Kawagoe

Kawagoe is a satellite city of Tokyo that is located in the Saitama Prefecture. From Ueno Station, Tokyo, we took a Shinkansen to Omiya (Saitama) Station and switched to a Rapid Train to Kawagoe Station.

One of the main attractions of Kawagoe is the Kurazukuri (old storehouse) Zone. You can either hop on the Co-Edo loop bus or walk to Kurazukuri which is 2km away from Kawagoe Station. To walk to Kurazukuri, look out for Crea Mall located at the north exit of Kawagoe Station. Crea Mall is a long shopping street that stretches all the way towards Kurazukuri. There is so much you can see along this street and that makes the 2km walk feel a lot shorter than it is.

The buildings along the main street retained the clayed-walled warehouse look, similar to an old town from the Edo period.

We found this shop selling matcha products along the main street. Try their full flavoured matcha ice-cream. The taste of the matcha in the ice-cream was very strong, unlike many others that we have tried before.

The other matcha products in the shop were sub-par compared to the ice-cream. The matcha sponge cake as well as matcha powder lacked the intense flavour found in its dessert counterpart.

Coffee Mamezou is a quaint artisan coffee outlet located at one of the alleys in Kawagoe. We chanced upon this place while walking back to the main street from Kashina Yokochō.

We got a cup of coffee and sat outside the shop observing the endless streams of visitors walking pass the shop.