Kashiya Yokocho (Candy Alley)

Kashiya Yokocho, or Candy Alley, is a narrow lane just off Kurazukuri Street in Kawagoe lined with roughly two dozen shops selling traditional Japanese sweets, from hand-pulled ame candy and senbei rice crackers to modern treats like sweet-potato ice cream. The lane traces its trade back to the Edo and Meiji periods, when local confectioners set up shop to supply candy across the wider Kanto region, and many of the current storefronts still use decades-old family recipes. A visit takes 30 to 60 minutes, mostly spent browsing stalls, sampling small snacks, and watching a few shops make candy by hand in the doorway. The alley is narrow, so it fills quickly once tour groups arrive from Kurazukuri Street, typically after 10:30AM; visiting before then allows for easier browsing and photos of the shopfronts without a crowd. The lane's charm comes from its small scale and old-fashioned shop signage rather than any single landmark, so a slow walk from one end to the other, stopping to taste a few items, is the natural way to experience it. Kawagoe's famous sweet-potato treats, a local specialty tied to the region's satsumaimo crop, are widely available here and make a fitting souvenir.