Kashiya-yoko-cho (Penny Candy Alley)

Kashiya-yoko-cho is a popular tourist destination in Kawagoe where a type of penny candy stores (“dagashiya”) line along the street.
Kashiya-yoko-cho is believed to have originated during the beginning of the Meiji period(1868-1912).
And after the Great Kanto earthquake (1923), which burned down much of Tokyo’s towns of Kanda, Asakusa, and Ginshi-cho, where candy wholesalers used to concentrate, Kawagoe took over much of the production and distribution.
During its zenith around the beginning of the Showa period (1926–1989), about seventy dagashiya lined up along Kashiya-yoko-cho.
Today, only a little over ten stores remain here, but the unembellished streetscape still has a nostalgic, Showa atmosphere.