Japanese Travel Journal: Kawagoe

Finally did some more traveling, yay! One of Benni-sensei's students moved up to my class in January, and she was much amused by my enthusiasm to see completely random Japanese cities. She grew up near Kawagoe and proposed that she should give me a tour of it sometime. Somehow, Benni-sensei got involved, and we made plans to go to Kawagoe this weekend. We were joined by two of Benni-sensei's students.

One of the reasons I like going places by myself is that I can be selfish and do what I want to do, which is primarily look at things, especially shrine and temple things. Shopping isn't even second on the list, but it's usually what my companions decide to do after only a short amount of time. As a result, I actually got to see only a small amount of Kawagoe (add in that we were there only four hours, one of which was spent inside a museum, and it makes sense).

Still, it was a good trip, and as always, having traveling companions makes it all just that more fun. We went first to the Kawagoe Festival Museum, which involved lots of information about festivals and floats in Kawagoe, shockingly enough. Twice a year, portable two-story shrines are paraded through the city. Each shrine has a stage with musicians and dancers of some sort, usually a fox-headed guy or a comical couple with funny faces. There was a 20-minute performance of these dances, definitely worth seeing, even though I have no idea what any of it means.

Here is a mannequin of the fox guy. None of my hostesses could explain to me his signifigance - it was hard work to get out of them that he's a fox, which was easy enough to figure out on my own. They also would not ask anyone about it. Mostly they just stood about nodding their heads, giggling, or making awed and impressed sounds. This is why people become dependent upon internet research.

We left the museum behind and walked down a street with lots of Edo-period buildings that use to be warehouses but now are mostly shops and restaurants. This is where the shopping came in, but it makes sense when the whole street is made to entice you to spend money. It was definitely reminiscent of St. Augustine's St. George Street. There are also interesting historical sites, as seen in the above picture. That's the Toki No Kane, a prominent bell tower, very photogenic. It guards the entrance to the Yakushi Shrine, which we visited, so I can't say that I didn't get to do any shriney things. It's getting to the point where I know more about visiting shrines than some Japanese though. I find it ironic that I had to explain the reason for ringing the bell to the ladies.

One of the things that Kawagoe is famous for is sweet potato ice cream. You may recall that I tried the purple sweet potato ice cream in Kamakura, so I thought nothing of trying this. It was definitely delicious, but Kamakura's trademark ice cream is better. There's something about that purple sweet potato that is undeniably awesome.

The best thing about Kawagoe? There is a street that has nothing but sweet shops on it. Proof positive that life is pretty good. I bought some kinako mochi, and we had taiyaki (fish-shaped, sweet potato-stuffed pastry thing) and purple sweet potato manju (dumpling-type of thing). Totally made up for the fact that it was freezing and flurrying just the slightest bit.

We had planned on going to the Hisawa Temple, but once we got in the car, we forgot all about it. (Actually, I remembered, but because I didn't know where the hell we were going, I didn't realize it until too late, so I just didn't say anything about it. Benni-sensei only remembered after we'd gotten on the highway.) Besides, we had reservations at an izakaya for dinner, and we still had to drive back to Isesaki.

I continue to love izakayas. It pleases me to no end that I can try a variety of different dishes instead of getting stuck with just one, and it's fun to share the meal with everyone at the table. We started with a salad with chicken and cheddar cheese (meh, nothing special), followed by pork wrapped in eggplant, deep-fried and served with marinara sauce (delicious). We also had mushroom and seafood tempura (good, even though shrimp was the only seafood I was able to identify in the tempura). But best of all was the mushroom risotto, complete with bacon and cheese. How can that not be awesome incarnate, I ask you? It was perfect. As was the Japanese sake, which I drank quite a bit of.

And that was my day with Benni-sensei and our students. We're planning to go to Utsonomiya next month for gyoza, which is what that city is famous for. This will give us an excuse to get back together again after we are dispersed at the beginning of April. I look forward to it with much enthusiasm, and not just because I almost constantly crave gyoza. The ladies are a lot of fun to hang out with, and I get as much practice with Japanese as they do with English. Probably more, actually, because they talk way more than I do.