For the first time in three years, the Kawagoe Fireworks will be lighting up the night sky in 2022! The fireworks are one of the highlights of summer in Kawagoe. They and the summer festival have been sorely missed. However, as of May 31st 2022, BOTH the fireworks and theRead More →
The summer pools / aqua park at New Sunpia Hotel and Resort in Ogose is one of the most popular in all of the prefecture. In fact, Walkerplus, has given them a coveted “Walker Award” in 2022, naming them as thee most popular summer pools in all of Japan. DespiteRead More →
The “Benibana” Safflower Festival of Okegawa is coming back in 2022. Okegawa didn’t even grow the safflower in 2020, but in 2021 they did and even penciled in a date for the festival. But ultimately it was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year, 2022, they have even made theRead More →
2022 information for the Hydrangea Festival at Satte Gongendo Park. Since the dawn of Instagram Satte Gongendo Park has become one of the most famous and popular places to see hydrangea flowers not just in Saitama Prefecture, but in the Greater Tokyo Area. Before the pandemic their hydrangea festival wasRead More →
To me, Kato Farm in Hidaka is a farm for the foodies, rather than the kiddies! It is a dairy farm that is quite small and, frankly, quite lackluster. But there is a reason their produce has won numerous awards over the years. They produce and sell premium milk andRead More →
Ten FREE (artificial) water play areas that are open this summer AND currently operating in Saitama in May 2022. You will will also find even more water play areas in the free map in this post. The weather has really started to warm up this week. And its only goingRead More →
2022 Information for the annual wind chimes and glistening river at Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine. The Enmusubi Wind Chimes at Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine are generally displayed from around the first weekend of July to the first week in September. They follow the lesser known pinwheel event. I have visited the windRead More →
Bara no Komichi is an atelier and garden cafe in Ageo City in central Saitama. Bara is the Japanese for rose and Komichi means pathway or small passage. As you might guess from the name, the showpiece of the garden is its roses. But the garden and cafe are openRead More →
Kawagoe Aquatic / Aqua Park aka Kawagoe Suijo Kouen, or Kawagoe Water Park, is one of the bigger and most popular summer pools in Saitama. In 2022, Walker have listed it as the 5th most popular aqua park in all of Japan. In addition, now that several pools have closedRead More →
Tokigawa Town in the Hiki District of Saitama Prefecture is just over an hour from Tokyo. The town is famed for a rarer type of Iris; Iris Japonica or Butterfly flowers in English. However, there is also a small Iris garden in the town with the “hanashobu” variety of Iris:Read More →