Tokyo - Kawagoe

Edo-Period Town
On Sunday we rode our daily train in the opposite direction to its end.  Just past our house it ceases its westerly direction and turns right, plowing due north for thirty minutes towards a town named Kawagoe.  It's an old town, a supposed Edo-era town that is more aptly described as one with many Edo-period-looking buildings.  It's both touristy and nice, two words I rarely use in conjunction.     

We time most of our weekend trips to coincide with the lunch hour and this one was no different.  We practically knocked over the first few temples rushing towards a restaurant Dodo picked out in advance.

She was already managing expectations as we approached "I think it's a buffet style but I'm not sure, it's hard to tell."  Poor thing now reads Japanese better than she thinks - that's exactly what it was.  Being a tourist town you'd have thought there'd be a lot of English, but no.  We stood, plates in hand, mulling our options.  "You think that's pork?" asked one. "Dunno." said the other.  It was delicious and no mistakes were made, save one.  Rather than order a glass of beer, I ordered a large bottle.  I was so full you could've rolled me out.

Kawagoe is easy on the eyes and wonderful on foot.  There are wide sidewalks flanked by low buildings, some made of wood, others of clay.

Not sure exactly how old there are - they are, however, quite beautiful.  Many are painted in dark colors.

On one of the few streets that allow cars, this character rode by wearing a teal helmet.  His car looked hand-made, if you can even call it a car.

With our stomachs full, we had no particular agenda.  We walked around slowly, peeking in the shops, snapping photos.

My favorite was a shop selling air plants made to look like sea creatures.  Sadly, it wasn't open so we had to make due pressing our noses against the window.

Though both are asian countries, Singapore and Japan don't share the same love for cats.  In the former they're considered vermin, a fact that gave me immediate pause when I moved there.

We walked towards a music in the distance which turned out to be a four person band, kimono-clad and all.

The local post office was dressed handsomely in grey.  What a beautiful place to buy stamps, no?

Off the main drag were a network of small alleyways.  We picked one and flowed with the crowd.  The trees have almost let go of their flowers but this one was still holding on and attracting photo-takers.

As the formula goes, we'd eaten, walked and window shopped.  Clearly it was time to sit for a coffee.  Dodo mixed it up with a genmaicha latte.  Genmaicha is a type of Japanese green tea that has a bit of toasted rice in it.  It tastes as good as it is ugly.  I got a burendo kohi, which is the Japanese way of saying blend(ed) coffee, using the Katakana alphabet.

The strawberry and cherry blossom short cake came in a square wooden cup, the kind usually reserved for sake.

I loved the wooden houses.  Everything here is just a bit more beautiful than what you typically see.

I expect it might be nicer on a weekday - there was a throng on the main shopping drag.  Many were lined up to buy one of the two things Kawagoe is famed for: sweet potatoes and beer.  Dodo got me a bottle of Coedo which I've yet to try.

Next we walked to a large park on the southeastern side of town.  Therein is a large temple that houses five hundred plus stone statues of Buddha's disciples.  The ticket taker told me to look for my birth year statue (year of the horse) and rub his head for good luck.

I didn't hold out hope of finding it, they all looked the same to me.

We split up, I left Dodo to the serious searching as I snapped photos.  She did find it, along with the year of the dragon, pig, rat, dog and monkey statues.  I thought about rubbing its head then snapped back into reality.  Luck exists but it surely resists all tampering.