In advance of the red spider lily (aka lycoris radiata, cluster amarilla, equinox flower, higanbana etc) season, a photo Friday post of red spider lilies along the Shingashi River. The spider lilies don’t bloom until September. All these photos are from between 2006 and 2022.
Spider lilies Shingashi River
The Shingashi River is a 34.6 kilometer river that flows from the Musashino Plateau through many towns and cities in Saitama Prefecture before entering the Sumida River in Tokyo. There are dozens (perhaps of hundreds) of places along the Shingashi River where you can see red spider lilies in Autumn. The photos in this post are from one of Shingashi River’s most famous embankments, at the back of Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine. The spider lilies bloom there from around mid September to the end of September or occasionally early October.
>>Other spider lilies in Kawagoe<<
>>Spider lilies AND sunflowers in Kawagoe<<
Cosmos Shingashi River
Cosmos also grow by the Hikawa bridge. They are wild cosmos and they tend to bloom as early as mid August to at least the end of September. It really depends on when Kawagoe City mow the grass and trim the wild growth around this area of Shingashi River. Between 2020 and 2021 there was less maintenance done to areas like these, due to the pandemic, so you could actually see wild flowers for longer than normal. However, (pre-pandemic) often embankments are ‘tied up’ late September so the flowers are cut down around that time.
>>10 places for Cosmos in Saitama Prefecture<<
Photo Friday
If you are new to the blog, photo Friday is a way to quickly showcase something without going into the usual details. I don’t use ‘Photo Friday’ very often, in fact, last year I deleted quite a few of the older posts or filled them in with full information. However, there are two cases were I still use ‘Photo Friday’…
- For a place that already has full details on the blog, but for whatever reason these photos don’t fit the post. For example, as in this case, this area of Shingashi River is already on the blog. But for its famous cherry blossoms with boat ride in spring and there is no neat way to add this information to that post!
- FYI I don’t believe in keeping places secret! However, occasionally, I visit a place that really isn’t suited to tourists and is more for locals. A point in case here. Often it is because there is no car park at or even near the attraction. Another example here.
Information
Address: Hikawa Bridge joins Miyashitamachi and Hikawacho and as such does not have an exact address, except Kawagoe, Saitama . It does have a plus code: WFHQ+6F Kawagoe, Saitama. Map below access information.
By car
About a 20 minute drive from both the Kawagoe Interchange of the Kan-etsu expressway AND the Kawajima Interchange of the Ken-o expressway.
By Public Transport
You can get the Koedo Kawagoe Loop Bus from the stations or around the tourist area. You can also get a Tobu bus bound for “Saitama Medical Center + Ageo Station + Hirakata + Kawagoe Sports Park” from Kawagoe or Honkawagoe Stations. For either the Tobu or loop bus, alight at Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine bus stop.
On Foot
You can also walk from any of the three principal stations in Kawagoe. It takes about 25 minutes on foot from Hon-Kawagoe station, about 30 minutes from Kawagoeshi station and about 35 minutes from either of the Kawagoe Stations (Tobu Tojo / JR).
i can feel the heat and humidity that you get in Japan at this time of year!! flowers are interesting in shape and design too lol