Zippy ZIGZAG Road
Happy 2024! To celebrate the start of the new year, we went to Kawagoe for a little day trip. Kawagoe is nicknamed "lite Edo" for its historic streets, which means it's a perfect place for the kimono experience.
We booked our kimono experience from VASARA kimono rental. My sister just finished her PhD, so she rented "Hakama", which is the traditional kimono that Japanese students wear during graduation season. This type of kimono was only available in the store near the train station, so we had to change into kimonos and getas (Japanese clogs) here and walk towards the old town. Honestly, if you want to try on kimono here, do it in the shop in old town. The walk was nearly a torture. It was a 20-minute walk, and I wanted to give up within 30 seconds.
Getas restricted our movement, so we became quite elegant-looking with our slow-motion walking. As soon as we entered the old town, I smelt grilled dango. Of course, I had to ask my sister to buy one for me. Our first stop in Kawagoe was the grilled eel rice bowl at Ogagiku. It is one of the most popular places to have eel rice, so we were prepared to join a long queue. To our surprise, there was no queue because it was not open on new year's day! We found another place, Denbe, with good rating as well, and decided to give it a go. The restaurant is in an old wooden building. The moment we walked in, the getas on our feet made sure that everyone in Kawagoe knew that Tseng's sisters were here for the eel rice.
On our way to Hikawa Shrine, we stopped at Starbucks for some hojicha. The Starbucks in Kawagoe is very beautiful and has a small Japanese garden in the back (great for Instagram photos)! Because it was the new year's day, many Japanese went to the shrine to pray for a good year. We followed the crowd and did our praying as well. In Hikawa Shrine, they set up a little fishing activity for people to get an omikuji (fortune slip). I tried my luck as well and got a nice fortune slip that indicates I will have "medium blessings" for my new year.
Click, clack, click, clack. We slowly walked to another shrine in Kawagoe - Kumano Shrine. The queue to pray at Kumoano Shrine is too long; we weren't patient enough, so we decided to head back. On our way back to the kimono shop, we walked past a shopping street. The getas could restrict our movement, but couldn't contain our desire to shop. A vintage shop caught our eyes and we quickly walked in to browse the quirky, cute clothes.
I couldn't try anything on because of the kimono, so I kind of just gambled it. I bought two cute vintage clothes, suit me perfectly.
It was getting dark outside. We soon realised that we had been shopping for too long and needed to hurry back to the shop to return the kimono. No more elegant walking, we speed walked to the shop and got there just in time.
I thought I would love Kawagoe, but I have to admit that it didn't make me "Wow!" when we were there. It might be because of the time of year we came. In comparison, I prefer Dazaifu we visited a few days ago. I might want to do the kimono experience again in Dazaifu.
For our last day in Tokyo, we visited friends and bought loads of Pokémon cards for my cousin.
A few nights ago, my mum called and told us that she saw on the news that there was a long wait in the security check queue at the airport, so we should arrive as early as possible. We followed her order and arrived at the airport around 6 am for our 10 am flight. The airport was calm and empty. My sister and I were both hungry, so we had a hangry argument. Thankfully, we found breakfast somewhere and made up before we boarded the flight.
