The Motoara River Cherry Blossom festival, also known as the Fukiage Cherry Blossom Festival, is another of Saitama’s well known locations for hanami (cherry blossom festival). Especially with locals. The Motoara River in Fukiage may not be in the top 100 spots to view cherry blossoms, but it is in theRead More →
The Autumn Sunflowers in the Isanuma area of Kawagoe have become very popular. However, like most all flowers in 2021, they were early to bloom and early to finish. Furthermore, this year, as soon as they started blooming you were allowed pick them. And hundreds of people picked them withinRead More →
Approximately 12 million cosmos grow on the Arakawa riverbed near “Cosmos Arena Fukiage” in Konosu annually in autumn. During the period of the bloom there is usually a two day cosmos festival. However, in 2019 the festival was cancelled due to typhoon Hagibis and in 2020 the festival was cancelledRead More →
A highlight of October in Saitama Prefecture are the famous Konosu fireworks display. In 2020, the organizers of the Konosu Fireworks announced that they were postponing the infamous Konosu Fireworks. However, there were no updates until June 23rd 2021. At that time, they said that the fireworks were postponed indefinitely.Read More →
Sun Amenity Kitamoto Camp Field and outdoor activity center is ideal for an inexpensive camping experience. Just 500 yen for the night – one coin camping! Open all year round, but it is particularly scenic in spring with cherry blossoms and ‘hanadaikon’, a flowering plant similar to bluebells. Furthermore, theRead More →
Takao Sakura Park is, as the name implies, a cherry blossom park in Kitamoto City, Saitama Prefecture. It is also a popular spot for watching the sunset. Perched on the hill overlooking the Arakawa river, you can see as far as Mt Fuji on a clear day. Between February andRead More →
A small but beautiful display of Kawazu zakura cherry blossoms in Ageo City Kawazu Zakura Ageo There are dozens of places to see kawazu zakura around the Kanto plain. But in Saitama as far as I know we don’t have that many large displays. The largest is possibly the 2.5Read More →
On the Kitamoto stretch of the former Kamakura Kaido, there are several shrines and temples. Each of them has something very interesting about them. And most of them are quite photogenic. Perhaps the best known of them is the Takao Hikawa Shrine. It is famous for having Japan’s largest “omikuji”.Read More →
Once again it paid to get lost! On my way home from Adomani Cafe yesterday I took the wrong turn. Thankfully I had a rough idea of where I was and when I took another turn to get back on the right track I came across the some beautiful kawazuRead More →
Al fresco dining in Saitama Prefecture, at Adomani Cafe in Konosu With the Coronavirus still in our midst, I’ve never been so interested in “al fresco dining”. Amazingly, it is not as popular in Japan as you would expect. Therefore, it is quite hard to find a good restaurant withRead More →