川越氷川祭り Kawagoe Hikawa Festival 🏮and Kawagoe sightseeing.

Welcome to Tokyo Fun Hikes and Day Trips.

Signing up early helps get the event noticed and attracts more people. Of course you can change your mind and cancel later if you need to.
早めに登録していただくと、このイベントが目に留まりやすくなり、参加者も増えます。もちろん大丈夫です — 後で気が変わってキャンセルしても問題ありません。

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To join this event please see below and send me a message on LINE. Without this, you will not find out our meeting point. EVERYONE needs to do this EVERY TIME, including those who have participated with me previously.

***Discounted event fee (¥500) for early applications. See below***

Let’s enjoy the Kawagoe Hikawa Festival together - a famous event in which mikoshi and festival floats move down the main street of the warehouse district with crowds gathered either side of the street creating a time-slip back to the Edo period.

We'll leave Hon-Kawagoe station at 2.15pm, so please make sure you arrive 10 minutes earlier. Please note this is the SEIBU LINE station.

The biggest highlight of Kawagoe Festival is Hikkawase (曳っかわせ) - a musical battle among floats. It is due to take place from 7pm.

About 50 members of different neighborhoods put their respective festival floats as they walk through the down town district. When festival floats from different neighborhoods meet at an intersection or other spot, they make turn the float stage to face each other and begin to battle by performing their dance and music called "Ohayashi".

Ohayashi is the musical accompaniment played by five musicians namely 1 flute, 1 large drum, 2 small drums and 1 handbell. Together with dancers with a mask of a fox or a lion, they play a great performance and dancing on the stage of the float.

As the music and dancing grow in intensity, the float pullers and the audience shout encouragement to their performers. The festival reaches its climax as the float pullers hold lanterns that illuminate the festival float beautifully.

The Kawagoe Festival has plenty of stalls serving a variety of street food.

Prior to the festival we will do some sightseeing following this guide.

We hope to see:
Kitain Temple
Kawagoe Naritasan Temple
Kawagoe Kumano-jinja
Kura no Machi (Old Warehouse District) / Kurazukuri Street
Toki no Kane Bell Tower

◾️After you have applied to join this event, please contact Mark via the Line application quoting your FULL NAME and this message: [Kawagoe festival - 18th October] MARK's LINE ACCOUNT
If you would like to bring a guest, please ask me via Line.

◾️参加されるイベントの名前(フルネーム)と日付を付けてマークにLINEしてください。
例:[Kawagoe festival - 18th October] MARK's LINE ACCOUNT
定員の都合上、お連れ様がいる時は事前にLINEでご相談ください。

YouTube video - 2019 event

2024 schedule & map - awaiting 2025 schedule confirmation

Event fee:
¥500 - limited to the first 7 applicants (make sure you contact me on LINE immediately!) - prompt payment is essential to guarantee this reduced fee.
¥750 if you pay by 17th October early evening (PayPay, or in cash at an earlier event).
¥1000 in cash on the event day (18th October) - please bring the correct money.

If you don't have PayPay, please ask a friend or coworker to do the transaction for you (give them cash!).

Cancellation policy:

• Full refund given if cancellation is notified BY LINE MESSAGE at least 36 hours before the event start time.
• Reservation and then no-showing without prepayment requires full payment of the event fee via PayPay within 24 hours. Further non-payment will result in removal from the group.

Tokyo Fun Events open chat group on LINE
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After the event, you may submit a review/evaluation. Please kindly rate appropriately as a low evaluation has an impact on the group. Things you should clearly understand in advance:

1. I (Mark) am not a tour guide. For many events this will also be my first time, and events are mainly organised based on intensive internet research.
2. Nature cannot be guaranteed, so flower festivals may be impacted by the recent climate.
3. We aim to depart on time, however bus schedules might change. This is unavoidable.
4. We request participants arrive EARLY. In rare cases we might wait a few minutes if we do not need to take a bus.
5. The number of participants is not guaranteed. However we will not have large groups.
6. The event finish time might be earlier or later than advertised. The hiking time might be longer/shorter than anticipated. Return bus times are not guaranteed.

How to calculate your review appropriately:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars) = Everything was as described.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars) = The event was generally ok, but there were a few things that you weren't happy with (please provide further details).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars) = The event was disappointing (please provide further details).
⭐️⭐️ (2 stars) = The event was poor (please provide further details).
⭐️ (1 star) = The event was terrible (please provide further details).