Experience the best of Kawagoe

Kawagoe, in Saitama Prefecture about thirty kilometres north-west of central Tokyo, was a castle town and trading centre in the Edo period. Its main street, Ichibangai, is lined with kurazukuri, merchants' warehouses with thick black clay walls and tiled roofs, which survived fires and give the town its nickname of Little Edo. The Toki no Kane, a wooden bell tower rebuilt in 1894, rings out four times a day and is the town's emblem.

Kashiya Yokocho, or Candy Alley, is a lane of old-style sweet shops. Kita-in temple holds some five hundred stone Rakan statues, and rooms brought from Edo Castle. Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine is hung with glass wind chimes in summer, and the Kawagoe Festival in October parades tall floats through the streets to the sound of festival music. Trains reach Tokyo in about half an hour, and the Chichibu mountains lie to the west.

The sweet potato is the town's food, served as ice cream, chips, tempura, steamed sweets and even beer. Eel restaurants, some run for generations, are another local tradition. Cherry blossom lines the Shingashi River in early April, and in the humid summer wind chimes ring along the shrine path.