On friday I went to Kawagoe, in Saitama prefecture but technically still in Tokyo, to meet my Japanese family! My great-grandmother was Japanese, and even though we share the tiniest bit of blood we were really excited to meet! I’ll keep their names shortened for their privacy.
I was invited over to Kawagoe because it was nice and central for all my family members, and it’s a beautiful old village. It turned out Kawagoe is also called Little Edo because half the city center is authentically Edo, including a bell tower that’s famous throughout Japan. I met up with A-san and Ai-san at the station (after walking right past eachother, followed by a panicked phone call where they were) and we took a bus to the center. A-san had booked a kimono rental service and reserved lunch for the day. The kimono rental place was incredibly small! It consisted of a small porch with hanging curtains, a heightened tatami floor with kimono racks and a dressing room the size of a big closet.
First we were asked to put our stuff in a big bag, then we could get on the tatami to pick a kimono. They pointed out the three racks that were in season or close to it, those were available for rent. After a century of being torn I went with a lavender kimono with flower circles and petals. Then a shop girl held the kimono up to the obi drawer so you could pick one. I got stuck there again so the girl took out a couple that she thought would fit nicely, and I ended up going with one of her recommendations, a yellow obi with a pink reverse side. After choosing I was lead to the dressing room, where I got long wide-legged pants, a pair of tabi socks and a juban, under kimono that consisted of two parts. From there on it was a lot of standing still with arms up while the shop lady worked her magic. Then I was lead back to the tatami floor so they could do my hair. I could tell they weren’t used to non-Japanese hair, because they tied mine up way too loosely! I thought it was kinda funny. They also let me choose a hair accessory, but they had LOADS of those too so I asked the girl what she recommended and she showed me some pink combs to choose from. The last thing to choose was a bag! They had round kinchaku pouches, kimono fabric clutches and big fabric bags. By then I noticed I was dressed incredibly colourful compared to my family, so I picked a silver clutch as to not stand out too much. Since it was cold we also got a scarf, and we were ready to go. All in all it was surprisingly comfortable! The kimono with scarf were warmer than my knit dress and cape I’d worn before and walking in zouri was a piece of cake.
The lunch A-san had booked turned out to be a kaiseki or set meal style, and everything, EVERYTHING had sweet potato in it in one way or another. Including the drinks and ice cream. It sounds super gimmicky but it was actually incredibly delicious. The only thing that was less than perfect was the amount- everything was served in tiny cups and in theory it would be easy to finish, but because everything contained potato it was very filling. The rice that was served with it was mochi rice as well, which is heavier than regular rice. None of us managed to finish the whole thing!
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| Tbh they should've just handed me the whole ice cream tub and a spoon. Possibly the best ice cream I've ever had, including the fancy expensive gelato I had in Italy. |
After the (amazing) lunch we walked to what A-san thought was a specific shrine, but it turned out to be a Buddhist temple. The others gave ¥5 for good luck, I failed miserably at giving ¥5 and was forced to watch the coin bounce out of the wooden box and into a gap in the floor boards, never to be seen again. Then we continued on to the actual shrine. K-san explained to me that it was a shrine for luck in love, and it was crazy popular. The little main plaza was filled with people, most in kimono- it was here that I realized I looked incredibly toned down, most girls my age were wearing bright pinks and lilacs and had huge coiffed hair piled with roses, so my nerves about looking like a rainbow turned out to be for nothing!
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| The shrine entrance with the well |
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| Torii, look at the size of it! |
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| The first sacred tree... |
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| ...and the other two. |
A-san gave me ¥30 (as I only had a ¥5000 note with me for souvenirs) to get a horoscope. There were vending machines with rolled up horoscopes all over Kawagoe, but in the shrine they were put inside paper maché fish and you had to fish for yours. It was fun! Plus my horoscope turned out to be pretty good as well. We walked around the shrine a bit, which was surrounded by trees even though it was in the middle of the city. There were three holy trees that I could find, two of them connected with string, which I think signify a kami couple considering the kind of shrine it was.
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| Little carp! |
Then my family took me to see penny candy lane, a long street of gorgeous old buildings that sold nothing but foods and sweets, all of them traditional. There were loads and loads of sweet potato products, including sweet potato chips that drew a line so big that it went all the way down the street and past the corner. I picked up some souvenirs and presents for friends. We also visited a chopstick store, which was so big and had so many pretty things that I probably lingered there for a good hour or so. In the end I managed to buy just one pair, in the knowledge that I’m the only one who uses them at home and buying seventy pairs isn’t necessary. We visited the shrine under the bell tower (for healing of sickness) and then went to get changed. We went to Starbucks to have a last coffee before I had to go back, and I was completely blown away when I got to the yard! I’d expected just an outside terrace, but it was a full Japanese garden with a bamboo fountain, flowers, a pebble garden en dozens of sparrows.
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| Seriously, look at this! |
We exchanged gifts, I’d brought Dutch sweets as presents and my family had bought small but somehow perfect gifts for me. Seriously, it was as if they knew the exact things that I liked! A-sans father, who I’ll be meeting later, also sent over some citrus fruits for me and my parents. We then took the bus back to the station, K-san gave me recommendations for museums and restaurants in my area and we said goodbye.
It was an incredible day, even with the language barrier! My family and I turned out to have a surprising amount of common ground, which I hadn’t expected at all. I hope they enjoyed the day too, and I hope I get to visit them again.
(No shopping done that day, but I did the day after!)
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