Twenty minutes from Tokyo, a group of 100 can paint fox masks in a town of Edo storehouses. Kawagoe is called Koedo, the little Edo, and its streets of kura storehouses keep the mood of the Edo period, which makes it the easiest older Japan to reach from the capital. Craft Cafe Kawagoe sits inside that setting and is built for groups: masks, daruma dolls and wind chimes to paint, and wagashi to make.
Its position is what does the work, because this is the slot that drops most easily into the space after a meeting. That twenty-minute transfer makes it the most convenient cultural module after a large congress or an incentive program in Saitama: no long transfer, and a team sits down in a living Edo town to color a mask and shape a piece of wagashi. It is kind to overseas groups on a first visit — short, easy to walk into, something to take home, with the streets of Koedo behind every photograph. It is not here to give the weight of the samurai or the stillness of a temple. It makes a first encounter with Japanese culture light and likable, and asks nothing of anyone.
One light hour of making adds a warm note of Koedo to a serious agenda.