My today’s recommended place is Kawagoe’s Shingashi river side cherry blossom viewing spot. Though this place is really very close to #tokyo yet very few travellers actually know about this place. I’m not telling that it is a offbeat destination but not as much popular as it should be. Beautiful cherry blossom tree both side of the river and the falling petals all over the water made it so beautiful. Just imagine a boatride on a river of petals. surely it would be a unforgettable experience.

ムーミンバレーパークの湖に青空が映って世界が広がった瞬間。

埼玉県児玉郡の桜、「児玉千本桜」です。
埼玉県北部では有名です。
毎年綺麗な桜が咲いてくれます。
今年も楽しみです。

This time I want to recommend Kawagoe. This small town of kawagoe is known as condo little edo because till now this place offers the old days feeling. Its kind of time traveling. A great experience indeed. Yesterday I went once again because I was hoping to see another interesting part of this place and I was right. It looks like a place coming out of fairytale.

お正月に久しぶりに所沢駅にいったら線路を眺められる展望デッキを発見。
鉄道好きには溜まらないのかな？
ミーハーなので眺めてきましたヽ´ｴ`ﾉ

埼玉県にある首都圏外郭放水路です🙌

埼玉県にあるトーベ・ヤンソンあけぼのこどもの森公園のライトアップ×リフレクション💠別ver.

埼玉県にあるトーベ・ヤンソンあけぼのこどもの森公園のライトアップ×リフレクション💠

秩父神社 参道の風景

熊谷夜景

秩父鉄道三峰口
奥に見える山々が、終着駅の雰囲気を醸し出してくれています

The icicles of chichibu is a great place to enjoy the winter. Last winter I went to ashigakubo to see the this winter wonderland. During the winter there is also illumination arrangement. Overall the view is great and enjoyable.

さいたま新都心駅をほこすぎ橋より望む
近未来的な駅舎が夜に映えます

３年ぶりの川越まつり
例年より人が多く、まったく身動きが取れないような場所もありました。
久々にこのような大きな祭りが開催され、ようやく今まで通りの日常が戻ってきたな、と感じられた祭りでした。

深谷市の緑の王国ライトアップ
年に一度、冬季のみ行われ、幻想的な光景を見られます

今月10/9に行われた寄居町の「北条祭り」です。
北条氏とその敵陣営に分かれ、玉淀河原で合戦を行いました。
大砲や花火なども打ち上げられ、迫力のある演武を見させていただきました。

Enjoying the beautiful pre-autumn morning in a traditional way. Over 5 million red spider lily were full bloomed at kinchakuda park in Saitama Prefecture. The place was very crowdy and it was difficult to take a satisfactory shot. As a novice photographer it was very challenging to me. Anyway after attempting several times finally I was satisfied. I think the beautiful red carpet with the spider lily and the traditional umbrella creates a good combination.

曼珠沙華のを見に行きました！ギリギリ見頃で一面赤色でとても綺麗でした！

Over 5 million red spider lily is bloomed here in Kinchakuda park in Hidaka city of Saitama prefecture. The bright colors of this flower attracts the tourist from a long distance apart. Here the one flower bloomed over the top of the red carpet like colors. This flower is very eager to show its beauty to the flower lovers.

A scarlet autumn morning in a traditional way at Kinchakuda park in Saitama prefecture. This is most probably the biggest place to see the red spider lilies in Japan. A very vast area turns like a red carpet. This unique flowers and a traditional touch makes the day perfect.

A scarlet autumn morning in a traditional way at Kinchakuda park in Saitama prefecture. This is most probably the biggest place to see the red spider lilies in Japan. A very vast area turns like a red carpet. This unique flowers and a traditional touch makes the day perfect.

川越八幡宮
川越にはよく行くのですが、ここには必ずお参りしています。
休日は人も多く、にぎわっています。

今夜はロックグラスの底に富士山がある富士山グラスで有名な江戸硝子のTAJIMA GLASSで秩父のイチローズモルトウイスキーの白ラベルと青ラベルを飲み比べ

白の方が飲みやすいけど、青の方が好みだな

Decided to go back to Gyoda again this weekend.

We had such a good time last time we went we decided we wanted to check out the cherry blossoms this spring. Managed to visit some really nice places.

We originally wanted to use the rental bicycles that they have in front of the station but we got there past noon and all of them were taken unfortunately.
Fortunately for us, it ended up getting a bit colder later on so it actually worked out.

We got lucky as there was a really convenient sightseeing bus that rolled through the station to all of the major places in the city every 45 minutes or so.

We checked out the cherry blossoms at Gyoda Castle and they had the Hanachozu 花手水, pots of flowers floating in water. We were able to see a few of these throughout the city which was nice.
They also had traditional umbrellas on display in a few areas around the castle which was really pretty.

After Gyoda Castle we visited the Sakitama Burial Mounds which had some really beautiful views of the cherry blossoms.
There was also a flock of herons flying around the area but I wasn't able to get a very good photo of any of them.
Luckily we got some great photos of the cherry blossoms and the main mound and had a really enjoyable time.

We also stopped by Suijo Park and there were some food stalls in the area, but we got there when everything was just about closed so we only got to see a few of the vendors.
We managed to get a really tasty lemonade and a latte though. Both tasted really good.
Surprisingly there were a lot of cosplayers at the park.
We probably saw like 20-30 people cosplaying using the bridges and cherry blossoms in the area.

On the way back to the station we managed saw this river during the bus ride and so we backtracked a little bit after getting to the station about 5 minutes walking and got to enjoy some really phenomenal views of the cherry blossoms along the river.
There were hardly any people there as well, surprisingly.

Overall it was a really awesome time!

It's finally starting to feel like spring.
Loving the cherry blossoms around Tokyo already, it just needs to get a bit warmer.
Temperature feels a lot more up and down this year, but maybe it's just my imagination.

Hoping I can get out this weekend and enjoy some more views outside of Tokyo.
I'm not sure how much the cherry blossoms have bloomed in Saitama, but I enjoyed seeing all the photos and videos of the Kawazu Cherry Blossom Festival.

It's a bit too far/expensive for a day trip 6 hours on a train doesn't sound fun, but it'd be nice to see them one day.
From my knowledge, the cherry blossoms tend to stay in bloom longer there so it'd be nice to see them eventually.
Either way, I'm just happy spring is finally here!

さいたま市の自宅から、真っ赤な“天使のはしご”に遭遇しました。

秩父盆地では、夜に地表付近の空気が冷えて霧が発生することが多く、市街地を覆うように雲海が発生します。「都心から一番近い雲海」として注目を集めています。

秩父神社の「鬼やらい」
毎年2月3日に行われている秩父神社の「節分追儺（ついな）祭」のことです。
鬼がいっぱい登場し、年男・年女による「鬼やらい」や「豆撒き」が行われます。
年男・年女が「鬼は外～」といいながら豆をまくと、鬼は退散。

This Kasaboko flower parasol used in 300 years old Japanese festival in Chichibu which actually looks stunning. This chichibu night festival is also known as 'chichibu yomatsuri'. I was really very excited to see it.

I didn't have enough space to write it the other day, but after visiting Fukuda Inari Shrine the other day in Nishi-Omiya, Saitama we stopped by a café called Mango Tree Cafe, a small Thai restaurant on the way back to the station.

We'd already eaten, so we just wanted to sit down and relax from all the walking and to catch a break from the cold. We ordered some frozen drinks and a mango ice cream which all tasted quite good. I think the ice cream was the best but I didn't get a picture of it.

I ordered the watermelon frozen juice and it was pretty nice, but they had something called "manaonade" アンチャンマナオネード which I guess means "blue tea" or "butterfly pea flower tea-ade" lol.
It's a type of herbal tea I guess but it seemed interesting. I was considering getting it, but I'd never heard of it before so decided to stay on the safe side and just get the watermelon.

I'll probably try it next time as I know this place is a chain restaurant with other locations in Tokyo. Plus I never really eat Thai food, so it'd be something nice to try for a change