saitama: where tokyo’s shadow is actually kinda cool when your brain stops yelling
alright, let’s talk about saitama. you know, that place everyone forgets exists until they need cheaper rent or miss the last train from shinjuku. i just checked and it's... 15.5°C there right now, hope you like that kind of thing. feels like 13.9°C though, which is basically the universe whispering you’ll need a jacket but also maybe an existential crisis.
so here’s the deal: saitama city is three cities in a trench coat that merged in 2001. uruwha? omiya? yono? yeah, i can’t pronounce them either. but they smooshed together into this flat, river-cut blob north of tokyo where the air tastes like humidity and resignation. someone told me the bonsai village here is "overrated unless you’re into tiny trees having existential crises," but the parks? solid.
the geography’s about as exciting as plain rice-lowlands, plateaus, zero mountains. you’ll bike everywhere because it’s flat, but also because the train stations have that get-trampled-by-salaried-workers energy. if you get bored, kawagoe (aka "little edo") and kawaguchi are just a short drive away. or tokyo, but let’s be real, you’re here to escape tokyo’s rent prices.
the food scene? nonexistent. it’s basically just whatever tokyo leftovers fell off the train. green tea, sure. someone handed me a unagi pastry once and said "this is local"-it wasn’t. but hey, at least the arakawa river won’t judge you for eating combini chicken at 3am.
typhoons hit around september, flooding the rivers and your basement apartment. the population? 1.3 million people who’ve mastered the art of existing without being seen. no famous people, unless you count that one guy who invented a better train schedule app.
would i live here? sure, if i wanted affordable housing and a 40-minute commute to tokyo. would i visit? ...look, it’s fine. it’s like a lukewarm bath-neutral, unremarkable, but somehow comforting when you’re too tired to care anymore.
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