Kitamoto City has dozens of cherry blossom spots, including one of the five great sakura of Japan. They also have several cherry blossom festivals in different areas of the city, but this one – The Kitamoto Cherry Blossom Festival – is the main one. Throughout the pandemic, at least oneRead More →
Ageo City have confirmed they will once again have their cherry blossom festival in 2023. They were one of the few that had it in 2022 too, after two years of being cancelled. The Ageo Cherry Blossom Festival is held in two different locations in the city… Ageo Cherry BlossomRead More →
Information for, and an account of, visiting Japan’s largest Dolls festival display at the Konosu Surprising Dolls Festival or Konosu Bikkuri Hina Matsuri in Japanese. 鴻巣びっくりひな祭り。 Japan’s largest dolls festival pyramid display “Konosu Doll Pyramid” in Konosu, Saitama Prefecture, is just a 50 minute train ride from Ueno station inRead More →
Saitama Prefecture is getting a new indoor petting zoo in Ageo City! The information is a bit thin on the ground, but from what we can tell the new “Ikimono Tankentai” is a type of petting zoo aimed at children. Ikimono means creatures or living things. Tankentai means expedition orRead More →
Hatsu hinode is the wonderful Japanese tradition of watching the first sunrise of the New Year. Only three sleeps to go! Until we embrace the New Year with a crisp start! Because whenever we can, we start our New Year in the freezing cold of dawn to watch the firstRead More →
Saitama’s first certified Forest therapy base and therapy road at Kitamoto Nature Observation Park, also home to the Saitama Nature Study Center. When my kids were small we spent quite a lot of time at this park in Kitamoto. Or to be more precise; combining a visit here with theRead More →
Ko (Kou / Kō) Shrine, 鴻神社, is the principal shrine of Konosu City. The Kanji is 鴻, “otori”, which is from konotori, which means oriental stork. The shrine is home to the konotori legend from which Konosu city gets its name. Konosu is also written with the same kanji 鴻Read More →
A selection of ten cosmos fields in Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo. The list has to be altered quite a lot each year, for different reasons. For example, in 2021 and 2020, due to the pandemic several of the cosmos spots actually didn’t grow any cosmos. Before that, in 2019, typhoonRead More →
To share or not to share, that is always the question when you find an off the beaten path gingko tree spot in your neighborhood! Same thing happened with Shoboji’s legendary gingko tree, which eventually became a hot spot. The location was suited to it though and the temple welcomesRead More →
The Konosu Otori Festival is a three day event for locals, but on one day they have a parade that they welcome the general public to. It is called the Kounotori Densetsu (Legendary Oriental Storks) Parade. They named Konosu after storks. Even the principal shrine in the city is calledRead More →