In spite of the cold weather on the day before, our third monthly EFT Kawagoe Guide “Free Walking Tours” in the year 2025 was held on Sunday, March 9, 2025 with a lovely spring warmth in the air.
With a total of 27 EFT guide members conducted a 30-minute free walking tour of Kurazukuri Old Town welcoming 44 foreign guests at the Kawagoe Festival Museum and Kajimachi Square.
The guests were from a diverse range of countries, such as Malaysia, China, Singapore, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Canada, India, Italy, France, Estonia, Austria, and the United Kingdom (living in Japan), counted up to 15 countries.
From last month, we have added the new tour spot in Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine, the most popular shrine and one of the main shrines in Kawagoe. To our surprise, we found out that the number of the guests at the shrine was very high compared to Kurazukuri Old Town. It was also a happy surprise for us that the guests had a high level of interest in the history of the shrine, the manners to worship in the shrine, and the historical sculptures on the buildings.
Moreover, many tourists have expressed their interests in activities such as “fishing” Tai-mikuji (red snapper fortune papers) and picking up the Imo-mikuji (Sweet Potato fortune papers) which they can actually experience during the tour.
There were some happy surprises that introducing and explaining the fortune papers had also led the guests to attend our walking tour in the Kurazukuri Old Town. This made us consider increasing the number of our guides at the shrine next month.
In Kurazukuri Old Town, the most popular sightseeing spot in Kawagoe, we welcomed many guests at both Kajimachi Square and the Kawagoe Festival Museum with the new guide members who joined us this year enthusiastically giving explanations using their own creative materials. We received many questions on the Kurazukuri (warehouse-style) architecture and specialty items from Kawagoe. We answered a wide range of questions and the guests listened intently as well ended in a very fulfilling tour.
The next tour will be held on Sunday, April 13th from 11:30 to 15:30.
If you are interested in our tour, please come and see what we are doing. We will welcome everyone with big smile!
