Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, alias "Koedo", is by far the most emblematic of the Edo period.
In April 2017, we stayed in Shinjuku while traveling in Japan, and Shinjuku was very convenient to get to Kawagoe, just a car ride from the Seibu Shinjuku Line.
After getting off the bus, we walked to the central area, which is an old street with a bell tower and a traditional Tibetan architectural complex.
This is the most famous bell tower in Kawagoe, which is said to have a history of more than 400 years, and now rings the bell four times a day, and there are many tourists who punch here.
Tibetan-style buildings are all two-story buildings, many of which are only shops downstairs, but many of which are used as shops upstairs and downstairs. There is a shop from the outside to see the opening is not large, after going in to find that the store is very large, the original street-facing building and the back of the building seamless connection, the area increased several times but the decoration style is the same, upstairs and downstairs are used for business is very grand.
The following photos were taken in LaoJie.
We met several ladies in kimonos and men in Japanese samurai costumes on the street, which made us feel the illusion that someone was traveling through time and space in film and television.
As an ancient town, Kawagoe naturally has many ancient temples and shrines, and one of the temples we entered has two cherry blossom trees that may be hundreds of years old, almost 20 meters high, with lush branches and spectacular flowers.
Kawagoe also has many shady courtyards, and we were amazed to see many beautiful koi in the clear water of the ditch on the side of the road in front of a courtyard!
When there were two or three stations away from Kawagoe, my daughter noticed a large cherry blossom forest next to a winding river not far from the railway, so on the way back we got off the bus and walked along the relatively simple roads and country roads for about 20 minutes to see and take pictures of the cherry blossom forest.
What surprised my wife and I even more was that on the car back to Shinjuku, a small old lady next to us was holding a stroller, and our first reaction was that there must be her grandson or granddaughter lying on the stroller, but when we looked closely, it turned out that under the small velvet blanket was a small dog, and the puppy was squinting his eyes and lying quietly, not noisy, not barking, very well-behaved. The old man saw the look of surprise on our faces, smiled at us very kindly and nodded his head.
(The photos in the article were taken by my mobile phone at that time, and some of them were not clear enough, please forgive me.) ）