Golden Week in Saitama

Being Golden Week this week, my girlfriend and I went to Kawagoe on Tuesday. This year seems to be significant not just in Saitama, but also across the country, as for many people, it has been two years since they did any significant travel during Golden Week. Of course, this also means a significant boost to local businesses that have been struggling since the start of the CCP virus in 2020 (or 2019 depending how you look at it).

Because it's Golden Week, we decided to rent kimonos to wear for the day. Compared to buying a kimono, renting is a significantly cheaper option, considering neither of us wear kimonos on a regular basis. My girlfriend booked an appointment online in advance, and we showed up to the rental store in the morning. She was getting her kimono all prepared at the front section of the store, while I was guided to the back for the men's section. I was a little bit nervous, being my first time wearing a kimono (whereas my girlfriend has worn kimonos previously), though the process was surprisingly made easy. There was a simple guide on one of the hangar racks for sizes which were also colour-coded accordingly. I picked out a black kimono which was about 5500 yen to rent, and the staff went about putting the kimono on me. Obviously, it was a lot quicker to get me all dressed up compared to my girlfriend, though it wasn't too longer after before we headed out. 

Obviously being 3 days of public holidays, it was busy with people. Many of the shops had long lines waiting to get in for dining or to purchase snacks or foods. My girlfriend lined up to get skewered eel, but I decided to skip on getting eel. I have eaten eel before, but I wasn't a fan of the oiliness. After that we had a walk around, and got our photos taken by one of the shrines before we decided to pray at the there. We had a look at various other shops, but since we were catching up with a friend later in the evening, we weren't looking to have a big lunch (if at all). However, we tried some soy flour ice cream served with red beans - and unlike typical soft serve ice cream, we found this particular ice cream to be surprisingly creamy.

Also a lot of shops were selling the usual soft serve ice cream, though there was one store that was selling watermelon-soda flavored soft serve, which I just had to try. For 200 yen, it wasn't too bad at all. I ordered one for myself, but apparently the shopkeeper mistakenly heard me say two (this was all in Japanese) and by the time I realised it, it was too late to change. Oh well, I gave the second one to my girlfriend, and she fortunately enjoyed the flavor.

One particular food that Kawagoe is famous for is sweet potato (さつまいも). At the souvenir shop in Kawagoe station, they sell many snacks based on the sweet potato, whether it be biscuits/cookies or cakes. However, the most popular form of the sweet potato that was being sold at various shops on Tuesday was sweet potato chips. However, just about every shop and stall that we went to was completely sold out of the snack. It wasn't until much later in the day that we finally found a shop that was still selling the snack. 

Another shop we went to had something unique going on. They had a "workshop" where you could make your own candy in a similar fashion to glass blowing. Apparently due to a lot of people wanting to do it, we were able to make a booking, though due to the time, we decided to have a café to rest our feet, as we had been walking non stop since before lunch time. 
After some time at the café, we went back to that candy store for "candy blowing" I guess is what you could call it. The staff will guide you on the process (along with reading the instructions that are on the counter). While my gf was able to do it with no problems, I wasn't so fortunate. The first step requires you to blow hard initially, but not too for too long, which I ended up doing and bursting the candy bubble. Luckily the staff were able to mend mine up and I was able to continue the second part of the process which is gently blowing while rotating the candy to ensure that it inflates equally. Though mine didn't turn out as nice, it was still a fun experience, and was a pretty cheap activity to do too. 

Eventually, we went back to the kimono rental store to return our kimonos, but the staff wanted to take photos of us, which we didn't mind. My girlfriend also asked to take pictures using her phone, before the staff helped us get out of our kimonos (after ushering me to the back in the men's section, obviously). I found after we left the shop that the staff apparently want to use our photos for their website, and asked my girlfriend for the ok, which she said yes anyway. While I have no problem personally, I just found it weird that they only asked my gf only, and not ask me about it (and it's not because of language barrier either, communicating with the staff in Japanese was not a problem at all). But what's done is done.

Though we did have a date night a little while ago, we haven't actually done anything like this since we moved to Saitama prefecture. We have both been pretty busy with our own things - with me being out of town during the weekdays, while she has been busy with her thesis. It was an enjoyable time, and I hope we get another chance to do something like this some time soon.