Today I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon out with my friend Aya and her fantastic family. We went to Kawagoe, a very beautiful town north of Tokyo, known for traditional architecture.
The special food product of Kawagoe is purple sweet potato- so we started the afternoon out with purple sweet potato ice cream.
The most famous Kawagoe landmark is Toki no Kane, a bell tower from the 17th century.
The small shrine behind the bell tower.
Aya and her son at the Yakushi Shrine, behind the bell tower.
Kurazukuri Street- the traditional Edo period merchant houses. For more on Kawagoe, click here.
Lunch!
More Kawagoe scenery.
Kiddos and koi.
Kashiya Yokocho, an area of small confectioneries selling inexpensive candies.
Candy! Yum!
Goofing around with kiddos.
Osawa House, the oldest of the storehouses, from 1792.
More Kawagoe architecture. The thick roof tiles made the houses fireproof, and the clay walls were popular for Edo period storehouses.
I was amazed at the thick window shutters on each of the houses, and the layering of the roof tiles, which were seemingly quite heavy.
In addition to the Edo period (1600-1868) buildings, there were many buildings from the Taisho period (1912-1926), also very interesting to see.
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