The Toda City Illumination event “Toda Illumi” is relatively new, it only started in 2019. (There are also other illumination events in Toda City which have been around for longer). The city aim to make illumination synonymous with winter in Toda. According to Toda City, this year’s winter illumination willRead More →
The first ever Kawaguchi fireworks took place in May 2019. However, in 2020 they decided to hold the fireworks in Autumn. It was actually nothing to do with the pandemic at the time that they decided to change the date, but actually due to the Olympics and due to damageRead More →
The Toda Furusato Festival has not been on for the last three years, due to the pandemic. However, they did have an online event last year instead (it was completely cancelled in 2020). But this year, 2022, it is scheduled to take place at-venue again, on Saturday August 20th andRead More →
The Tatara festival is the largest annual festival in Kawaguchi with over 160 stalls and approximately 150,000 people attending. In 2019 three major changes were made to the festival. They are outlined below. At the time of announcing the 2019 changes, the organizers stated there will be no Tatara FestivalRead More →
Kawaguchi Illumination かわぐち光のファンタジー 2022 / 2023. Kawaguchi city are planning their annual illumination again for the 2022 / 2023 winter season. On the first night of the event they will have a switch on event, which in 2022 is Friday December 2nd. On that night the illumination is turned on,Read More →
The Warabi Hata festival is an annual festival in celebration of the star festival, or “tanabata” as it is called in Japanese. The main date of the festival is usually on a Sunday closest to the Tanabata aka Star Festival. This year the festival falls on a weekend, so theyRead More →
Unfortunately due to the Coronavirus outbreak the pools did not open in 2020. And they have confirmed that they will not open in 2021 either. Toda Summer Pool for kids at Kodomo No Kuni. Kodomo no Kuni is the name of the Children’s Center in Toda city, Saitama. Among theirRead More →
New Year Races – It is very common in my homeland of Ireland, for people to attend horse races during the winter holidays. Around where I lived it is the Leopardstown Races on St Stephen’s Day. Here in Japan, Christmas is not a main event, but New Years is like ourRead More →
Kawaguchi, Saitama. A national holiday that falls on a Saturday usually equates full car parking lots, queues for entry, crowds and general pandemonium. So when we arrived at Skip City without encountering a traffic jam, secured a parking spot in a half empty parking lot, with no entry queues norRead More →
Todabashi fireworks are one of the biggest in Saitama. What makes them particularly special is that they are run in conjunction with Itabashi fireworks. The Itabashi fireworks launch the same night on the far side of the Arakawa River in Tokyo. Todabashi fireworks during the pandemic In 2020 they wereRead More →