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, and 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, where visitors seek blessings for relationships amid a display of wooden ema plaques and, in summer, wind chimes. Continue to Kawagoejyo Honmaru Palace, the restored former residence of the castle's feudal lords, with tatami rooms, historical artefacts, and insight into 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 that is home to the only surviving palace buildings relocated from the original Edo Castle and hundreds of individually carved stone Rakan statues – a worthwhile detour that a short drive makes easy but that stretches the compact walking loop past what the on-foot itinerary can comfortably absorb in the same time.