also notifies citizens of the hour four times a day.

Visions of the Past.

📍 Starbucks (Edo Style)

And the two punks at the door are actually my friends who intentionally posed even if I was shouting shoo shoo.

📍 Kashiya Yokocho (Candy Alley)

My cousin bought it for him. It was soft and not too sweet. This bread lasted for days and even got to Cavite.

There are lots of food being sold at this alley, and got us full till the night. We did not eat dinner.

The last stop should have been the Hikawa Shrine but it was a bit far from the area. After running through grass fields and felt like an endless loop of turns. we finally arrived at the shrine only to find out it is already closed.

So we just head back to the train station and called it a day. I had fun with Kawagoe, more so because I love old, vintage places.