Kawagoe, Saitama

With the long Golden Week holiday (about a week of no work!), we made sure to go as far as our feet and budget allowed. The day after our Shibazakura trip, we went to Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture as a random pick.

The JR Wide pass allowed us to travel far far away. It covers three consecutive days and applies only to JR lines and some special express lines. With that cost, we made sure to explore the unknown! Far away places to where we were not familiar. The first ever trip we made was on 29th of April to Shinjuku, as our starting point for the Fuji Shibazakura trip.

Train map routes are helpful. This, by the way, does not show all lines. You'll be amazed how complicated train routes in Japan, especially Tokyo area.

We were introduced to Kawagoe via japan-guide.com.

It was a last minute choice since we didn't know exactly where to go after having been too exhausted with the Fuji Shibazakura trip. But since we still had Day 3 left in our JR Wide pass, we couldn't just let Day 3 be spent at some familiar and nearby place. We wanted somewhere different.

What attracted us to Kawagoe was the Warehouse District. 

According to japan-guide.com:

Its main street, lined with Kurazukuri (clay-walled warehouse-styled) buildings, retains an ambience reminiscent of an old town from the Edo Period (1603-1867) and allows us to imagine the streets from past centuries. Thereby, Kawagoe became known as "Little Edo".

The place was crowded considering it was a Sunday.
(inset photo is an #icecreamselfie which I have decided to include at every trip I venture to from that day onwards)

The camera phone really is convenient. Though we did lug a camera with us, we did not take any pictures using it. I am seriously contemplating on buying a small, compact, point and shoot camera because I tend to take a lot of photos. But phones are more convenient since I can upload it at any social media at real time.

Photo was taken at Candy Alley.

This part of the street is filled with delicacy & souvenir shops, local products and cafes. The crowd were swarming all over. I think most of the tourists were locals.

Total travel time was around forty-five (45) minutes from Ikebukuro, including by foot. We took rapid express line on the way back to Ikebukuro to save with travel time. 

Away from the main street, this street has less crowd and was filled with Koinobori (carp streamer). These streamers are hanged all over Japan in Spring time, from establishments, streets and even homes as an event to celebrate Children's day (the last day of the Golden Week).