Saitama Travel Guide

A mountain basin town set among the Oku-Chichibu ranges, home to one of Japan's three great night festivals — the Chichibu Yomatsuri (December 3) where six ornate floats and two mikoshi parade through freezing winter streets with fireworks overhead. The Chichibu Shrine (2,100 years old) is a National Important Cultural Property.

A well-preserved Edo-period merchant town 30km from Tokyo — nicknamed Koedo (Little Edo) for its kura-zukuri (black plastered storehouse) main street and the only surviving Toki no Kane (Time Bell Tower) in the Kanto region. Confectionery Street (Kashiya Yokocho) has sold traditional dagashi (cheap sweets) since the Meiji era.

A gentle 305-metre mountain above the Iruma River valley — one of the most approachable peaks for Tokyo day-trippers, with a clear trail to the summit in 40 minutes. Emperor Hirohito walked this mountain in 1931, giving it the name "Tenran" (Emperor's View). The summit offers Chichibu mountain panoramas and city views simultaneously.

Tokyo's nearest large national park — 304 hectares of rolling hills and forests in the Kanto Hills, blanketed in shibazakura (moss phlox) in spring and cosmos in autumn. The park sits on the old Musashi Plateau and has winding forest trails, bird-watching towers, and cycling courses that are almost empty on weekdays.

A river gorge of naturally sculpted red and green rocks (Hitsujiyama Rhyolite) carved by the Arakawa River — officially designated Japan's first Special Natural Monument (1941). Traditional hand-poled river boats (yakatafune) float through the gorge between rhyolite formations while spring flowers and autumn foliage line the canyon walls.

The global capital of bonsai art — nine specialist bonsai nurseries clustered in Omiya, established by Tokyo bonsai masters who relocated here after the 1923 earthquake. The Omiya Bonsai Art Museum (world's first public bonsai museum) houses pieces 500–1,000 years old. The village hosts the Great Bonsai Festival in May.

A narrow river gorge of crystalline water and autumn maples nicknamed "Little Arashiyama" by Edo-period intellectuals who visited from Tokyo. The hiking path along the canyon rim passes a suspension bridge over the gorge and connects to the Musashi Hills forest trail system. Peak foliage (mid-November) draws visitors from across the region.

Japan's largest railway museum — 36 historic trains spanning from Meiji steam locomotives to bullet trains displayed in a vast hangar. The driving simulators, the miniature landscape layout (Japan's largest at 1:80 scale), and the rooftop observation deck over active Shinkansen tracks make this outstanding for all ages, not just train fans.

One of the Kanto region's oldest and largest shrines — founded over 2,400 years ago and a major power spot for martial arts and archery. The shrine became famous internationally as the setting for the anime "Lucky Star," drawing anime pilgrims from around the world who found a genuinely ancient sacred site waiting for them.

A hillside riddled with 219 hand-carved burial chambers from the 7th–9th centuries — the largest cluster of ancient burial caves in eastern Japan. The caves were later used by Christian converts (forbidden under the Tokugawa shogunate) as underground meeting rooms, making this site simultaneously prehistoric and politically charged.