REVIEW: KAWAGOE KOEDO
What is Kawagoe Koedo ?
The old storehouse merchant houses are lined up, and the Toki-no-kane (Bell Tower) rings to tell the time. Take a stroll through the town in a kimono and you’ll feel as if you’ve travelled back in time to ancient Edo. In Kawagoe, you can experience the traditional and pure Japan which you can’t see in Tokyo. Why not visit the temples and learn about historical heritage, fill up on Japanese food at an authentic Japanese restaurant, and spend time relaxing
and absorbing the feeling of Edo.
What is Edo era ?
Edo is the ancient name for Tokyo. During the reign of the Tokugawa Shoguns, Japan’s emperor reigned in secluded majesty at the imperial capital in Kyoto; however, the true center of power, government, the economy and social life was Edo, where the Shogun lived and ruled the country. For most people in Japan, Edo is more than just a historical city. It also has a symbolic image and meaning. It represents nearly everything that they consider a part of their “traditional” culture. For the Japanese, Edo has a romantic image that one could compare to the Italian’s image of Renaissance Venice, the British image of Victorian London and the American image of the Wild West, all rolled into one. This website is designed to take you exploring in Edo. Hopefully it will offer not only some enjoyment, but also some insights into the source of “traditional Japan”. Although modern Tokyo may look very “Western” on the surface, in its heart the spirit of Edo still lives on!
There you go, some information about the kawagoe koedo & its era. basically most of places that i visited were related with Edo. the architectural of those era was indeed majestic. full of meticulous crafts and ornaments. it sort of a japanese version of baroque.
kawagoe koedo is located a little bit outbound of Tokyo. you have to pay extra charges if you wanted to go there, since JR Pass will not covered half of journey to go there. how to get there ? here’s the route if you’re staying in Shinjuku :
- head to Shinjuku Station
- take the “YAMANOTE LINE” for Ikebukuro & Ueno *a light green colour*
- take the subway to Ikebukuro and interchange to “TOBU-TOJO LINE” for Ogawamachi *a dark blue colour*
- from there, the train will straight go to the Kawagoe-shi Station.
be alert in the train, there was two stations that named after kawagoe. first one was kawagoe station & the next one is kawagoe-shi. these two stations were side-by-side. if you went out at kawagoe station, you have to walk approximately 1.5km to the koedo. whilst the kawagoe-shi station less than 1km.
MY EXPERIENCE
in my case, i did not used the route that i just mentioned, i took the other trains. the one that i mentioned, one of the easy routes and no need to get off of the trains that much.my route was :
- from Shinjuku’s Yamanote Line to Shibuya Station.
- changed to “FUKUTOSHIN LINE” to Wakoshi station [ F01 ]
- from the Wakoshi station, i interchanged to Tobu-Tojo Line to Kawagoe-shi Station
i arrived there at 3pm, it was actually quite late since all the stores closed at 6pm. the place was filled with sea of people, seriously i did not expected to be that crowded since it was an outbound of Tokyo. believe it or not, usually this kind of attraction places filled with tourists but maann. that thing would not be happening in Japan. haha, all the tourist attractions filled with locals. this place is more to sight-seeing. there was not much of entertainment activities you can do over here. well, they have a few activities, like you always seen in the ancient movie. catch the fishes with thin-layered of paper, monkeys show and mini street shows while enjoying the classic Edo architectural style.
there were abundant of restaurants, museums over there. obviously you have to pay for the admission fees haha. i wanted to go inside their theatre but the ticket was sold out. i unsure whether they have provided english-translation or not, but it seems worth to watch it. anyways most of the restaurants over there were not halal. over there, they’re selling abundant of ancient japanese foods and toys. i wanted to buy their candies, it was indeed look so classic but i was not sure with the ingredients plus next to it, they’re selling porks. so obviously all their appliances were not clean enough to make it halal. hahaha .so i just ate Dangos, Mochi, Ice cream & Taiyaki.
i also bought my kimono over here. seriously this place was so cheap!! believe it or not, i bought my kimono for ¥ 1500 , how cheap is that. usually it cost around ¥10,000 for complete set. im lucky enough , i found a sales tag over the kimono. haha. and then, the food over there, i bought matcha mochi. it was so delish!!
if you wanted to buy food as souvenirs, please buy here. everything is so delicious compared the one that i bought in Kyoto and Osaka. i feel slightly regretted of not buying extra mochi at Kawagoe. their mochi feel more chewy and more flavorful .