The next day was reserved for a trip to Kawagoe, Yuko and family's home town. Kawagoe is in the Tokyo metropolitan area, a short-ish train ride from downtown Tokyo. After a couple of slight detours, we arrived at the right place at more-or-less the right time.
Kawagoe is famous for its sweet potatoes, so Yuko and family, after a short stroll through the town, took us to a restaurant fit for a king (the King of Sweden to be precise) to taste the local specialities.
The boys strolling through Kawagoe old town.
Lunch, beautifully presented and very tasty.
Alisa - Yuko and Mitch's daughter.
Unfortunately, we didn't see much of Alisa as in true Japanese teenager style she was away studying most of the time. (As an aside, Henry and Thomas might benefit from some Japanese industry as regards their school studies.)
Mitch, Alisa and Yuko in the restaurant.
After lunch, we took a walk around parts of the old town of Kawagoe, including 'Candy Alley', before dropping by the Kawagoe Festival museum.
Thomas and Yuko in the museum.
This photo is important because it is the last concrete evidence of the whereabouts of Thomas's Hockey Bird baseball cap - lost in Japan and sorely missed.
After the museum it was off to the Kitain Temple, with the boys travelling in style as the photo below shows.
The boys travelling by rikshaw.
The temple garden at Kitain Temple.
The temple garden at Kitain Temple.
The temple is famous for its many Buddha statues, some of which can be seen here.
From the temple, we dropped by Yuko, Mitch and Alisa's flat for a short rest, which included testing an authentic Japanese massage chair, before it was off to a restaurant for dinner.
Japanese-style fondue.
Of course, Japan is not all about ancient temples and beautiful gardens. One of the surprises was that it seemed that most Japanese are squashed into a narrow strip running along the western coastline. The urban areas are very densely populated, leaving the cities looking like the photo below.
Typical urban landscape.
Even the fish live in close proximity to one another!
Japanese koi.
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