Located in Saitama prefecture, just a half hour north of Tokyo via Tobu Tojo Railway, the city of Kawagoe (pop. 351,000) is a former merchant town whose old quarter's architecture includes a number of centuries-old wooden buildings such as its iconic Toki no Kane belltower (top), once used by locals to tell time (though the current version dates from 1893, rebuiding the 400-year-old original after the "Great Kawagoe Fire."
This streetscape is designated by the Japanese government as a "Traditio
