Tokyo 2022 (Part 6~Historical Buildings~)

First post of 2023 and I'm back to covering Tokyo 2022 as promised haha.

The two locations I visited in this post were both on recommendations, and a little out of time. They were a little out of the way too, with one being out of the 23 Wards and the other out of Tokyo itself. Shall start with the further one.

Kawagoe

7-8 days is actually too much time to spend just in Tokyo, even for a first trip. Though I considered having a leg in another city (e.g. Osaka or Kyoto), I felt that might end up being too rushed. So instead, I based myself in Tokyo and went sourcing for viable day trips. Yokohama was fairly fixed from the start but there were many possibilities for the second day trip and it took me a while before I settled on the historical city of Kawagoe. It helped to have a physical brochure which was very informative (courtesy of my uncle), and I was sold very fast on the sweets street xD

On the first day of Nov, I set off from Ikebukuro station but didn't know how to identify the express train and ended up on the local train. It was the same way anyway but the journey time increased from 30 mins to almost an hour because there were more stops. Good thing I'd made special preparations for music before the trip and loaded in all those .mp3 anime songs in my possession since the sec sch days, (when Sony Walkman phones were a thing and Spotify was not haha). So the train ride down was quite enjoyable, with good views and good music that I hadn't listened to in a while. There was no issues arriving slightly later too as the attractions of Kawagoe (the historical street, the candy street, the shrine, the preserved castle building) were all within a compact ~2km² area, perfectly completable in about 4h.

On the way towards the old town area. Interestingly, it felt like I'd arrived in a Japanese version of Derby. Might've been something to do with the simple, neighbourhood-ly shop-lined grey streets, away from the capital city. But in terms of overall feel, Kawagoe felt something like an Oxford or Cambridge for its compactness and pockets of things to see before getting on a train ride back. 

Can't resist sharing this pic of a very cute display in front of a toy shop.

The main attraction in Kawagoe was the Koedo (Little Edo) area and its preserved traditional buildings. Society clearly developed around them - the roads and heavy traffic were very very modern haha. I liked that the establishments all had their own look and character and didn't seem to be obvious tourist traps. Even though I spotted other tourists, as there were many locals around too.

Reached Koedo where the change in building style was obvious.

This was in the Kurazukuri (Old Storehouse) zone where it was challenging to get a good view of the storehouses due to the traffic.

There were many satisfying experiences of the trip, but this was probably the simplest one. Grilled mochis coated in soy sauce!! I bought a stick (think it was 100 yen) and rooted myself near the roadside stall to eat since it's considered rude to eat and walk in Japan.

The attraction I was looking forward to the most, Kashiya Yokocho aka Penny Candy Lane, was just adjacent. There I found homely Japanese mamashops run by friendly, little old ladies and packed full of so many kinds of cheap candy that kids would totally love... and the kids themselves. Apparently it was school excursion season so there were hordes of small kids with allowances to buy themselves candy. Oh the din (seems like in Japan, they don't "restrict" their kids too much. I rmb we used to have to walk 2-by-2 and hold hands with one finger on our lips.....). Since I'm at the age where I can buy myself whatever sweets I want, whenever I want, I wasn't gonna leave empty handed from a candy street! So I waded through the mass at one of the stores to pick up a few things that looked interesting and stepped out before I got deafened xD

A little pocket of quietness before the horde came through.

No pics of the inside of the shop filled with candy since I was quite conscious taking photos amidst the flood of kids (and their noise). The best I can explain it is that it was a mamashop specialising in small, low-cost sweets.

Sweets and crackers in hand, I picked up a mixed sweet potato ice cream from the next stall and walked on. There wasn't a good place to stand around (awkwardly) and I wanted to cover ground. So I ate covertly on the move (mask-off-bite-mask-on and repeat).

This was prob not the first time in my life that I had sweet potato ice cream, but this was the one that tasted most like very high quality sweet potato in ice cream form xD The candied sweet potato slice was a bonus!

I wanted to walk and eat my ice cream and not be seen doing those two actions together, so I took a path alongside a stream for a while. But then the path didn't follow through the whole way to my next destination (even though the stream kinda did).

Next, I was keen to visit the Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine to catch some lucky fish (omikuji). There were 2 types, red ones for the next year's luck and pink ones for romance luck. I took this the same way as magazine star-sign readings and CNY zodiac fortunes but I thought it would be fun to see what I'd get. 

The fish came in large baskets and each of them had a small loop of string that was surprisingly easy to hook onto. I got my fish just by doing a random sweep with the rod.

My lucky catches! The fortunes seemed to be rather detailed but the thing is they were all in Japanese haha. I couldn't quite fathom the red one, but the pink one seemed to be chiding me (through Papago) to err... be more active in looking -.- Shall get to it when I really feel like it then. Anyway, until I find someone who can read Japanese accurately, I shall take a hint but not be beholden haha.

Oh yes, this shrine had a very pretty orange torii gate at the main entrance!

The other interesting thing about Kawagoe was that there seemed to be many locations dedicated to blessings of a romantic nature. The Hikawa Shrine had a few other romance-related activities that I didn't partake in, such as getting matchmaking charms and there was also another temple along the way in that was segregated to bless singles and attached/married couples specifically. 

The last significant stop was the Honmaru Goten, the "palace in the inner-most circle of defence" according to google and last surviving building of the Kawagoe Castle. It was a small, well-preserved place where the lord back then used to live and work. Shoes off while walking around in it.

Seems like a very nice setting to live in and wfh tbh!

Zen garden right in the middle of the residence for destressing.

I got a small shock when I walked into this "gathering" at one of the last rooms. Nothing like life-sized figurines to add some dimension to these kinds of exhibits but a warning would've been nice haha.

That rounded off my 2km² runabout in Kawagoe and all I had left to do was to think of lunch. It was actually on my food list to eat at one of the famous unagi restaurants in Kawagoe. Unfortunately I knew I was too full to properly enjoy a rice-based meal (yes, from the mochi and the ice cream) and had to give that a miss :/ As a consolation, I picked up a set of Kawagoe puddings (which was also a recommended stop anyway) and kept them in the fridge to relish over the next few days. Carrying the puddings with me meant that I had to get back to hotel first before continuing explorations in Tokyo, which meant that I had to leave Ikebukuro and its well-known owl cafe for a next trip. 

From L-R: matcha, sweet potato and purple sweet potato flavour. Just like the ice cream, there was a difference between the orange and purple sweet potato! The purple one tasted more purple hahaha, something deeper and smokier. 

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

I did do some some other stuff after getting back from Kawagoe, but perhaps that's for another Part. Now, I'm skipping ahead to the following morning (2 Nov) when I dropped by the titled museum. This was the museum nestled in Koganei Park where I saw my first red maple leaves. It was also along the way towards Tachikawa, my ultimate destination of the day. This location was not part of the original itinerary at all and I visited on a recommendation. In fact, it was slotted in just the night before, making some planned activities shuffle down the line and causing a squeeze in the last few days xD But very worthwhile!

Another cloudless day~ The entrance walk to the museum was lined with some sort of ceramics pasar but I didn't stop by to look.

As the museum's name suggests, it housed a collection of historical buildings. There were 4 zones, each dedicated to an architectural style from different periods. From what I gathered, some of the exhibits were authentic buildings preserved, restored and collected in the museum from different parts of Japan. Overall, I enjoyed the immersivity! Visitors were allowed inside the buildings instead of just viewing them from outside. But this also meant taking off and putting on my shoes many many times to protect the floorings. 

First up were the preserved traditional Japanese buildings and houses. In fact, the visitor centre itself was a preserved palace ceremonial hall.

I think the red carpet was not part of the original flooring and was just there to protect the wood, and it made the residence look like an atas Chinese restaurant.

Japanese-suburban feels.

Wah, to live on one of these houses and have a view like that - basically throughout the whole corridor! I'm guessing they recreated the garden spaces since the buildings were the ones that were relocated.

Little zen pond in one of the backyards.

Next, there were the Western-style private residences from around the 1910s-1950s. This zone interested me the most coz up till then, I'd never known that Western influence was a part of Japanese history. It's an interesting parallel with the ang moh style buildings in SG but those were built under different circumstances in colonial times. In Japan's case, they had a choice in what influences to accept. And they chose to emulate the best of the West (clearly including pretty houses) while keeping true to Japanese culture.

I could very well have been in Number 4 Privet Drive xD

This display was meant to recreate the 1920s but somehow seems like it could work in a modern day setting.

So I was here for the museum and the buildings but autumn really took every chance it could to shine through~

Now this one looks like a sunny shot of some American surburban house in a horror show before things take a dark turn HAHA. Tbh, it was probably thanks to the high level of restoration and maintenance and their timeless designs that these buildings looked as though they still belong in the modern day.

The third area covered farmhouses from around the Edo period, with their thatched roofs and partial dirt floorings. My poor anothersole shoes got a healthy layer of dirt on top of their extra creases from getting put on and taken off over and over xD

I think I never had an idea of what Japanese farmhouses looked like, but these were much grander than expected.

The inside had familiar wooden floors and sliding partitions, but with areas of dirt floorings.

The final zone was a little curated street of commercial establishments. I remember that it was getting quite hot at this area coz it was mostly concrete and the sun was out in full force. 

There was a cosmetics shop, a kitchenware shop, a flower shop, a grocer, an inn, a stationery shop, a soy sauce shop, an umbrella shop and a public bathhouse at the end.

Apparently there was enough of a market for a shop of this size to specialise in selling large bottles of soy sauce haha.

Outside the bathhouse.

Inside the bathhouse where the most interesting thing to me was the mirrors at just the correct height if one were sitting on stools at the faucets.

Aside from the enter-able architecture, the place was also sprinkled with some other varieties of exhibits such as olden vehicles, prayer halls and a small museum at the end briefly covering Japan's development.

Electric tram.

Inside the electric tram which would've been baking if not for the working fans!

Instrument of Surrender of the Japanese and the end of WW2. It was a bit of a throwback to pri sch (?) social studies since the Japanese Occupation was a significant enough piece of our short history to learn about at that age. Hmm. I wonder what it's like when tourists of other nationalities see this, particularly other Southeast/East Asians.

A bit hard to see but this was a shot of the construction of Shinjuku Station West underground plaza :O It would've taken something of a visionary at that time to dream up an plan out that crazy complex bustling station of today.

Now that we've covered the exhibits, I also wanted to pen down some observations of the museum staff and what I felt was exemplary service. Firstly, when I was entering the museum, I made it obvious that my Japanese comprehension was close to zilch as usual and then mistakenly picked up a Japanese location map on the way in. After a few paces into the exhibition zone, a staff caught up with me and brought me an English version to exchange with the one I'd taken. Secondly, some of the buildings required the use of lifts while keeping to the exhibit pathways. I'd seen "greeting staff" at the lifts in malls and other attractions in the cities, especially those in tall buildings. But I didn't expect there to be the same kind of staff here, where there were only second levels at most and there really wasn't much else for the staff to do other than to bow and greet visitors (and of course lend assistance to those who required it). Truly Japanese style.

If I had the luxury of time, I could've spent 3-4h exploring every last detail in this museum. But I had to move briskly since I reached late. That morning, I'd confidently strode onto the train only to end up some ways down the wrong branch of the correct line (think Pasir Ris vs Changi Airport on the green line xD). I was also bound by the trip-anchoring event after the museum visit so I definitely had to leave well on time.

Part 7 will cover that event, and it's one of the Parts I've been looking forward to writing the most!