{"id":34637,"date":"2023-12-16T18:35:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T10:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=34637"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T02:54:01","slug":"day-09-tokyo-kawagoe-temples-and-kanetsuki-dori-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2023\/12\/16\/day-09-tokyo-kawagoe-temples-and-kanetsuki-dori-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 09 @ Tokyo \u2013 Kawagoe \u2013 Temples and Kanetsuki-dori Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 days done and we’re coming to the midpoint in our 18 day trip. On Day 09 today, we headed to Kawagoe<\/strong>, a town with a rich history \u2014 and specifically one that was made prosperous by merchants during the Edo period from the 17th to 19th centuries. The town retains a good amount of its heritage and alleyways. The town often features as a day trip activity out of Tokyo, though if you’re coming to this town specifically for the Warehouse District and also Candy Alley, then 4 hours should suffice before the shops start to feel a little same-y.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, there’s a direct train from near our hotel to Kawagoe, but our plan required us to alight at Ikebukuro Station first where we picked up the Kawagoe Discount Pass<\/strong>, something that is available only to tourists. Interestingly, some of the web sites we researched about Kawagoe alerted that you’d need to show your passport in order to buy the pass, but we were not asked to do so. The Discount Pass Premium includes rides from Ikebukuro Station to Kawagoe Station, selected bus rides within the town, and also discounts at selected retail and dining establishments. The tourist information booth at Ikebukuro Station where these passes are purchased though was a little tricky for us to find, and when we tried getting help from the station staff, one rudely refused to help and did not bother answering the missus’ query.<\/p>\n

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Tobu Tourist Information Center, located inside Ikebukuro Station, and where we bought our passes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Discount Pass Premium. The pass is stamped with the date at the station master’s office when you go past the gantry at Ikebukuro Station towards Kawagoe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We arrived at Kawagoe Station just before 9AM, and hopped onto Bus 02 that brought us to the first stop: Kita-in Temple. There was some refurbishment work going on at the temple, so we didn’t stay long. There were a couple of what looked like volunteer temple guides who tried their best to help, though they didn’t speak English well.<\/p>\n

We next walked to Naritasan Kawagoe Betsuin Hongyoin Shrine, which was a short 5 minute walk away. There were priests offering morning prayers to a team of rickshaw pullers, so we stayed outside to observe and take a few pictures.<\/p>\n

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The pagoda at Kita-in Temple in Kawagoe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Kita-in Temple. This was early morning at just past 9AM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Naritasan Kawagoe Betsuin Hongyoin Shrine. There seemed to be morning rituals when we arrived, so we just stayed outside to observe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The team of rickshaw drivers. The lass in the foreground is so diminutive<\/span> for a driver! We later ran into her again in the later part of the morning working the street at the Warehouse District.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Near the temple compound is a bus stop where we hopped on a ride to bring us to Kanetsuki-dori Street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the temple, Bus 01 brought us to the start of the main shopping street \u2014 Kanetsuki-dori Street \u2014 and also where the famous Starbucks outlet is. We were fortunate to find a free table for the four of us, so the missus could get her morning staple: coffee. LOL. Morning beverages done, we started our exploration of Kanetsuki-dori Street proper. Pictures!<\/p>\n

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There are other Starbucks outlets in Kawagoe, but this I reckon is the most famous one!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Starbucks at Kanetsuki-dori Street. We read that it gets extremely crowded, but we were able to get a table mid-morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Toki no Kane, the reconstructed and iconic bell tower of Kawagoe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Many shops line the street here offering all kinds of snacks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Many shops line both sides of the street.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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We got takoyaki wrapped in a shrimp cracker here. The very kind auntie passed P some tissue as he was making a mess of the ice cream he was also snacking on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Many visitors were dressed in traditional garb and exploring the area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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It wasn’t too crowded at this time in the morning, but when we were headed back in the direction of Kawagoe Station around noon, it was pretty crowded, it being a Saturday after all.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Continuing on Monzen Yokocho Street, a stone-paved alley that’s just off the Warehouse District.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Very colorful shops!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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At the end of Monzen Yokocho Street is a Buddhist temple with a tree showing lovely autumn colors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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At the end of Monzen Yokocho and opposite the Buddhist temple is a small shop with a water passageway containing some of the biggest koi we’ve seen!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continued in the next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 days done and we’re coming to the midpoint in our 18 day trip. On Day 09 today, we headed to Kawagoe, a town with a rich history \u2014 and specifically one that was made prosperous by merchants during the<\/p>\n

Read More Day 09 @ Tokyo \u2013 Kawagoe \u2013 Temples and Kanetsuki-dori Street<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[677],"class_list":["post-34637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-chubu-kanto-japan-2023","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/blog-2023-japan-day-09-20231216_113225.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34637"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38264,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34637\/revisions\/38264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}