Ten FREE (artificial) water play areas that are open this Golden Week (2023) in Saitama Prefecture. You will will also find even more water play areas in the free map in this post. Thankfully, this year there is a better selection of water play areas than last year. And muchRead More →
Information for both the stunning Konan Wisteria and blueberry picking at the adjacent Oshima Blueberry farm. The wisteria blooms around the end of April until early May. Blueberry picking is generally from June to July. Wisteria The wisteria flowers were well early this year. In many places they are alreadyRead More →
Each year during Golden Week there is an ice-cream fair at Aeon Lake Town in Koshigaya. In recent years these type of food fairs have become really popular in Saitama Prefecture, but they usually call them “expo”! So I think the official name for this event in English is Ice-creamRead More →
The first Golden Week since Japan reopened to tourists and post-pandemic. If the first cherry blossom season with international tourists post-pandemic is anything to go by – Golden Week 2023 will see huge crowds at all the key events and tourist attractions! This is the first time in four yearsRead More →
Water sliders / Water Fes at Sayama Skiing Grounds in 2023. Since the Sayama Indoor Skiing Ground reopened in Autumn 2020 there have been quite a few changes. The best, in my humble opinion, is that they have found a fun way to make use of the indoor ski slopesRead More →
The 20th Annual Fukaya Flower and Open Garden Festa is on this weekend, all things equal. The last time it was on as normal was the 16th annual flower festival in 2019! However, between 2020 and 2022 they did have a festival lite. This year, it is more like aRead More →
You’ve probably seen / heard by now that the wisteria was incredibly early this year. Reportedly, they are already starting to wilt in some places. But never fear, there is still a couple of places you can see wisteria in Saitama Prefecture. Including an ancient wisteria that is one ofRead More →
The Wisteria of Shobu Shrine is a natural monument of Saitama Prefecture. The plan was to post this after visiting the wisteria, but life got in the way this week. If I get to squeeze in a visit next week I will update with more photos. For now, if youRead More →
Information for the 2023 Azalea Festival at Monomiyama Park (aka Monomi Hill) in Higashimatsuyama. Monomiyama Park is located near to Saitama Children’s Zoo and is home to the Peace Museum of Saitama. The tower you can see peaking out above the azalea in the featured photo is that of theRead More →
“Outdoor Park” is a Bi-annual event at Shinrin Park (officially Musashi Kyuryo National Government Park) in Namegawa town. The current information in this post is for the Spring 2023 Outdoor Park, which is on select dates in Golden Week… Every year Shinrin park hold two “Outdoor Park” events: one inRead More →