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Province · Kanto
Saitama
Kawagoe and its clay-walled storehouses, the Chichibu mountains, the flowers of Hitsujiyama, the Railway Museum and Omiya’s bonsai village.
In the photo: Traditional street of Kawagoe, in Saitama.
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
The province
Get to know Saitama
Saitama lies north of Tokyo and is part of Greater Tokyo, with cities connected to the capital by frequent trains. To the east are the plains; to the west, the Chichibu mountains, with rivers, valleys and trails a little over an hour from central Tokyo.
Kawagoe preserves a street of black clay-walled storehouses, the kurazukuri, built by merchants in the 18th and 19th centuries, and a wooden bell tower that still marks the hours. Nearby, the old sweets street has candy and biscuit shops, and Kita-in temple houses hundreds of statues of Buddha’s disciples, each with a different expression.
In Omiya, part of Saitama city, the Railway Museum displays locomotives and bullet trains from various eras, and the bonsai village brings together nurseries and a museum dedicated to the art of cultivating miniature trees. Hikawa Shrine, in Omiya Park, is one of the oldest in the region.
Chichibu is ringed by mountains. Hitsujiyama Park is carpeted with pink moss, the shibazakura, between April and May. The Chichibu Night Festival, in December, parades decorated and illuminated floats, with fireworks. In Nagatoro, boats run down the Arakawa River between rock walls.
When to go
The pink moss of Hitsujiyama generally blooms between mid-April and early May. The boats in Nagatoro operate from spring through autumn. Chichibu’s valleys turn red in November. The Chichibu Night Festival takes place in early December. July and August are humid and hot, and winter on the plains has dry days and rarely sees snow.
Getting there
Kawagoe is about 30 minutes from Ikebukuro on the Tobu Tojo Railway, and it is also served by the Seibu Railway and JR. Omiya, a major Shinkansen junction, is about 30 minutes from Tokyo Station. Seibu express trains connect Ikebukuro to Chichibu in about 80 minutes, and the Chichibu Railway runs on to Nagatoro.
Your questions
Frequently asked questions about Saitama
How do you get from Tokyo to Kawagoe?
By the Tobu Tojo Railway, from Ikebukuro to Kawagoe or Kawagoeshi, in about 30 minutes. From the station, buses and a roughly 20-minute walk lead to the storehouse street.
When do the pink moss flowers of Hitsujiyama bloom?
Generally between mid-April and early May. The park is about a 20-minute walk from Seibu-Chichibu Station and charges an entrance fee during the bloom season.
What can you see at Omiya’s Railway Museum?
Steam locomotives, vintage carriages and bullet trains from several generations, plus driving simulators and a large model railway. The museum is one station from Omiya on the New Shuttle line.
What is the Chichibu Night Festival?
It is a winter festival, held in early December, in which large wooden floats decorated with lit lanterns are pulled through the streets at night, accompanied by fireworks. UNESCO lists it, along with other Japanese float festivals, as part of the intangible cultural heritage.
Beyond the guide
