Kitain Kawagoe, and visiting a friend

Another glorious day I had yesterday, a rather productive ones as not only I've covered one of the main landmarks around Kawagoe, I'm also able to visit a friend who'd just moved to a nearby city.

As usual my best companion is the geared bicycle which is very useful getting uphill.

One of the main crossroad junction towards the city of Kawagoe.


A little complicated junction, dunno which route to choose.


Took a route I haven't tried before, which goes downhill for an exciting ride and some interesting stuffs along the road.

These yellow flowers reminded that spring is on it's way!


Abandoned petrol station.


Spotted a random temple. It's quite huge and surrounded by residences.


Saw this familiar Kappa sushi restaurant from some distance away. It's been awhile since I had sushi, mmm.....


Trying out some cuttlefishes (ika) and first time trying sayori (Japanese half-beak).


Had 11 plates of sushi and the good news is each plate just cost 90 yen (tax included) on weekdays so it's just below 1k yen mark.

The main attraction of the day, Kitain (喜多院)!


Tourist map.



The trees are still balding, but I'm pretty sure these spots would look great in few weeks time!



Lots of traditional structures gathered together in one place, something almost non-existence in Tokyo (the only one I could remember is Asakusa).




Part of 500 Rokan statues (五百羅漢像), took this shot from the outside as entrance fee is needed.



Playing around to enrich the colours again.





Noticed these roof tiles with a motif inside the temples compound.


Later I've found out that this is the emblem/crest of the Tokugawa clan.



A rather unusual place to practise panoramic picture. In case you're not certain, this is a cemetery, heh. Japanese tombs doesn't gave the spooky impression like in other places.


The main plaza. I'm quite sure that in few weeks time I'll be coming back here again to take more pics.


Was quite surprised to see this stoneplate carved with alphabets.


Illustration on how the temple plaza looks like centuries ago. Best to appreciate the picture with full size.


Allow me to introduce one of the life-savers and great invention of mankind, the compass!


The day's adventure was limited to just a spot as I've promised to visit a friend who'd just moved to a nearby city the other day.

Danielle, a classmate of mine just moved to Higashi-Tokorozawa (東所沢) which is like 30 mins train ride from my place.


Was lucky to able to get to her place just on the given address and referring to the map above.
As you can see, it's loaded with unsettled luggages and boxes but that's how a newly moved-in room looks like. It's much better than when I moved in to my place last week (pic).


While we decided to walk to the station to get our dinner, paused awhile and try to take pic of the sky. Obviously I've failed but this could be remedied with the help of a tripod.


Stop by the Chinese restaurant chain Bamiyan with Danielle checking the part-time's job offer.


Dinner at Gusto. My cheese-in-hamburg dish.


Danielle's Korean platter thingy. Tasted not bad.


Back at my hostel around 10pm and had another round of dinner. Curry rice with seafood salad and fruit pudding.


Lastly, a few souvenirs I got for my friends from Kitain.


Well that's all for yesterday's post up.

Today I'm grounded in my room to have enough rest after going out continuously for days.

Tomorrow might be going to Saitama city again to collect my new student visa. It's being processed pretty fast as I applied for it last week.