Saitama Prefecture

Template:Japanese prefecture Saitama Prefecture (埼玉県; Saitama-ken) is located on Honshu island, Japan. The capital is the city of Saitama.

This prefecture is part of the Greater Tokyo Area, and most of Saitama's cities can be described as suburbs of Tokyo, to which floods of residents commute each day.

Contents

1 History 2 Geography 2.1 Cities 2.2 Towns and villages 3 Economy 4 Demographics 5 Culture 5.1 Sister-city exchanges 6 Tourism 6.1 Tourist spots 6.2 Events 7 Prefectural symbols 8 Miscellaneous topics 9 External links

History

Saitama prefecture was formerly part of the old Musashi Province, which included Tokyo and other areas as well. The Saitama area was historically known as a fertile agricultural region which produced much of the food for the Kanto region.

After World War II, as Tokyo expanded rapidly and modern transportation allowed longer commutes, the lack of available land in Tokyo Prefecture led to the rapid development of Saitama Prefecture, whose population has nearly tripled since 1960. Most of the cities in the prefecture are closely connected to downtown Tokyo by metropolitan rail, and operate largely as residential and commercial suburbs of Tokyo.

Geography

Saitama Prefecture is bordered by Tokyo, Chiba, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Nagano, and Yamanashi.

Cities

Ageo Asaka Chichibu Fujimi Fukaya Gyoda Hanno Hanyu Hasuda Hatogaya Hidaka Higashimatsuyama Honjo Iruma Kamifukuoka Kasukabe Kawagoe Kawaguchi Kazo Kitamoto

Koshigaya Kounosu Kuki Kumagaya Misato Niiza Okegawa Saitama (capital) Sakado Satte Sayama Shiki Soka Toda Tokorozawa Tsurugashima Wako Warabi Yashio Yoshikawa

Towns and villages

These are the towns and villages in each district.

Chichibu District Higashichichibu Minano Nagatoro Ogano Ryokami Yokoze Hiki District Hatoyama Kawajima Namegawa Ogawa Ranzan Tamagawa Tokigawa Yoshimi Iruma District Miyoshi Moroyama Ogose Oi

Kitaadachi District Fukiage Ina Kitakatsushika District Kurihashi Matsubushi Showa Sugito Washimiya Kitasaitama District Kawasato Kisai Kitakawabe Minamikawara Otone

Kodama District Kamiizumi Kamikawa Kamisato Kodama Misato Minamisaitama District Miyashiro Shiraoka Shobu Osato District Hanazono Kawamoto Konan Menuma Okabe Osato Yorii

Economy

Demographics

Culture

Sister-city exchanges

Saitama prefecture has a number of sister city relationships with states and a province as listed below (in chronological order).

• The State of México (The United Mexican States), affiliated on October second, 1979
• Shanxi province (The People's Republic of China), affiliated on October twenty seventh, 1982
• Queensland (Commonwealth of Australia), affiliated on October twenty seventh, 1984
• Ohio (The United States of America), affiliated on October twenty second, 1990
• Brandenburg (Federal Republic of Germany), affiliated on August twenty sixth, 1998
• California (The United States of America, to be scheduled)

Tourism

As mentioned in “History”, most of the cities in the prefecture are closely connected with downtown Tokyo by railroad, and those cities are characterized as "bedroom communities" (“Bed Town” in Japanese English) of Tokyo. This is also the case with much of Western Chiba prefecture.

Therefore when compared with other neighboring prefectures such as Kanagawa prefecture (known for Yokohama and Kamakura) and the metropolis of Tokyo, Saitama does not have much to offer in the way of tourism.

Most of the popular tourist sites in Saitama are located in the northwestern part of the prefecture, which is known as “Chichibu Region”. This region mostly consists of a hilly and moderately mountainous area, and it is surrounded by a rich natural environment. This region is very popular among the residents of Saitama and neighboring prefectures for short trips, for it is easily accessible via the railroad network.

Tourist spots

• Omiya Bonsai Village (大宮盆栽村, Bonsai, Saitama city (さいたま市大宮区盆栽町))

Omiya Bonsai Village was established in 1925 by a group of professional bonsai gardeners who originally lived around Dango-Zaka (Hongo) area in Tokyo and emigrated from there due to the crucial damages caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. Today Bonsai Village nurses hundreds of thousands of bonsai trees (bonsai pots) in a site of about 330,000 square meters. It is known as a Mecca of bonsai at home and abroad, and number of bonsai devotees visit there from all over the world. This area is also known as a very popular tourist spot among foreign people.

Bonsai Village consists of about ten privately owned bonsai gardens, and it is famous that the current residence indication itself is also “Bonsai”. The community members of Bonsai Village used to have some unique rules among them (especially when they found there), such as “Each members must bring up more than 10 pots of bonsai.”, ”Each members must open their gardens to the public.”, Each members must build the fence of quickset hedge”, “To construct the height of more than two story buildings are strictly regulated.” and so on (of course these rules had already become invalid, for this area is also located in the commuter belt to Tokyo today).

Annually Bonsai Village holds “Great Bonsai Festival” from May third to fifth. And this area is packed with many bonsai devotees from all over Japan during this festival.

Bonsai Village is located near “Omiya Koen (大宮公園, Omiya Park)” station at Tobu Noda Line (it takes about 2 minutes from the station on foot), which is connecting with JR Omiya station (JR大宮駅). It is closed on every Thursday (unless the Thursday falls on a national holiday).

(See also "Omiya-ku, Saitama".)

Events

• Chichibu Night Festival (秩父夜祭)

This festival is held by “Chichibu Jinja” shrine annually on December second and third, which and has been held for more than 300 years. It is very famous for the parade of the six traditional wooden floats (each one weighing more than 10 tons). It is counted as one of the three big traditional float festivals in Japan (along with Gion Festival (祇園祭) in Kyoto prefecture and Hida-Takayama Festival (飛騨高山祭) in Gifu prefecture).

Prefectural symbols

Miscellaneous topics

External links

• Official Saitama Prefecture homepage (http://www.pref.saitama.lg.jp/index_e.html)

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