TOUR 12
Sawara Bus Tour: Giant Festival Floats, Traditional Food Culture & Edo History
- Food
- History & Culture
- Shopping
- Family
- Museum
This tour is conducted by a local English-speaking guide. Cost for bus and driver is 3,500 yen per adult, with children half-price. Participants should meet at the Narita Airport Transit & Stay Program counter at Terminal 1 or 2 at the designated meeting time.
Time Required: 6 hours
Minimum Budget: 3,500 yen
Meeting Time: 9:20 AM
Guide Language: English
Tour Highlights:
- Boso no Mura Theme Park
- Roadside Station Hakko-no-Sato Kozaki
- Suigo Sawara Dashi Kaikan and Stroll Along the Streets of Sawara
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Tour Highlights
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Boso no Mura’s authentic Edo Period townscape has been used as a filming location for numerous Japanese period dramas, and is a great place to get a feel for what life was like in feudal Japan.
Cost for happi rental is 500 yen. -
The town of Kozaki is famous for its delicious water, rice and soybeans, and prospered as a center for brewing saké and producing fermented foods such as soy sauce and miso. Learn about Japan’s fermentation traditions at the Fermentation Market, which offers locally-brewed saké and a multitude of fermented products from all over Japan, and learn how to make a miso ball! Also located at this roadside station is a fresh produce market where you can buy a range of fruits and vegetables grown by Japanese farmers.
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The town of Sawara is located on the banks of the Tone River, an important waterway in the Edo Period that was used to transport goods from the countryside to the capital of Edo (present-day Tokyo). Sawara prospered as an essential hub for commerce, and many canals were built to facilitate easy transportation of both goods and people. Today the town is popular with Japanese tourists, who come to enjoy the laid-back atmosphere of Old Japan created by the canals and streets lined with merchant houses and souvenir shops, and is perfect for a relaxing stroll.
Another of Sawara’s top attractions is the Suigo Sawara Dashi Kaikan, which houses huge floats, called dashi, used in the Sawara Grand Festival. Designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the central government, the festival is held annually in July and October. A famous figure from Japanese mythology or history stands atop each float, reaching a towering height of 8 meters (26 feet). Also on display are the instruments used to play the festival music, called Sawara Bayashi.