Kawagoe Little Edo in Kimono: Warehouse Streets, Candy Alley and Access from Tokyo

Kawagoe (川越), forty minutes north-west of Tokyo in Saitama, calls itself Koedo, "Little Edo," and for once the nickname is earned: a main street of black-plaster merchant warehouses from the 1890s, a wooden bell tower that still rings four times a day, a lane of penny-candy shops, and a shrine famous for wind chimes in summer. It is flat, compact and built at the scale of a person on foot, which makes it one of the best kimono towns near Tokyo, and the town knows it: on the 18th of every month, "Kimono Day," shops along the main street give small discounts to anyone in kimono. This guide covers getting there from Asakusa and the walk itself.

Getting from Asakusa to Kawagoe

From Kawagoe Station (Tobu/JR) the warehouse street is a 25-minute walk or a 10-minute bus ride on the Koedo loop bus. From Hon-Kawagoe it is 15 minutes on foot along Chuo-dori. In kimono, take the bus from Kawagoe Station or use Hon-Kawagoe.

Leaving Asakusa by 09:45 puts you on the warehouse street by 11:15. The day is comfortably done by 16:00, which means a same-day return to the Asakusa shop before 18:00 is possible if you leave Kawagoe by 16:15. If you want the shrine at dusk or dinner in town, add next-day return (+¥1,100).

The walk

1. Kurazukuri Street (蔵造りの町並み), Ichibangai. About 400 metres of thick-walled, black-plastered warehouse shops, built fireproof after the great fire of 1893. Photograph from the west side of the street in the morning, when the sun lights the facades; in the afternoon, stand in the shade of an eave and shoot across. Watch for cars: the street is open to traffic, which is the town's one flaw.
2. Toki no Kane (時の鐘), the Bell of Time. A 16-metre wooden bell tower down a side lane off the main street, rebuilt in 1894. It rings at 06:00, 12:00, 15:00 and 18:00. Be under it at noon for the sound; the lane is narrow, so shoot from the main street with the tower at the end.
3. Kashiya Yokocho (菓子屋横丁), Candy Alley. Two short lanes of shops selling dagashi: sweet potato candy, fu-gashi wheat-gluten sticks, and metre-long fu sticks children carry like swords. Kawagoe's speciality is the sweet potato, and everything from soft-serve to chips comes in purple.
4. Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine (川越氷川神社). A 15-minute walk north-east. The shrine of matchmaking; in July and August its Wind Chime Festival hangs 2,000 glass chimes in a corridor over the path, and pink fish-shaped fortunes are "caught" with a small rod all year. The ema tunnel of pink wooden plaques is the kimono frame here.
5. Kita-in (喜多院). A 15-minute walk south. A large temple with rooms moved from Edo Castle in the 17th century (the only surviving ones) and a garden of 500 stone rakan statues, each with a different face. Admission ¥400. Quiet, and the best place to sit down.
6. Taisho Roman Street (大正浪漫夢通り). Between Kita-in and the station, a short street of 1920s shopfronts, cobbled, with no cars. The rickshaw stand is here, and a kimono suits it exactly.