Once upon a time “Favourite Photo Friday” was a regular weekly post on Saitama with kids. I’ve since deleted many of those posts, because they weren’t informative enough. The blog took a turn from a blog-blog to a website-blog and the favourite photo Friday feature lost its place. The emphasisRead More →
Water Park Nagatoro is an all year round campsite, ideal for a camping trip near Tokyo at any time of the year, even at Christmas and / or during winter break. Our first camp of the year, back in January, was in Water Park (Waterpark) Nagatoro. Water park Nagatoro isRead More →
Child friendly Vert Café, in a converted Cultural Property in Gyoda Suijo Park Vert Café in Gyoda Suijo Park captivates the passerby with its atypical European appearance. A beautiful wooden mansion glossed in a light fern green, it is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it has an interesting backstory ofRead More →
At this stage, the cherry blossoms on the Shingashi River in Kawagoe need little introduction. It has become one of Saitama’s most popular and famous cherry blossom viewing spots. However, before the famed trees bloom at the end of March there are two early blooming sakura nearby that awe usRead More →
Kitchen Cafe Cranbon, the old barnhouse, Higashimatsuyama… “A holy place for Instagram” is what Localina referred to Kitchen Cafe Cranbon as. A very literal translation of 「インスタの聖地」. In English we might refer to it more naturally as a mecca for IGers. Or even simpler again “instagrammable”. Whatever way you interpretRead More →
Yanasegawa Cherry Blossoms – There are three main cherry blossom spots in Shiki: Shingashi River, Yanasegawa River, and Shikishima Shrine. The city hosts cherry blossom festivals too, including the Sakura Festa at Iroha park on Shingashi river near city hall. The sakura typically bloom the end of March to earlyRead More →
Information for the Nissai Sakura Matsuri and the Early blooming Kanzakura Cherry Blossoms, just North of Tokyo, at the Kitaasaba Sakura Zutsumi cherry blossom promenade in Sakado City. Kitaasaba Sakura Zutsumi Less than 50 kilometers north west of Tokyo you can walk under this 1.2 kilometer avenue or ‘tunnel’ ofRead More →
A cafe with outdoor seating in Kawagoe. I seem to be going to a lot of lodge / chalet type cafes lately. It is the draw of the natural wood, high ceilings, charm and atmosphere of these type of atypical architecture. The added draw of Cafe Lodgi is the outdoorRead More →
Garden and Cafe Prunus, Higashimatsuyama, piqued my interest when I saw a photo of it in a Moteco issue a couple of years ago. It wasn’t so much the food as the building that grabbed my attention. It is a fetching cross of English country meets Swiss chalet. Perched onRead More →
Ogose Plum Grove / Bairin is one of three big plum blossom forests in the Kanto area. Bairin 梅林 is the Japanese for a plum grove, or quite literally a plum forest. The whole of Ogose is a virtual plum blossom forest, you can see stretches of beautifully gnarled treeRead More →