Information for the Boys’ Love exhibition at the Edit and Art Gallery in the Kadokawa Musashino Museum¹, in Tokorozawa Sakura Town, in Summer 2023. Like all exhibitions at Kadokawa Museum, they recommend that you purchase a ticket in advance, particularly for a weekend. Boys’ Love Exhibition An exhibition dedicated toRead More →
NAKED Night Walk and Night Illumination Train, Chichibu, Winter 2023. Renowned for their digital art, Naked Inc needs little introduction for those in Japan. In the winter of 2023, they are creating, as they say, “a new winter festival” in Chichibu, the festival district of Saitama Prefecture. Chichibu is madeRead More →
February in Saitama, 2023. There are some exclusive events and seasonal traditions that you can enjoy in Japan in the month of February. Between 2020 and 2022 there was slightly less to do, as many of the special / seasonal events didn’t go ahead. But the situation is much betterRead More →
Information for the Setsubun Festival at Musashino Reiwa Shrine and Tokorozawa Sakura Town in 2023. Musashino Reiwa Shrine The Musashino Reiwa Shrine was designed, under the supervision of Kengo Kuma, as part of the Cool Japan project. There are many unique elements to the shrine, but the design is theRead 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. It has the reputation of being one of theRead More →
Nabe Grand Prix – Before the pandemic, there was a nabe festival every January in Wako City. Nabe is a type of hotpot. It is a traditional winter dish popular in many households around Japan. This January, 2023, a version of the nabe festival is coming back for the first timeRead More →
A selection of 10 Strawberry Picking farms in Saitama, near and commutable from Tokyo, for the 2023 Ichigo-gari season. Strawberry Picking near Tokyo Strawberry picking is called “ichigo-gari” イチゴ狩り in Japanese. Ichigo イチゴ means strawberry and gari means picking or, literally, hunting. In Japan, strawberry picking is predominantly indoors, inRead More →
Daffodil Festival (also known as the Narcissus Festival) in Gongendo Park, Satte, Saitama in 2023. Each year in winter, from early January until around early February, thousands of daffodils and narcissus grow in the number four park of Satte Gongendo Park. The daffodil were first planted in 2005 and theirRead More →
For the first time in three years, Kitain Temple in Kawagoe will have their Setsubun Festival with a mamemaki bean throwing ceremony. Below you will find a first hand account of the setsubun celebration at Kitain Temple, as well as the information for the 2023 bean throwing ceremony. Setsubun celebrationsRead More →
Kawazuzakura are an early blooming, pink cherry blossom. They normally bloom from around the third week in February to early March, generally speaking. There are locations where they bloom earlier and places where they bloom later. However, in Saitama Prefecture the kawazuzakura are more fickle than the main variety ofRead More →