Lynda Hogan is a long term resident of Saitama Prefecture and has been promoting Saitama Prefecture voluntarily for the last 12 years. Lynda is an official Hikijin ambassador representing the seven towns of the Hiki District as well as Higashimatsuyama City and Higashichichibu Village. She has appeared on NHK Cool Japan's Saitama specials. She is also an administrator on the 79,000 member strong Japan Travel Friendly Discussion Group Facebook Group. Formerly she was the Saitama representative of the Association of Foreign Wives of Japan. She is currently a level 9 Google Local Guide, in the top 1% of local guides in all of Japan according to Google. Lynda is a long term contributor to Kyodo News Corporation’s City-cost.com website and more recently writes for Japan Travel, among other travel websites, too. If you would like to work with Lynda, please drop her a line here:
https://insaitama.com/contact-us/
The annual Halloween afternoon tea at Shikitei in Omiya is going ahead this year despite the Coronavirus. They are keeping the Alice in Wonderland theme from the last two years, but the food – as always – will be different. Moreover, within the theme within the theme is also different!Read More →
Koma Jinja aka Koma Shrine, Hidaka, Saitama Prefecture Many years ago my husband and I visited a shrine on the way home from Chichibu. I didn’t think too much of it to be honest. The thatched roof former residence – a nationally designated Important Cultural property – out the backRead More →
Kinchakuda Red Spider Lily Festival 2021, Hidaka, Saitama Japan, last updated August 27th 2021. The 2020 festival was cancelled on account of the Coronavirus outbreak. Moreover, on the 17th of September 2020 the city cut the spider lilies that had grown to prevent more people coming. On August 27th 2021 theyRead More →
With summer holidays around the corner, it has me thinking about places to bring the kids. In a “normal” year we visit Ireland for the whole of summer. However, due to the pandemic, we have been confined to Japan the last two years. As we are avoiding indoors at allRead More →
‘Tapioca and Tart’ at Layer cafe, located along the Arakawa riverbed on the grounds of a Karinto factory in Fukaya. Layer Cafe Layer cafe opened on the grounds of Asahi Karinto’s Hanazono factory in April 2020. Karinto is a type of sweet deep fried traditional Japanese snack food. The frontRead More →
Fukaya Sunflowers While driving to Northern Saitama today, along the Saikai Kaido (aka route 140) beautiful tall sunflowers already in full bloom captured my attention. Actually, in fairness, I think I spotted a camera man first on the foot path. I remember having the fleeting thought ‘ooh, wonder what he’sRead More →
Ukiya no Sato is a nature reserve in Kazo City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It is part of what is known as the Saitama Green (greenery) Trust – conservation area number ten of fourteen areas in total in Saitama Prefecture. Ukiya no Sato The name of this nature reserve comes fromRead More →
A round up of events in Saitama in summer 2021. Includes information on those events and fireworks that have been cancelled in 2021 and those that are going ahead. Update July 28th 14:08 JST. This information is all very tentative at the moment. Saitama Prefecture is poised to request aRead More →
Saitama Summer Pools 2021 – where is open and where is not. For all 20 pools open in a ‘regular’ year and mapped on Google see here. Update July 29th 20:18 JST.Saitama Prefecture announced today that Saitama will be under a State of Emergency from Monday August 2nd to TuesdayRead More →
Along the scenic route 299 from Hidaka to Yokoze (Chichibu), there is a very picturesque temple – Chonenji – that scintillates in June with stunning hydrangea. I had this one saved on my Google Maps with a note “hydrangea”. However, I have absolutely no recollection of making that note orRead More →