Last Updated: Mar 30, 2025

Keen on Kumagaya

A City of Traditional Japanese Fans

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium

I originally visited the city of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture as part of a five-day tour in the lead-up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Arranged by the powers that be, the objective of this FAM trip was to promote nearby attractions that would be relevant to the sporting event. And, seeing as Kumagaya is basically a mecca for the sport of rugby, you better believe it was included on the list. You can check out the article that came out of those five days here, but my short time in Kumagaya left me feeling like something was missing.

Fast forward to this year, and I suddenly found myself with an odd weekend free and no real plans on where to go. Not wanting to venture too far from home, I remembered that I still hadn’t done the city proper justice. While I did return in 2023 for cherry blossom season (more on that in a bit), there were still many spots in Kumagaya I had yet to check out. So, with all of my work trips as a creator wrapped for the year until Q3, I decided to head back to Kumagaya.

Now, if you’ve ever heard of Kumagaya before, it’s likely because the city has a reputation for extreme heat, having broken temperature records multiple times. At the risk of sounding like Captain Obvious here, this means that summers can get…