Last week we had some unseasonably warm days. On Wednesday we went to Kawagoe (川越) in Saitama Ken (埼玉県) to be tourists in “Little Edo” (小江戸). There is very little in town that is actually from the Edo Period, but there are many old buildings from the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, some made to look like they are from the Edo Period. It made for a great day trip from Tokyo, especially on a weekday with no crowds.

I lived in nearby Tokorozawa many years ago, but this was my first visit to Kawagoe.

We arrived at one of the temples (or was it a shrine?) just as the neighboring kindergarten was letting out. All the moms parked their bikes on the temple grounds before picking up their kids.

This lovely, 360-year-old building is known as Jigendo (慈眼堂) and can be found on the grounds of Kitain (喜多院).

Posted on January 25th, 2010 under Japan • Tags: bikes, buildings, kawagoe. • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed