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 →
Information for the Kasukabe Shishimai performance at Choshi guchi Katori shrine annually in January. Choshiguchi Shishimai Choshiguchi shishimai (lion dance) was brought to Kasukabe from the current Koshigaya city in 1697. It is a lion dance to music with three single “lions” performed at Choshiguchi Katori shrine in Kasukabe. ThreeRead More →
Kiyasse Hanyu, also called Hanyu Mitakaya Agriculture and Forestry Park, is located close to the Saitama Aquarium and Hanyu Riverside Park. They describe themselves as a type of “food resort”. They sell local produce in the shop at the resort, but the brewery is a key attraction of this atypicalRead More →
For the first time in three years, Santa Claus will be visiting the Aeon Mall in Hanyu City, Saitama Prefecture. Santa Visit in Hanyu Before the pandemic, the Aeon Mall in Hanyu was one of Santa Claus’ regular stops on his annual trip to Japan. He hasn’t been able toRead More →
Aeon Lake town Christmas 2022 – Christmas Market and events, including Santa Claus Visit information. Before the pandemic, this post also contained information for the winter illumination and outdoor ice rink. However, since the pandemic began Christmas has been quite a different at Aeon Lake Town. But as last yearRead More →
Lalaport Shinmisato have several winter events on this year. First up, their illumination, which starts as early as November 3rd. Following that they will have various events each weekend, but no Santa Claus visit that I can find. Plus they don’t really have Christmas events in the traditional sense. TheyRead More →
Wabunka Festa 2022 – a festival of Japanese culture in Aeon Laketown this Autumn. To be honest, although there is currently very information online about this event, it sounds suspiciously like Wabi Sabi! Wabi Sabi was a two day culture festival that took place in Omiya park annually (even duringRead More →
The Washinomiya area of Kuki is known for its cosmos in October (and its early blooming sakura in February!). The main cosmos area is along the “Fureai Road”, but there is also a field by the Washinomiya Support Center. In 2022, the latter has an “Anywhere Door” known as aRead More →
Every year Tobu Zoo and amusement park puts on a fantastic night illumination show for the winter months. It is one of the better known, and larger, night illumination displays. In both 2020 and 2021, it was actually one of only a handful of places that had their winter illumination. However,Read More →