Kawagoe Strolling

Last time I had my company training in around Saitama area and right after completing our training, me and several of my friends decided to take a stroll around an area called Kawagoe, which is famous for its Edo style preserved buildings environment. During that Edo period, this town was an important commercial resource to Tokyo that it grew so wealthy more than the other town.

We stopped on a station called “Kawagoe” (川越) and then we walked around 15-20 minutes to the center of the old town of Kawagoe called the “Warehouse District” which apparently has the strongest Edo-style buildings environment.

My bad was, at that time, my friends lead us all the way so I kinda didn’t remember how we got there, but all I knew was that he took a map from the station and directly followed the instruction there based on my research on web, apparently it was much more closer to a station called “Kawagoeshi” (川越市) and its just a walk straight to the Warehouse District. However, since there are so many shops along the road to the warehouse district, we enjoyed the 20 minute walk a lot.

Even they have some branded shops there such as Zara, Starbucks etc. Wtf. Talking about building-style generation gap. Hahahah.

Walking the roads, we can see the building style changed from modern to Edo-style buildings slowly. Kinda have that feeling of creepiness (I know I played horror games too much).

Some shops were so old style we don’t even know whether it is operating or just standing there doing nothing...

Reaching the main spot, we slowly felt that the crowd were increasing, and we know we’re on the right track.

I think the Warehouse District starts from the famous bean shops here.

They sell all kind of Japanese style beans with several flavour such as Kinako which appears to be the most famous one, matcha, chocolate, and several more that I even can’t remember. We can bring around our toothpick gave by the shop assistant, walk around the store and try all the samples that were put on the trays. It’s like, bean buffet. Eat all the beaaaaansss.

Not just eating of course, I brought some beans back home and it cost around 500-700 yen per box. They sell other items too such as chips etc however their beans seems like the famous one, so I didn’t bother to look at the other stuff beside beans.

Continue.

We keep strolling around the area, found one cute Hello Kitty store. 

Since I went with 3 guys, my visit here was less than 10 minutes. I keep walking inside the store and they be like, already standing in front of the store waiting for me with their “C'mon we have to continue” face without mercy. Bah.

But it was quit reasonable. It was around 4 at that time and most of the stores there start closing around 5, so we kinda have to walk faster to explore all of the best spots.

From there, we just walk strolling around the road and visited several stores with less than 5 minutes each inside.

And we reached the candy alley (at least that’s what they called in the website) ! They sell all the very old style Japanese sweets, and, weird toys.

They have the weighed candy spot where I can put all the flavoured candy that I want in one bag. It cost around 200 yen for 100 gr. Quite exciting. But sorry I didn’t take any photos of it.

This is the continuance of the candy alley, marked with several stores selling the same style candies and Japanese traditional foods. And we found several coffee shops, bread store, and hotels.

My friends were fascinated by all the koi fishes inside the pond outside a random restaurant. They look at these boring things and won’t let me look at the Hello Kitty longer. Booo.

And here we are, reached the main spot, the landmark of Kawagoe, the Bell Tower! The tower was rebuilt in 1984 after a fire destroyed it on 1983.

And just beside the Bell Tower, there was a shop that sells best-ever taro flavour Ice cream that I ever taste in my life. At first I hesitated to buy but after I ate it, I swear it was the best thing ever.

And sadly to say, my taro-flavored ice cream marked the end of our journey. Since it was already 6 plus and most of the store were closing down, we decided to walk back to Kawagoe Station and take a train back home to Tokyo.

It was an exciting short trip after all! Escaping all the city lights and crowds from Tokyo. Enjoying a different environment once in a while is definitely my one way, or, our way to release the city stress a little bit. Maybe I won’t be back here again for a near time, or, maybe never again, since there were still so much of the cities in Tokyo that worth to be explored. However, this city didn’t fail to leave great memories I cannot forget and I will keep looking forward to be back here again someday.