kawagoe

The city of Kawagoe in Saitama prefecture is about 2 hours away from where we live.

We left at about 9-ish and got there around 11-ish.

When we arrived we popped into a restaurant called Kasuga for lunch.

I ordered their Manpuku set...sweet potato noodles in a shoyu broth that also came with some grilled dango (dumplings).

The dumplings weren't sweet but savory.

I enjoyed the noodles too which were like somen (capellini). There was only 30% sweet potato in them so the sweet potato flavor wasn't pronounced, this was delicious.

Satoshi had the Tsubasa zen...his noodles were like mine, but his lunch also came with tororo gohan (rice covered with chinese yam) and naruto kintoki sweet potato ice cream.

I'm glad we ate lunch kind of early because the lines we saw after we came out of the restaurant were kind of crazy!

After lunch, we walked around the Kurazukuri Area.

Lots of wooden buildings from the past.

The bell tower wasn't working because of the recent typhoons.

Fancy Starbucks made to look like one of the older buildings.

Honmaru Goten is the only remnant of the Kawagoe Castle.

There was a kiku matsuri (chrysanthemum festival) at Kitain.

Amazing to see.

We also looked that the home that 3rd shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu was born.

There is also an area where there is 500 rakan (arhat).

Arhats are "those who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved nirvana".

According to the pamphlet I received on entrance to the area, there are actually 540 arhats which were carved between 1782 and 1825 with no two statues alike.

There was also a kind of creepy "story" on the pamphlet regarding these arhats...it was said that if you felt these arhats in the middle of the night, one would be warm.

Mark the "warm" arhat and come back the next day...the arhat would resemble you.

We've also seen rakan in other areas of Japan, here and here.

Since we had an early lunch, we were kind of hungry, so we stopped into Patisserie Potager for something sweet.

Satoshi tried the Potager Roll which was filled with fruits.

I tried the no bake cheesecake, which was a whipped cream cheese, light and airy.

The craft beer of this area is the Coedo brand.

I bought the Beniaka, an amber beer made from sweet potatoes and the Sumatera, a pale amber made from LCF Mandheling Coffee.

We tried the coffee beer with dinner on Sunday.

Lots of coffee flavor...smooth and delicious.

We also bought a small bottle of sake called Akiagari by Koedo Kagamiyama.

We also bought some prosciutto from Mio Casalo, a local maker of sausage and hams.

We also had some of this with dinner on Sunday.

Wrapping sliced kaki (persimmon) with it.

Delicious.

While we were glad to explore the area, we were a little disappointed with Kawagoe it is kind of touristy like Arashiyama in Kyoto, also most shops only take cash.

If you are interested in seeing a few more photos, please look here.

Kasuga
6-1 Saiwai-cho
Kawagoe, Saitama
Phone: 050.5590.8707
Hours: 10:30-20:00

Patisserie Potager
1-17-3 Matsue-cho
Phone: 049.223.6232
Hours: 9:00-20:00