Just 30mins From Tokyo: KAWAGOE Historic Town Food Tour!

While visiting Tokyo, you have a chance to enjoy all of the wonderful, lively, bustling streets of the city. But after a while, you want to taste something a little bit more traditional. But luckily, just an hour away from Tokyo is Kawagoe, also known as Little Edo, where the old charm of Japan is still alive and well. So today I'm going to be exploring Little Edo and trying out all of their wonderful street foods. But before we go, don't forget to subscribe for more awesome Japan adventures. Let's go! Kawagoe is actually not part of Tokyo, it is actually located in Saitama Prefecture. And it's known as Little Edo for its Edo-like ambiance. Edo being the old name for Tokyo. And the reason it gained prominence was mostly during the Edo period, when it was a key post town during the trade route between Tokyo and the northern regions of Japan. And one of its landmarks is actually right behind me. This is the Toki no Kane, which translates to the bell of time. And the sound of the bell is actually certified as one of the 100 soundscapes of Japan. So this bell is definitely one to look out for. Hopefully we can hear it today. Ooh, what's this? Let's give it a try. That's a big line. Okay, we're going to line up and give it a try. I'm in front of Osatsuman. It's a shop that's known for their sweet potato chips that you dip in cream. And the reason why this is a snack that you should try here is because sweet potatoes are really famous in Kawagoe. Until the 1960s, Kawagoe was one of Japan's leading producers of sweet potatoes. So you'll find a lot of sweet potato snacks. I've had sweet potato chips before, but never had it in cream. Mmm! Actually, that's way better than I expected. I've had sweet potato chips before that were really, really dry and just too hard. This one has just the right amount of moisture to give that crisp crunch when you bite into it. And it does go really well with the cream. It just adds a wonderful sweetness. It's kind of like eating chips with ice cream, I guess. It's very nice. Mmm! Although you shouldn't really eat while you walk. You can kind of eat while you're around here. But it's a nice snack. I like it. And they have this really interesting dessert. It is basically a cheesecake Mont Blanc. And it's got ice cream inside. This is a cheesecake! I don't know how they do it, so let's give it a try. Wow! It comes in a really cute little paper cup. And it's got Mont Blanc on top. And I was able to choose between Basque cheesecake or Kawagoe sweet potato cheesecake. So that's Kawagoe sweet potato. It smells like cheese! It doesn't smell like chestnut, which is what most Mont Blanc are made out of. Usually it's like a chestnut paste that's threaded. Okay, let's give it a taste. It's the ice cream with the cheesecake sweet potato Mont Blanc. Itadakimasu! Mmm! As I suspected, the Mont Blanc paste at the top is not made out of chestnuts. I believe it's just made out of sweet potatoes. But it seems to be infused with cheesecake flavor. Almost a saltier, rich cheese. Rather than like a cream cheese. It's a little bit more sharp. Ahh! It's got little corn flakes or bran flakes on the bottom. Look! They're really common in Japanese parfaits. There's usually corn flakes at the bottom. This one doesn't taste like corn. I think it's not made out of bran, it's made out of rice. It's like rice cereal flakes. It does give a really nice crunch. It goes really well with the ice cream and the cheese and sweet potato in the Mont Blanc. This is a very unique and refreshing dessert. Very Kawagoe. But I'm gonna finish this off and then let's keep exploring Little Edo. This is a popular unagi shop. And as you can see, a lot of people are lined up and waiting to get some unagi. And coincidentally, in this region, unagi is really famous. Since this area is called Kawagoe, it means over the river. And you get eels from the local rivers. So it has a long history of eels. And there's a lot of really old Edo period eel restaurants here as well. So I think we might as well try some eel. And in particular, I want to try the egg rolls with unagi. This looks really good. This is called an umaki. Basically, tamagoyaki is a Japanese rolled omelette. Like this. But instead of just the tamago, which is the egg, it also has unagi inside. And therefore, you get umaki. And these are really popular in areas where unagi is famous. Oh my goodness. There's so much umami in this bite. And it's so juicy. It's a fluffy rolled omelette with some juicy, fluffy unagi meat on the inside. And the sauce just adds so much umami. It's like a sweet soy sauce. That's really good. I'm glad I got that. That's a good one to try. I think this is definitely a must try if you come to Kawagoe. Oh, I think it's also important to mention that Koedo, or Little Edo, has a really famous Starbucks. It was the first Starbucks, I think, that was made in a design that looks like Edo. Do you see how it fits with the design of the city? This is a famous location, apparently. I got a cucumber on a stick. This might seem really weird, but this is the classic Japanese summer food. That is so refreshing and so crunchy. And it's not just a regular cucumber. It's been salted and pickled in a plum brine. So it's sour and a little bit sweet with some sugar, but also salty. It's a really good summer snack. One of the reasons why you can't see traditional buildings like this in most of Tokyo is because all of it was destroyed during World War II, during the air raids. And also during the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. So this is a really rare area that was primarily or mostly unscathed from all of these disasters. And one of those areas that survived is this street here, known as Kashiya Yokocho, which means Candy Alley. It is a wonderful place with a nostalgic atmosphere and many, many traditional candy shops. At one point after the Great Kanto Earthquake, this area actually became the place to get candy because there was a shortage of candy and sweets all across Japan. And at that time, there was over 70 different candy shops in this area. Nowadays, it's dwindled down to 20, but it's still a really great place to come. So let's go and see what kind of traditional sweets we can find and traditional nostalgic candy. Here we are at a candy shop that sells something called Fugashi. And Fugashi is basically dried wheat gluten and it's coated with sugar cane sugar called kokuto. And this is a type of dagashi, which is mostly what was sold here back in the day. It's like a really, really cheap candy, like a penny candy that kids would go buy. So this is a version of that, but it's the biggest one in Japan. And they have the longest Fugashi in Japan at 95 centimeters long. Oh, and it even says on here, Natsukashii Mukashi no Aji, which means nostalgic flavor from the old times. Wow, that is pretty impressive. That's quite long. It smells so good. It smells sweet and kind of nutty because of sugar cane sugar. Okay, here we go. Let's give it a try. Itadakimasu. Okay, so it looks like bread. It really does. It looks like a baguette. The inside also looks fluffy like bread. But the texture is kind of like cotton candy almost. When it melts in your mouth, like when you eat it, it melts in your mouth really fast. And it leaves you with this strong sugar taste, like cotton candy or candy floss, whatever. Fairy floss, whatever you call it. It is very good, very sweet. It's like eating a hard cotton candy. And the original bite into it is kind of like eating some bread. It's really interesting. If you like cane sugar, this would be a fun snack to try. One of the things to do here is definitely to dress up in a yukata. It's a very, very popular dress up. I haven't seen too many other people dress up today, but a lot of people do. And it just makes you feel like you're living in old Tokyo. Oh, this looks fun. It looks like a glass blowing candy of some sort. This is old school candy the kids used to do. I'm going to blow into it like glass blowing and we'll make a balloon. Here we go. Oh, that's actually really difficult. Whoa, that was cool. It was actually really, really hard to blow into at first. It was like, I can't even blow up balloons actually, so maybe that was part of the problem. But it starts out really, really hard. I've actually never done that before. This is very cool. It's starting to break apart at the top a little bit. But you can just lick it like a lollipop or something. It's just like licking sugar actually. There's nothing too exciting about it. It's just fun to make. It's just a sugar lollipop. Kind of like eating cotton candy, but that hasn't been flavored. Yeah, so I mean it's just a fun activity. Also, I don't know if I did it wrong, but mine burst. So maybe if you do it better. If you don't, I don't know, maybe with a little bit more practice it'll stay intact. But yeah, it's just a fun, fun old school snack and fun activity to do here. To finish off my day in Kawagoe, I'm having some local craft beer called Koedo beer, which literally means little Edo. And this is a really, really famous and popular beer. It's actually won a lot of different beer awards in Japan and around the world. And this particular one is the Beni Aka beer. They have a few different kinds. But the Beni Aka in particular is very quintessentially Japanese and Kawagoe because it is made out of sweet potatoes that were grown right here in Kawagoe. Oh, that is so good. It's a really, really, it almost tastes like a stout. It's actually very rich and deep flavors. Now that I know that there are sweet potatoes in it, I can taste what feels like the sweetness of sweet potatoes. But it's also rich and dark. It is a very delicious and refreshing beer. And a great way to finish off my day in little Edo. I hope you guys enjoyed following along my day trip with me in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture. And I'd love to know, have you guys ever visited Kawagoe before? Because I feel like it's a little bit out of the city. Maybe not a lot of people have been here, but if you have, please let me know. And if you haven't, let me know if you guys would like to come and even try dressing up in traditional yukata or kimonos. Because it is a lot of fun. Anyway, if you guys enjoyed this video, please make sure to give us a like, comment, and don't forget to subscribe. And we'll see you guys very soon in another video. Bye! Cheers!