Step back into the Edo period on a locally guided walk through Kawagoe, known as Japan's 'Little Edo.'

Explore Ichibangai, a preserved shopping street lined with traditional merchant buildings and shops selling crafts, sweets, and souvenirs.

See the iconic wooden Bell Tower (Toki no Kane), which has chimed for over 400 years.

Continue to Kawagoe Hikawa Shrine, known for its connection to matchmaking and love.

Visitors come here to seek blessings for relationships amid displays of wooden ema plaques and, in summer, colorful wind chimes.

Next, visit Kawagoejyo Honmaru Palace, the restored former residence of the castle's feudal lords.

Explore its tatami rooms and historical artifacts while learning about Kawagoe's samurai governance.

The public-transport (on-foot) version stays within this compact historic core, where all three sights sit within about 1.2km of each other.

The private-vehicle version adds a fourth stop, Kitain Temple, a 9th-century Tendai-sect head temple about 1.5km south of the old town.

The temple is home to the only surviving palace buildings relocated from the original Edo Castle, as well as hundreds of individually carved stone Rakan statues.

This worthwhile detour is easy to include by private vehicle, but it stretches the compact walking loop beyond what the on-foot itinerary can comfortably cover in the same amount of time.