*Warning – it is photo heavy*

This weekend, we decided on a whim to go to Chichibu・秩父 in Saitama. I’m not sure how I came upon this idea, but I did and we went.

It takes (depending on the train) around 1hr20 to 1hr50. The faster the time, the more pricey the ticket. My husband had a prior engagement on Saturday which didn’t finish until 15:00. We were aiming to meet at Ikebukuro Station to get the limited express Laview train at 16:30 but we got there earlier and decided to go with the express train to Hanno・飯能 and change to the train going to Seibu-chichibu. This saved us about ¥710 each.

Continuing with the tight theme, the hotel – Natural Farm City Noen Hotel・ナチュラルファームシティ農園ホテル – was 30 mins from the station and we decided to walk. They do have a shuttle bus but we arrived too late for it. The walk was pleasant but the last bit shown above was a killer in the humidity.

We decided on this hotel because they had a shuttle bus to the Firefly Festival. I picked the cheapest room possible and the rate included both breakfast and dinner buffet with vegetables grown on their farm.

The food was fine – I wouldn’t go back for it. The fruit and veg was very nice and breakfast the next morning had a good selection.

Fireflies don’t really turn out so well on photos, so I guess you’ll just have to imagine them or go and see them. It really is a magical experience, so well worth going. On the shuttle bus from the hotel, everyone else had children.

Sunday we breakfasted, my husband went to the public bath and then we went back to the station (walked again) to catch the bus to Mitsumine Shrine・三峯神社. We got there about 15 minutes early – ‘That’ll be plenty of time!’ we reassured ourselves. No! There was a massive queue and when the bus rolled up it was just a normal bus. The couple in front of us got the last two seats so it was a nice 1hr30 min ride up a winding mountain whilst standing up.

When we got there though, it was magnificent. It was so green and pretty quiet.

We had local specialties including kakigori made with local water and miso potato.

The queue to pray at the shrine. You could just go up the other side if you didn’t want to pray. We got an omikuji each and I got the best 大吉 and my husband got the second best one 中吉. Recently we went to Asakusa with some family who were visiting and I got 大凶 and my husband got 凶 so it really looks like things are on the up for us.

Mitsumine Shrine is considered a power spot and it really did refresh us.

We were at the bus stop half an hour before it was due to leave – no issues with seats this time. We got back to the station. There is a food court and we ate there. I had soba with a walnut dipping sauce (local speciality) and my husband had miso pork (another speciality).

We wandered about the town which had a lovely feel to it and made our way to Sun Dolce to have ice cream which was nice. Then it was back to Tokyo for us, on the cheap train of course.

Chichibu is one of the best places I’ve been to in Japan and I didn’t want to leave. In fact we want to live there but the commute is too far and it gets very snowy in winter. We are already planning our next escape to Chichibu and hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.

Thanks for reading,
Emily