Kawagoe

Kawagoe is a small old town about an hour out of Tokyo,and it is famous for its super old buildings (like centuries old), and old town charm. Since buildings were pretty much made of all wood and paper, there aren't very many surviving ones, especially around tokyo. The most unfortunate and obvious reason for the lack of historic buildings is all the bombings that happened during world war two, but there are certainly other ways for fires to start too, and it was a problem they always faced and dealt with, even centuries ago. One fire in someone's home would often consume the entire neighborhood, and in the tourist brochures it even states that this town had burned down and been rebuilt several times before, even with how old these surviving buildings already are.







Any Zelda fans out there? I grew up playing a lot of zelda video games, and while Ocarina of Time will always be my number one favourite, Majora's Mask is pretty up there too. I think it's the most interesting and creative zelda game, and it has the most distinct iconography. In the game, there is a little town/village you can explore and complete tasks in and at the center of the village is a clock tower, which becomes central to the story. When I rounded a corner in Kawagoe and saw the clock tower ahead of me, flanked by old, stylized wooden buildings I just about lost it. It was like I had wandered right into the real life version of one of my favourite childhood games.



Behind the clock tower was a little shrine and purifying altar. You're meant to scoop some water with the ladel and pour it over both your hands and then you're all clean and set to proceed toward the shrine.



















outfit:
sweater: harajuku
shorts:h&m
socks: 3 coins
shoes:vintage