Kawagoe
Kawagoe is a town on the outskirts of Tokyo, with an area of historic Edo-style buildings called kurazukuri. These black buildings in the warehouse district are characteristic of the architectural style of the area.
It’s a beautiful place to visit any time of year for a taste of historic Japan without travelling far from Tokyo, but if you’re lucky enough to be there on the weekend of their annual matsuri, the town really comes to life!
Kawagoe Matsuri
Kawagoe Matsuri is a Japanese festival that takes place every year on the weekend of the 3rd Sunday of October.
The main feature of the festival are the floats, which people pull along the streets. Each float has two storeys, a turntable so it can rotate, dancers and musicians in costume and some of them have a doll. The floats look similar at first, but when you look more closely they’re decorated in different ways.
When you’re there, there’s no real programme or anything to explain what’s going on, so it can be difficult to know the meaning of what’s happening, but it’s interesting to experience nonetheless! Anyone’s welcome to come along, wander round and soak up the atmosphere.
The festival’s taken place for over 300 years, and the floats started off as a portable shrine that was transported through the streets.
The festival continues through the afternoon into the evening. After it gets dark, the atmosphere’s much more magical, so I’m glad we stayed after dusk. In the evening there was even a display on the main street with people balancing poles and performing balancing acts high in the air.
We were lucky to be there at the time of the festival, but I’d recommend visiting the area at any time of year; I just loved the look of the historical warehouse buildings. In terms of things to do, it was similar to our trip to Shibamata, but the style of the architecture is very different.
See what it’s like at the festival
Here’s my video from the Kawagoe Festival, so you can see what it’s like:
Japanese Street Food
There are an unbelievable number of food stalls at the matsuri. Even though it might not be the most well-known festival, you won’t be disappointed by the choice of food stalls! The main street is lined with them, and down the side streets there are marketplaces full of stalls. The variety is really interesting, with many types of food you don’t really find in regular restaurants or cafes.
Here’s my video focussing on street food at the festival:
How to Get to Kawagoe
The fastest train to Kawagoe is the Tobu Tojo line from Ikebukuro Station, which takes 30 minutes. The Kawagoe Discount Pass is the best value ticket to get. It’s 710 yen for a round trip. You can purchase it from the Tobu desk at Ikebukuro Station. Central 1 ticket gate is multilingual, and it’s open from 10am – 5pm.
As we were staying in Shinjuku, we took the JR line from Shinjuku Station to Kawagoe Station via Omiya. This is slower (55 minutes) and slightly more expensive so the Tobu line would have been a better option. The Tobu train is also more comfortable!
It’s an easy day trip from Tokyo, and a complete contrast to the rest of the city. We spent an afternoon in Kawagoe – without the festival you could look around in a couple of hours or spend longer with a more relaxed pace, particularly if you want to visit all the shrines and temples.
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