Nakasendo Walk (6) Kumagaya-Fukaya-Okabe: Sept. 21, 2015

We have the “Silver Week” holidays at this season. I resumed my Nakasendo Walk after an intermission of about three years (I concentrated in my Tokaido walk in this period).

Today’s walk was from Kumagaya, the 8^th shukuba station from Nihonbashi, through Fukaya, the 9^th station, to Okabe. All places are in Saitama Prefecture.

Kumagaya is the biggest city in the northern part of Saitama. It is historically famous for Kumagaya Naozane, a samurai warload in the 11^th century. His statue (on a horse) stands in front of the JR Kumagaya Station.

The rugby football is popular in the city. It plans to host matches in the Rugby World Cup to be held in Japan in 2019. The PR board also stands before the station.

Nakasendo goes through the Yagihashi department store in the center of the city (see the top photo). The traditional buildings were all burnt out in air raids in the World War 2. The department store were built on Nakasendo and the store kept spaces for the Road.

I saw the fields of rice and other agricultural products along Nakasendo as I walked out of the central Kumagaya. The rice was just before the harvest. The power transmission towers stand in the fields. I found birds there. (2nd photo from the top).

I moved into Fukaya City. The city produces various agricultural products. It’s Welsh onion is known as “Fukaya Negi”. The city’s gross agricultural production is the largest in Saitama Prefecture.

I found many fields growing Welsh onion, broccoli, cucumber and other vagitables.

There is a row of gingko trees along Nakasendo before it arrives to FUkaya shukuba station.

There remains the building of the main guest house in the shukuba station. An old sake brewery with a brick-made chimney and other old buildings are also preserved.

I found the wholesale and retail stores of rice as I passed Fukaya station. The PR sign of the special coupon to vitalize the local economy, called “chiiki shinkou ken” was displayed in front of a store. The design of the sign was a combination of Fukacchan, the city’s mascot character, and Shibusawa Ei-ichi, the nation’s famous entrepreneur and business leader in the Meiji period who was born in Fukaya.

There are places to make and sell Japanese pickles, too. I saw old large barrels in a garden of a farmer’s house.

It is more than 80 kilometers from Tokyo.