Saitama reopening spots and event cancellations

Saitama Prefecture is still under a state of emergency. At this point in time, the state of emergency is set to run until May 31st. Rumors abound that Prime Minister will lift the State of Emergency early. Whether he does or not remains to be seen, but even without an official ending to the State of Emergency, several locations around Saitama have started to reopen for business.

On the flip side, this past week there has been further announcements of event cancellations. Hereafter, the latest information on reopening locations and cancellations for Saitama Prefecture:

Reopening Saitama

• Starbucks
• Metsa Village
  • Metsa Starbucks
  • Panza Funmock
  • Umbrella Sky
• Cocoon City
• Peony Walk
• Sogo Kawaguchi
• Aeon Mall Kita Toda
• Lake Town
• Saitama Museum of rivers
• (Tobu zoo)

May 19th – reopening of Starbucks

Several Starbucks in Saitama suddenly reopened with very little advance notice. However, about 20 branches are still closed. Most of which won’t reopen until the end of May. Read more…

May 22nd

• Metsa Village reopened with just a day’s notice. In fairness, evidence suggests they intended to do it for at least a week, but they only announced on the 21st that they would reopen Friday May 22nd. Read more…

• Within Metsa Village, the Starbucks also reopened, for take out only. The branch has reduced hours until May 31st. Read more….

• Panza Funmock, an outdoor treetop athletic playground for both adults and children, also reopened. More information about Panza Funmock here.

May 22nd – several locations announce plan for reopening

• Earlier today Cocoon City announced an intention to slowly reopen the mall from Tuesday May 26th. Like many of the locations that are restarting services, Cocoon will reduce opening hours for the time being. Official notification on the Cocoon City website.

• Some shops in Peony Walk Higashimatsuyama restarted today. They will have reduced hours until the end of May when a decision will be made on opening hours for June. Official website.

• Sogo in Kawaguchi are increasing services from tomorrow, May 23rd, with several counters reopening in the branch. Official website. No news on the branch in Omiya yet.

• The Aeon mall in Kita Toda also released information about their planned reopening. From Thursday 28th the mall will open with shorter opening hours. However, from Monday the 25th several specialty stores in the mall will open for business.

• Aeon Lake Town (Kaze, Mori and Outlet) in Koshigaya also announced that they will be back open on Thursday the 28th of May.

May 23rd – more announcements of plans to restart business

• Tobu zoo have not made an official announcement yet, but it looks like they are gearing up to restart on Tuesday the 26th. Official website.

• News that Saitama Museum of Rivers plans to restart on Tuesday May 26th was posted to their website.

Cancellations

• Saitama City summer festival cancellations
• Keyaki Beer Festival

May 21st – cancellation of Saitama City summer events

Saitama Toursim and International Relations Bureau announced further event cancellations including dozens of festivals that normally take place over the summer months, including:

• Yono Summer Festival in July
• Urawa Odori in July
• Urawa Mikoshi event in July
• Urawa Yosakoi in July
• Kita Urawa Awa Odori in September

A lot of traffic came to my website this year through a Google search for information about the Keyaki annual spring beer festival. In case you missed the update last month: the Keyaki Spring Beer Festival, initially scheduled to start in June, was cancelled.

Please note that all of the locations that reopened require people wear masks and uphold social distancing when visiting. They also request that you stay at home if you have a fever and / or are feeling unwell. Most of the locations have installed spray guards at cash registers for the safety of both staff and patrons.