Oshi Castle Ruins are located in Gyoda City in Eastern Saitama Prefecture. Nicknamed “the floating castle”, and sometimes “Turtle Castle”, due to its position on elevated land surrounded by water, the story of the castle is particularly famous. In its day, the castle was considered one of Kanto’s seven strongholds.Read More →
Hanyu, Mascot Setsubun – a setsubun celebration where mascots throw the beans instead of demons or honored guests. Mascot Setsubun I love finding events like this setsubun with a twist in Hanyu. In most setsubun bean throwing ceremonies around Japan, either honored guests and / or demons throw the beansRead More →
Iwatsuki Dolls Festival – Iwatsuki is a very famous “Hina”, traditional Japanese doll, town often referred to as the “city of dolls”. Iwatsuki have been making dolls since the 17th century. Moreover, Iwatsuki Doll making was awarded the prestigious Traditional Craft Product designation by both the prefecture and the country. Until 2020 the city has two doll museums;Read More →
The Setsubun festival at Fudougaoka Fudouson Souganji Temple in Kazo is famous throughout Kanto and beyond. It is probably Saitama’s most famous setsubun-kai? So much so, champion sumo wrestlers, even yokozuna have participated in the mamemaki bean throwing in the past. Apart from the common practice of mamemaki, throwing beansRead More →
A Gundam exhibition will start on January 22nd in celebration of the one year anniversary of Kadokawa Culture Museum in Tokorozawa Sakura Town. The full name of the exhibition, translated from Japanese, is Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin exhibition. This special exhibition is being overseen by Yasuhiko Yoshikazu himself. ItRead More →
Izumo Iwai Shrine, the Yabusame shrine, in Moroyama town in the Iruma-gun of Saitama Prefecture. Following on from yesterday’s post about the horse blessing temple, today a shrine known for its horse back archery! Moroyama Town is known as the yabusame town thanks to the yabusame that is performed atRead More →
The Batou Kannon Ema market is an only in Japan festival. Actually, there are only a few places in Japan that have an ema festival or market, so this festival is quite unique even in Saitama Prefecture too. Ema are the wooden prayer plaques or votive tablets you see atRead More →
Natural Outdoor Ice Rink, Tokigawa. At one point it looked like Tokigawa town wouldn’t be opening the Kasa Skate rink in the winter of 2022. But then around the middle of December, they tweeted to say that they would open after all. And they started the rink preparation then. OnRead More →
Seasonal information for the Plum Blossoms at Shinrin Park. Shinrin Park posted on their website on January 4th 2022 that ten of their early blooming plum blossoms have started to bloom already. On Tuesday the 19th of January 2021 various TV stations announced that the plum blossoms had opened inRead More →
Valley of Light is Saitama Prefecture’s brand new illumination display. Every year when I’m writing up the “ten places to see illumination” in Saitama, I’ve always thought one thing Chichibu is missing is a large scale illumination display. They do have icicle light up in January and February, but onlyRead More →