Kawagoe is known as little Edo (Edo being Tokyo’s old name) because it was a castle town closely associated with the Tokugawa shoguns in the Edo period and it still has some of its old buildings. Kawagoe is as little as a 30-minute train ride from Ikebukuro (on the Tobu Tojo line) and worth a trip at any time but this weekend you can combine it with watching a traditional lion dance accompanied by musicians on floats. The dance is part of what Kawagoe’s tourist association calls its Spring Festival a sequence of cultural activities that happen from April to May.

The first performance of the day begins around 7am, with 2 more performances throughout the day.

There is plenty to see in Kawagoe and you can read more about that in English here.