Today is the last day of my trip in Tokyo as I will be leaving for home the next morning. Kawagoe is also a place that I have accidentally stumbled upon when I was doing my research on places to visit in Tokyo. It is only a 40km north of Tokyo and can be covered on a half day visit. Kawagoe is famous for its merchant houses. Some places of interest within this small town is the Kurazukuri area, which is the most popular spot in Kawagoe and is the area where you will see all the merchant houses built in Edo period, the Tokino Kane or Bell of Time which is the main feature of Kurazukuri and lastly the Kashiya Yokocho, the sweets store alley.
To reach Kawagoe, take the Tobu line from Ikebukuro Station to Kawagoe Station. There are a few ways to reach there and this is one of them.
The one way train ticket to Kawagoe is 450 Yen and the day pass for the buses that goes around all the sightseeing area in Kawagoe is 500 Yen. Without the Pass, each bus ride is 180 Yen. I bought the round trip package that cost 980 Yen. This is inclusive of the return train ticket to Kawagoe and the day pass for unlimited bus ride at Kawagoe. You can get this package from the Information Office at Ikebukuro Station.
Once you reached Kawagoe Station, take the exit to your right. Go down to the bus station and wait at platform 3. If unsure you can double check the information at the Police Station just outside the Kawagoe Station (to your right).
Take any of these buses. The orange bus or the white colourful bus. Just show the driver your Pass. The Kawagoe map will be given to you when you purchase the package so just show the driver where you want to stop when you board the bus.
I bought some rice cookies from this shop. They have quite a variety of flavours.
More of Kawagoe merchant houses.
Some interesting sights for me. What does the words on the 4 boards say?
The alleys at Kawagoe.
This is Kashiya Yokocho, the sweets store alley. All the stores here sell sweets and there were so many school children here.
More of the alley and the sweets.
Just around the corner is the Tokino Kane.
I only spent about half a day here and went back to Tokyo after that. I continued my shopping at Akihabara Electric City. At Ikebukuro Station, I took the JR and stopped at Akihabara Station. Just follow the signboard direction to Akihabara Electric City after that.
There are also other stations and exits that you can take to reach the electric city.
This is Akihabara Electric City and it is full of electronic shops here. Most of them are selling the same stuffs from what I saw. There is also a Yodobashi Electric and Camera shop at Akihabara Station and this branch seems to be the largest compared to the ones at Shinjuku. There are two Yodobashi at Shinjuku, one at West Exit and one at East Exit.
The donut maker for 1100 Yen. Isn't this cheap?
I came across this shop that sells many good quality souvenirs at reasonable price. It is even cheaper from those I bought elsewhere and during payment, they even gave me some discounts. Great! I bought some Japanese bookmarks here, a knife sharperner, some mini fans and mini mirrors. You will see these in the souvenir pictures below. They also have a varieties of key chains.
Just before I headed back to the hostel, I dropped by the Tokyo Tower at Kamiyacho Station. It's a short walk from the station Exit 1, about 300 m away. Just follow the direction from the station.
These are the gifts that I bought from Japan to bring back. Those nicely wrapped boxes are all cookies and as mentioned earlier, I think they really make a good gift for family, relatives and friends.
My Tokyo trip ended here and what can I say, Japan is so huge and in 6 days here, I merely had a glimpse of it. It was fun and enjoyable for me, only if the weather was much better.
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