A local perspective shows you scenery you wouldn’t normally see
Kawagoe is a city where history and culture live on. While there are many tourist attractions such as the Kura-zukuri street, Toki no Kane, and Kashiya Yokocho, behind the scenes you can find the everyday lives of local people. Here, from the perspective of a local resident, we will introduce a side of Kawagoe where the ordinary and the extraordinary intersect that you won’t find in tourist brochures.
Early morning at Hikawa Shrine – Prayer in silence
Hikawa Shrine is known as a tourist spot, but in the early morning it is quiet. Local residents stop by on their way to work or school and can be seen praying, and it is loved as a “daily anchor” rather than a tourist spot. Local volunteers clean the grounds and decorate the shrine, showing the strong ties the shrine has with the local community.
Local activities spread across the backstreets
Ichibangai is a bustling shopping street that continues from Kawagoe Station, with its “Clare Mall” shopping street and rows of storehouses. If you go into the backstreets, you’ll find everyday scenes that are often overlooked from tourist routes, such as privately run flower shops, rice shops, and barber shops. In an alley near Nakamachi intersection, a photo studio that is still in business today functions as a place for local people to interact.
A temple where faith and life overlap
Kita-in and Naka-in are popular tourist spots, but at the same time they are also the bases for important religious and cultural events in the region. Many local residents visit throughout the year for things like the first shrine visit of the year on New Year’s Day, the Shichi-Go-San ceremony to celebrate children’s growth, and the bean-throwing ceremony on Setsubun. In spring, families can be seen spreading out mats and relaxing with the cherry blossoms of Naka-in in the background, and they are loved as an integral part of daily life.
The city’s appearance as you walk
In Kawagoe’s old town, urban structures that date back to the Edo period remain in many places. The narrow roads from the castle town days are still used as active roads for daily life, and tourists and local residents share the same space as nature. This town structure allows you to feel the overlap between the city’s history and modern life, something that cannot be experienced through tourism alone.
As a tourist, I feel like I am “renting” the city’s space.
Tourism is the act of enjoying something out of the ordinary. However, we must not forget that the stage for tourism is the same place where local people go about their daily lives. Walking around Kawagoe from a local perspective will give you an opportunity to think about the coexistence of tourism and daily life. Seeing Kawagoe not just as a “city to see” but as a “city to live in” will lead to a deeper travel experience.
Taking the above Seven points into consideration, we will guide you through sightseeing in Koedo Kawagoe in the submenu.
