Hatsu hinode is the wonderful Japanese tradition of watching the first sunrise of the New Year. Only three sleeps to go! Until we embrace the New Year with a crisp start! Because whenever we can, we start our New Year in the freezing cold of dawn to watch the firstRead More →
Saitama Prefecture has three main Yabusame events. Kawagoe Yabusame is the newest and least prestigious. Moroyama Yabusame is the most famous and celebrated. And Tokigawa Yabusame, while lesser known, is historically and culturally rich. It is a designated cultural property of Saitama. However, the Tokigawa Yabusame, unlike the other two,Read More →
Twenty places for night illumination in Saitama Prefecture in the winter of 2023. Page 1 of 2 The public Christmas lights have been taken down in the vast majority of places in Japan as people look to the New Year festivities and celebrations. However, there are more winter illumination thanRead More →
The Japanese New Year tradition of Hatsumode… Hatsumode is the first visit of the year to a shrine or a temple, an important and much practiced tradition in the New Year in Japan. There are many shrines and also temples all around Saitama where you can practise Hatsumode. It doesn’tRead More →
Ten places for Dezome Shiki, a New Year Firefighter festival of sorts, in Saitama Prefecture. For the first time in three years, all of the New Year Firefighter festivals around Saitama Prefecture are scheduled for January 2023. In 2022, only three of the places on this list of ten, hadRead More →
The “Land of Dreams, Season 2”, is the sixth annual Higashimatsuyama illumination display. It is not particularly big, but it is particularly photogenic, as it is made up of several photo spots. Furthermore, it is not just in one location, but a total of four parks around Higashimatsuyama. This postRead More →
Kiyasse Hanyu, also called Hanyu Mitakaya Agriculture and Forestry Park, is located close to the Saitama Aquarium and Hanyu Riverside Park. They describe themselves as a type of “food resort”. They sell local produce in the shop at the resort, but the brewery is a key attraction of this atypicalRead More →
For the first time in three years; Tokorozawa New Years Firefighter Ceremony, called a Dezome Shiki in Japanese. New Year Firefighter Event A dezome shiki is a type of firefighter festival held in the New Year, often on the second weekend of January. In recent years “New Year Firefighter Ceremony”Read More →
Saitama’s first certified Forest therapy base and therapy road at Kitamoto Nature Observation Park, also home to the Saitama Nature Study Center. When my kids were small we spent quite a lot of time at this park in Kitamoto. Or to be more precise; combining a visit here with theRead More →
Iwadono Shohoji is a small mountainside temple, known for its Purple or ‘Mitsuba’ Azalea, in Tokigawa Town. I was updating the information for the 2023 Kasa natural ice rink in Tokigawa town today. Which reminded me that Shohoji temple is one of more than 300 posts I have sitting inRead More →