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).

Related posts:

1. Little Edo – Part 2 Toki no kane (時の鐘) is the name of Kawagoe’s original bell tower, which is still used four times a day. We heard the noon ringing. The original is about...
2. Sagano thatched roof When we rented bikes in Arashiyama we road up to Adashino-Nenbutsu-ji (化野念仏寺) in Sagano (嵯峨野). The above photograph was the view from where we parked our bicycles right across...
3. Suwa Jinja (諏訪神社) I have yet to get past part one in my Suwa Jinja Matsuri series. Someday I’ll return to those pics. Fast forward six months to a neat-sky Sunday in...
4. Fristaden Christiania (part 2 of 2) Freetown Christiania is no longer entirely free. Each resident pays 1300 DKK a month (almost US$300 with the weak dollar) to the common fund. Half of that money goes outside...
5. Friends in the neighborhood From my apartment window I can see the top of a Buddhist temple not far away. It took me almost a week to actually pay the place a visit....

Posted on January 25th, 2010 under Japan • Tags: bikes, buildings, kawagoe. • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed