The Saitama Museum of Rivers only started celebrating Halloween around 8 or 9 years ago, and then a series of events prevented them from having Halloween festivities since 2018. In summary – a typhoon in 2019 and then the pandemic! However, they are celebrating in 2022 and on four differentRead More →
Cosmos and fireworks, say no more! Cosmos Fireworks The former Okabe town, which is now part of Fukaya City, is renowned for its cosmos fireworks. Thankfully both the fireworks and the festival will be back in 2022 for the first time in three years. Moreover, apart from being able toRead More →
Just a mini post today, to share information about the Hanazono Furusato Summer Festival, which is scheduled for 2022. Furusato means hometown. Hanazono is an area in Fukaya City, best known for its interchange and its roadside station! The Fukaya Fireworks weren’t on this year, but other than that theRead More →
On the last weekend of July there are normally dozens of festivals all over Saitama Prefecture. However, in 2022 there are only a few. Including the Fukaya Festival. This is the second large scale festival Fukaya has hosted in July of 2022. The other, their Tanabata (Star) Festival, was heldRead More →
Kumagaya Uchiwa Festival is one of the Kanto area’s largest summer festivals. It is open to the public from July 20th – 22nd annually, but it is actually celebrated from the 19th to the 23rd by patrons of Yasaka Shrine of Kamakura-cho. However, it was not open to the general publicRead More →
Information for the Fukaya Tanabata Festival – also known as the Fukaya Star Festival – in 2022. For the first time in three years, the Fukaya Star Festival is scheduled to go ahead in 2022. Fukaya City cancelled the festival in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. However, theyRead More →
The Kumagaya Fireworks are normally on in August annually. However, in 2020 they intentionally scheduled them for June, so as not to clash with the Olympics. Then… the pandemic happened! And the 2020 Kumagaya fireworks, like so many other, were completely cancelled. In 2021, they scheduled the fireworks for anRead More →
Spectacular views at Kodama Senbonzakura Park where approximately 1100 cherry blossoms line the Koyama River for an (approximate) five kilometer stretch. Kodama Senbonzakura Park Senbonzakura means “a thousand cherry blossoms” in English. Sen means “a thousand”, bon is a counter – in this case for trees. And zakura is howRead More →
Have you heard of Yoko Sakura 陽光桜 or, in English, Sunlight Cherry Blossoms? They were made relatively better known thanks to a movie about their creator in 2015. I say creator, because they are manmade. Cultivated by a school teacher, by crossbreeding the Taiwan and Amagi Yoshino cherries, in memoryRead More →
The Wakaizumi area of Honjo has three “Wakaizumi” parks; Wakaizumi Dai Ichi, Dai Ni and Wakaizumi sports park. Dai Ichi and Dai Ni are right beside each other, both quite small independently, but together they make a nice medium sized park. The Wakaizumi Park is a lovely park for childrenRead More →