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/
Strawberry Garden is the all-year-round strawberry and baum kuchen cafe of Moroyama’s famous strawberry farms Ichigo no Sato. It is in the Nishiokubo area of Moroyama where they also have a strawberry picking greenhouses. It is right on the border of Sakado. They also have a greenhouse for picking inRead More →
On August 1st 2020 TeamLab opened a permanent digitized nature solo exhibition called Resonating Light in the Acorn Forest. It is in the Musashino Woods of Higashi Tokorozawa Park. The Higashi Tokorozawa park is located next to the much anticipated Shin Tokorozawa Sakura Town. Sakura Town has several attractions includingRead More →
Kawagoe is famous for many things, not least its sweet potatoes. Even the city’s main mascot Tokimo is a mash (if you’ll pardon the pun!) of the sweet potato “imo” and the symbol of Kawagoe the bell tower “Toki”. Moreover, there is even a “Kawagoe Imo” which refers to sweetRead More →
Ryokami Sanroku Camping Ground is an old style riverside camping ground with cabins, deep in a mountain valley and cocooned by forest. The campsite is an isolated area of Ogano that has for the most part escaped tourism development. I think it is the most remote location in Saitama thatRead More →
Homemade bakery Nicori Kawagoe is a small, but popular take-out bakery in ‘local’ Kawagoe; outside the tourist area. It is only open a couple of years (since 2018), but is well established in the neighborhood. It attracts custom from out of town too. Whenever we visit I have seen regRead More →
Villa Napoli is a lively Italian Restaurant in Tsurugashima, close to Wakaba Walk. You can order individual dishes or a plan that includes all-you-can- eat pizza with sides. It is a great spot for an affordable, filling lunch with friends or family. On top of all that, the restaurant itselfRead More →
Lycoris radiata in Kawajima Town. The lycoris of Kawajima popped up on Thursday, but its only today – Saturday September 19th – that some of them have come into bloom. It will be another couple of days before you can see the dramatic contrast of the red against the green.Read More →
Saitama Corona virus updates for September and October 2020 – Coronavirus updates for Saitama Prefecture from August 21st to the end of October. As the post is huge with more than 6000 words, I’ve started a new report here. Saitama Corona virus Updates Last update 11/01 at 18:24 – pleaseRead More →
This is a long overdue post about the famous Starbucks on Kanetsuki Street in the old warehouse district of Kawagoe. The branch opened in March 2018 and most of the photos in this post are actually from back then! But it hasn’t changed much in the two years since itRead More →
Arakawa Roadside Station is a rest area in the Arakawa Hino area of Chichibu. The area is also known as the Hino Sightseeing Plantation Village. Attractions within and around the roadside station include fruit picking, nature museum, flowers, playground, restaurant, shopping, hot spring and steam locomotive! And in September theRead More →