Something before reaching Chichibu | Japanese Countryside Travel Notes

2023-11-092023-11-09

Midwinter night festival that you must see at least once, with fireworks going off overhead

Arrive into Chichibu city early, visit Chichibu Shrine (be sure to check out the carvings and the parents’ warning signboard), and select the Chichibu meisen (silk fabric with an innovative design that was popular during the Taisho era). Let’s simulate nighttime behavior. If you don’t decide on your route back to the inn and the final time in advance, you won’t really be able to return the inn.

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chichibu shrine5 chained dragon

chichibu shrine6 three monkeys with opposit action against those at Nikko-Toshogu

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chichibu shrine7 knowledge of parents

“Kledge of paents”

>Don’t leave your skin unattended to babies

>Don’t leave your hands unattended to young children

>Don’t leave your eyes off your child

>Don’t leave your mind from young people

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fes7 paris collection

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fes9 waitig for kabuki

fes10 kabuki

fes11 kabuki wisteria daughter

fes12 old street of wholesaler

fes13 chichibu meisen

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The operation plan for all the festival cars is open, just like a railway schedule, so you don’t have to worry about when and where they will change direction, where they will stop and stay, and when and where the children’s kabuki on the festival cars will be done. If you want to see the festival cars with fireworks in the background in the middle of the night, be sure to read the schedule.

operation plan of festival cars

chichibu festival cars road map

A festival car does not have a steering wheel like a car, so it can only move in a straight line. How do it change direction at crossroads? There will be no forceful change of direction like one at the Kyoto Gion Festival does. The method is to use a lever to raise it, attach a rotating shaft underneath it, and then change direction. The work before and after rotation is a bit tedious. On the other hand, when pulling straight, it is much rougher than the Kyoto.

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fes4 lever

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fes6 lever for turn

In the middle of the night, as festival cars cross the railroad crossing befor going up Dango sloop, the railroad overhead wires are cut off for about two hours. How bold!

preparation to remove overhead wire

dango sloop beyond the railway crossing

fes17 toward dango sloop

At the end, as all the festival cars line up at the Otabisho, the fireworks go off directly overhead, and you’ll be more overwhelmed by the huge sound than the gaiety of festival cars decorated with lights. However, please note that seats inside the Otabisho are reserved in advance, and the fireworks are going off behind your head.

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fes19 square of city hole and goal

There is only one free place in Chichibu Park where you can watch the festival cars panting up Dango sloop and the fireworks in the back, and you might feel scared of crowd like sad accident at Soul during Halloween week. If fireworks are important to you, give up on Otabisho, but anywhere along National Route 140 is the best place because you can see clearly and it’s right next to the launch site.

Steam locomotives run on holidays and special days

steam locomotive1 at bushu-hino station

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souvenir shakushina with recipe

seibu railway laview and mt.Buko — go back to itinerary

2023-11-08

A detour in late autumn, Heirinji Temple completely dyed in red.

Hei-rin-ji Temple was named after the flat (“Hei” in Japanese) forest (“rin” in Japanese). Friendly and easy to understand. The entire vast precinct is colored with autumn leaves, and there is a walking path within the precinct. If you go to the back, there are places where the leaves have not turned autumn yet, so you can enjoy the gradation. But anyway, it’s hard to take a detour. You have to take a bus from Hibarigaoka station on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line.

heirinji temple walking map

heirin temple15 promnard of backyard

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Hibarigaoka is a famous place that was developed as a mammoth housing complex to meet the demand for new families to live during the time when Japan’s population increased explosively due to the baby boom. The housing complex is on the opposite side of the station from Heirinji Temple, but renovations have progressed and some of the former housing complexes are now being used as shops, one of which is a café that serves giant pancakes. It’s baked after you order it, so please look forward to it.

hibarigaoka housing complex and cafe

cafe1 renovation of old appartment

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cafe3 comma cafe

cafe4 hotcake

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2023-11-072023-11-07

Autumn Chichibu Golden Course, Nagatoro and Tsukinoishi Momiji Park

Chichibu is a place where you can see that the ocean floor strata have sunk beneath the Japanese archipelago due to the mantle, and have come to the surface. The limestone from Mt. Buko, which is still being scraped away, was a concrete material that supported Japan’s period of high economic growth, but it originally came from coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean.

nagatoro2 legs holding on — legs holding on crystalline schist

Nagatoro’s rock tatami is made of crystalline schist, which forms thin horizontal cracks (like puff pastry) when the pressure on the rock that was buried deep underground is released.

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nagatoro5 rever rafting

“Tsukinoishi Momiji Park” is literally translated in English to “moon stone and maple park.” “Moon stone! ” Does this indecates the first one collected by Apollo and exhibited at the Osaka Expo 1970 ? That’s what you could think. It’s confusing because it’s said to have been named after the phrase “moon stone” that appears in a haiku written by a Meiji haiku poet. Maple trees grow in clusters on the west bank of the Arakawa River that runs through Chichibu, so when you come up from the river, you can see the red leaves of the maple trees shining in the clear setting sun.

maple park2 stone on the moon

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maple park7 kami-nagatoro station

nagatoro from bridge

2023-11-052023-11-07

A detour in the middle of autumn: Marshal Togo in Koma Valley

When you get off at Agano Station, you will see the station plaza, which is not very popular for sightseeing. Following a group of energetic elderly people who have finished their warm-up exercise in front of the station, we follow the group up and down the narrow cliff-top path and mountain path along the railroad tracks until we arrive at the entrance to Togo Park.

seibu railway agano station

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chichibu mitake shrine entrance

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chichibu mitake shrine2 cosmos

Chichibu Mitake Shrine and Togo Park coexist there. A little further up, you will see a blanket of bright autumn leaves surrounding the bronze statue of Marshal Togo. From there, the autumn leaves continue all the way to the mountain.

Along the way, the actual deck of the battleship Mikasa, which was the flagship during the Russo-Japanese War, is on display, with many holes punched by cannonballs. This is also the shrine that deified Mr. Togo Heihachiro, who defeated the Russian fleet.

togo park4 deck of battleship Mikasa in Japan-Russia war

At the top of the stone steps, you will reach the main hall of the shrine, but it can be flinching to climb up such a steep slope. You can enjoy the autumn leaves without even climbing. I have never seen a mountain so bright red during the autumn leaves.

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togo park7 long stairs

togo park8 chichibu mitake shrine

togo park8 view

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By the way, there are many names of places near the mountains of Saitama Prefecture that are reminiscent of Korea. It is said to have originated during the Nara period in Japan, when people who fled from Goguryeo, which had been destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, were given a place to settle from the goverment. This kind of history is not learned in Japanese history. There has been a lot of exchange with the mainland since ancient times.

(*)There is a road that goes into the mountain along the railway from the Agano mining site. Believe in yourself and move on.

Goal to Chichibu (detail of Soba restaurant “Nagomi”)

The only way to get to Nagomi is to walk 20 minutes along a mountain path from Bushu Hino Station on the Chichibu Railway. However, it is a soba restaurant that is worth the walk. The restaurant serves only 50 meals a day, and for the first meal, the owner gets to sample the finished product. On the way, I don’t think I’m the only one who gets surprised when someone calls out to me, “It’s dangerous,” when I cross an unmanned railroad crossing. Who is that voice?

chichibu railway Bushu-hino station

chichibu railway animetion train

chichibu railway someone calls at rail crossing

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soba at nagomi bird

soba at nagomi waiting

soba at nagomi soba

soba at nagomi sesame tofu

soba at nagomi soul food potato

soba at nagomi soba seed icecream

soba at nagomi

2023-11-052023-11-07

Early summer detour to lavender fields and Little Kyoto

Arashiyama is a famous tourist destination in Kyoto. However, the place name “Ranzan”, which is pronounced in original Chinese reading but written the same character, is said to have originated from a famous scholar who tweeted that it was Musashi-Arashiyama. I haven’t walked all the way to Ranzan Valley, so I don’t know what it feels like, but there are lavender fields just before the valley.

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It is common for high stands to be set up on the field to create a photo spot for Instagram photos (often seen in sunflower fields), but the real cultivated land is surprisingly small. If you are in the Provence region of France, the field will fill your field of vision, but since the petals of lavender are small, it is difficult to take pictures that fill the screen with lavender. The shoot ends early, and the lavender stick making process, which takes place in a tent that blocks the sun, takes just 30 minutes, making it a reasonable time option in the hot early summer weather.

ranzan8 lavender stick

ranzan9 lavender stick

ranzan10 lavender stick

Ogawa Town is a member of the National Kyoto Conference, so it calls itself Little Kyoto. The history of handmadeJapanese paper, Washi continues, and the brand Hosokawa paper is registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Many historic buildings remain, and the town is just the right size to get around by renting a bicycle in front of the station.

ogawa town1 old stone storehouse NESTo

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ogawa town3 co-workspace inside

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If you go a little further by bicycle, there is a sake brewery which brews delicious sakes, Mikado-matsu, and you can also tour it’s inside. Knowing that the label on this sake bottle is made from Washi paper from Ogawa Town is proof that you are well versed in the culture of this town. Enjoy the rice malt dishes and desserts made with Daiginjo at the attached restaurant.