Not Dasaitama!… I recently had the great experience of filming on location and in studio with the NHK Cool Japan show. It will air this Sunday March 3rd at 6 pm on BS1 and in 150 countries around the world on NHK World Premium on Monday March 4th at 2pmRead More →
Cafe Matilda is a pancake house in the tourist town of Kawagoe. The restaurant itself is outside the tourist area, but it is close to Hon-Kawagoe station making it a convenient place to pick up a bite before or after a tour of Kawagoe city. Currently, during the State ofRead More →
Wired Cafe is one of the better known brands of coffee shop giant Cafe Company. There are branches of Wired Cafe all over Japan. A large concentration of them are in Tokyo and the greater Tokyo region, including in our lovely Saitama. We actually only have a couple of WiredRead More →
The Kitamoto city office is a modern building that houses lots of practical services in the one facility. It makes so much sense, but it is actually quite rare for a municipality to offer a cluster of public services in the same area. I get why they disperse them, thereRead More →
Konosu Central Library Konosu Central Library; library with a cafe. Konosu Library is a bright, colourful, comfortable and modern library. And it is the only library I know of that has a coffee shop in it. Okay so it is not quite a shop in the typical sense and moreRead More →
Asaka City Library has a really good selection of English books and magazines, better than most of the libraries I am member of. As it is not a public library and only a municipal library I am not able to borrow from there. It doesn’t stop me from visiting itRead More →
ALIT Museum, Iruma City, Saitama, Japan. ALIT stands for Art / Archives, Library, Information and Tea. It is essentially a tea museum. And one of only a handful of tea museums in Japan, or even the world. The tea exhibits and related maybe the main part of the museum, butRead More →
Located in Omiya Park, the Saitama Prefectural Museum of History and Folklore is made up of three main parts: the exhibits, crafting and a free outdoor play area. This article concentrates on the latter two which do not have a cover charge to enter, and the free exhibits. The exhibitRead More →
Kawagoe Styrofoam Art by Yajima Kimio in Kawagoe. This post was originally written in 2015. But as Mr Yajima continually adds to his incredible art made from styrofoam collection, I added his most recent work in 2019. This updated version comes with a map of the locations of some ofRead More →
Today’s afternoon tea post is ironically in stark contrast to yesterday’s. From yesterday’s quaint tea house in an idyllic setting in Tokyo, to today’s wanting tea room of the bleak Lobby Lounge in Kawagoe. You would think that Tokyo would have the austere building and impersonal afternoon tea and thatRead More →