Not to be confused with Dasai-tama…

Some people in the Tokyo area claim that their slightly more rural neighbor is super lame by calling it 「ダ埼玉」 “Dasaitama,” (dasai「ださい」= lame) but I am here to tell you that Saitama Prefecture「埼玉県(さいたまけん)」kicks butt and if you need a break from being smashed into subway cars with a million Japanese salary men, go to Saitama, have an adventure, and get Off the Beaten Track.  Traveling in Shikoku might be a little TOO rural for some, but Saitama Prefecture has a great mix of rural, urban, and special local adventures to be had.  I’ll be covering a few of the basic necessities to have a good time in Saitama: local foods, dialects, festivals, and most importantly adventures!

Saitama’s Food and Drink

There is a pretty little historical city in Saitama called Kawagoe City 「川越市(かわごえし)」, and in that city they seriously love sweet potatoes, especially the kintoki「金時」variety .  If you visit the historic district of the city, called Koedo「小江戸」meaning “Little Edo”, you can eat and drink various sweet potato themed delights.

The first kind of strange delight should come at no surprise: sweet potato ice cream.  Downtown, it is dished up on a big waffle cone soft-serve style.  On a hot day, that purple glob of cream, sugar, and sweet potato hits the spot for sure.  When it cools down during fall and winter, there’s usually carts rolling around with people selling “yakiimo”「焼き芋 」which is like a grilled sweet potato, so if you need something hot and savory that can be arranged.

Now for something truly bizarre:  SWEET POTATO BEER!!!

Sweet potato beer, the bottle in the foreground of the picture, is pretty disgusting BUT as a true adventurist you MUST try it and say “…what the #%*$?!”  If you had yakiimo in one hand and a nice cold beer in the other, it would taste great, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they should be combined in one bottle.  If you are a beer lover, after being in Japan for a while with nothing but light beer that for the most part tastes pretty similar, you might appreciate the effort at a little diversity.  Or you might hate it.  On that note, if you do love beer and need a micro-brew fix, something horribly uncommon in Japan, the Coedo brand of beers is actually pretty phenomenal outside their sweet potato experiment.  By all means, check out the Coedo Beer website, especially if you are in Japan and craving decent beer.  It’s really well done and has great descriptions and pictures of their products and brewing techniques.

Saitama’s Dialects (Saitama-ben)

Saitama is a pretty safe place to go if you are not interested in getting really lost by conversations in parts of Japan where the dialects are very far away from what you learned in your Japanese Textbook.  Saitama is close enough to Tokyo that the dialects really don’t change THAT much.  If you are interested in learning different dialects, Saitama is host to a few varieties that you might come in contact with.  Here are a few sample phrases you might hear. Saitama-ben is on the left.

いあんばいです。(ianbaidesu.)　＝　こんにちは。(konnichiha.) “Hello.”

こすいねぇ！(kosuinee!)　＝　ずるいね！(zuruine!) “That’s sneaky!”

えんちょくらっせ。(enchokurasse.)　＝　座ってください。(suwattekudasai.) “Sit down please.”

Chances are you’ll be able to understand most everyone while you’re in Saitama, but you might run into a few neat phrases.  Try to pick them up as you go and really catch locals off guard when you can nail some of their own dialect.  Even if you butcher it, trying it out is a good conversation starter and people will generally be excited that you’re interested in their local way of speaking.  There’s different variations around the prefecture so go out there, make friends who will teach you their way of speaking, and post some cool phrases in the comments section!

Saitama’s Festivals

This is the part you should be getting really pumped about.  Japan in general knows how to party, but the festivals in Saitama definitely showcase this prefecture’s dedication to having a blast.  They’re full of outdoor food stands, “dashi” 「山車」traditional Japanese parade floats, locally made alcohol, traditional costumes, puppet shows, lantern filled streets, and over a million excited people crammed into one small area.

Kawagoe Matsuri 「川越祭り」”Kawagoe Festival”:

Traditional “Dashi”

The Kawagoe Matsuri, one of the three largest festivals in the Kanto area, is especially rad because they put giant intense looking dolls on top of all of their floats.  There are 29 floats and each is uniquely designed to represent a certain region of the city and then they have FIGHTS between them in the street to see which one is better!!  It’s seriously like a big shouting match done with loud singing, flutes, acting out traditional stories, and spinning around on somewhat unstable looking vehicles with giant action figures on the top.  This is all done just inches from you as the force from the volume of the crowd of people pushes everyone, men, women, children, and you dangerously closer to the action.  The festival is in mid-October (for 2010 it’s Oct. 16-17), and should make it immediately to your list of amazing stuff to see before you die.

Chichibu Yomatsuri 「秩父夜祭り」”Chichibu Night Festival” :

Chichibu Yomatsuri 秩父夜祭り

This festival is the most fun you’ll have all winter!  It is one of the three most beautiful festivals and one of the three biggest with “dashi” in Japan「日本三大美祭及び日本三大曳山祭（にほんさんだいびさい、および、にほんさんだいひきやまさい）」It gets pretty freaking cold out there because Chichibu City「秩父市」 is right at the foothills of the Chichibu Mountains「奥秩父山塊(おくちちぶさんかい)」, so you’ll have to prepare warm clothes and a fist full of cash to buy belly warming libations.  Even if you are chilly, the buzz and the action around the festival is so powerful that you’ll soon forget the cold while looking at beautifully illuminated “dashi,” watching a stunning 2.5 hour long fireworks show (a rare thing in Japan during winter), snuggling up against millions of Japanese party goers, and most importantly drinking some AMAZING SAKE.  The sake served in this region is some of the best in Japan, and many of the tastiest bottles can be found sold on the side of the street.  You can buy everything from a small cup of warm sake to a big bottle to swig around while you’re taking in the sights.  Probably better to take it easy on the alcohol if you’re planning on making mochi though:

Kowai! 「怖い！」 “SCARY!”

Saitama’s Adventures

If you haven’t found your own wild adventures in Saitama after too much sweet potato beer, delicious sake, or getting a brain freeze after eating sweet potato ice cream too quickly then you probably aren’t trying hard enough.  Here’s a couple more ideas to get you towards the goal of having wicked cool adventures.

Urawa Reds:

Urawa Red Diamonds soccer games are the Japanese equivalent of to going to see Manchester United in the UK.  The fans are NUTS (a little less violent than their European counterparts), well coordinated, and consider themselves the rowdy 12th member of the team as per the following clips:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FoGEHugOrA']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM6f-zyKIqw']

The “Urawa Reds” have a pretty great story of redemption in that they used to be terrible, but with the help of their fans, they climbed back on top.  Like most soccer clubs, it just isn’t the same without hated rivals.  Get ready for some wild games at the Saitama Stadium (2002 World Cup location) if they are playing Omiya Ardija, Osaka Gamba, or whenever they are playing a team that is highly ranked in the J-league.  Try to go with some Japanese friends that know the team songs, slogans, etc. so that you can get the full experience.

Chichibu-Tama National Park:

It is amazing how quickly you can get out into nature from Tokyo by just hopping on a train!  Other than the Chichibu Night Festival, the area has a lot to offer all year round.  For example, if you like hiking there are lots of beautiful views, waterfalls, and in the spring there is a great wildflower festival, with beautiful flowers covering huge hills in an event called the Chichibu Hitsujiyama Kouen Shibazakura no Oka 「秩父羊山公園芝桜の丘（ちちぶひつじやまこうえんしばざくらのおか）」which basically means “the hill of phlox subulata at Chichibu’s Hitsujiyama Park.”  In 2010, the festival runs from April 3th – May 5th so you still have time to catch some of the scenic and beautiful flower covered hillsides as featured in the two pictures below:

Once you get to Chichibu, there’s lots of opportunity to figure out other neat adventures.  When you ride the train, or visit their website, the tourist centers have done a good job of advertising and explaining the different activities, foods, onsen (hotsprings), and sights available in Chichibu through readily available maps and guides to visiting during all four seasons.  The catch is that you might need to figure some of it out in Japanese only, but chances are you can find someone at least during the day who will willing to assist in your adventures in the country side.

Saitama’s Transportation:

Whether it’s urban or rural fun you seek, it is pretty easy to get around Saitama by train.  As a warning for those who are buying Japan Rail Passes (basically a one-three week pass to ride anywhere you want on JR Trains), many of the train lines you will need to ride will not be with JR.  The best way to get to Chichibu from Tokyo is by riding the Seibu Chichibu Railroad 「西武秩父鉄道（せいぶちちぶてつどう）」from Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo.  If you want to hit both sites in one day, you can do it by taking the Chichibu Line 「秩父線(ちちぶせん)」 from Chichibu to Yorii and then transferring to the Tobu-Tojo Line 「東武東上線（とうぶとうじょうせん）」 back towards Kawagoe and Ikebururo.  You can use this handy resource to plan out your trip by train.  If all goes well, you’ll get lost and be forced into having misadventures and speaking Japanese!

いろいろな地域を探検してみてください！(iroirona chiikiwo tanken shitemite kudasai) “GO EXPLORE!”

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.