Kawagoe

What the guides say about Kawagoe

Kawagoe is the day trip for people who don't have a day. It's thirty minutes from Ikebukuro, and you step off the train into a merchant town that made its money supplying Edo by river and spent it on fireproof clay-walled warehouses, which are still standing. The main street of those warehouses, the bell tower that has told the town the time for centuries, a candy alley, a temple holding rooms moved from Edo Castle and a shrine strung with wind chimes in summer all fit inside a kilometre or so, and you can walk the lot between a late breakfast and a mid-afternoon train back. Kawagoe is pinned on the Tokyo travel map with the other day trips, and its place page has the station and cost details at a glance.

If it's your first trip to Tokyo, Shinjuku's west side is still this site's default recommendation, with Asakusa as the atmosphere alternative. Pick Ikebukuro when price matters more than polish, when you're heading to Kawagoe or Chichibu, or when you just want a working Tokyo hub that tour groups skip.

Two warnings. The loop is popular and the queues between legs add up, so start early. And cloud can hide Fuji completely, so check the forecast and keep Kawagoe as the wet-weather substitute.