Michi-no-Eki Kaju Koen Ashigakubo

Kaju Koen Ashigakubo is one of the few roadside stations you can reach as easily by train as by car. Ashigakubo Station on the Seibu Chichibu Line is about a minute's walk away. The Yokoze River runs just beside the building, and on hot days children paddle in it when the water is low.

The produce shop fills with vegetables from local farms each morning, plus strawberries, grapes and plums in season from the fruit farms nearby. The dining room serves Chichibu food such as zuriage udon, noodles you lift straight from the pot. Tarashi-yaki, a thin savory pancake, is the snack to try.

From early January to late February, volunteers spray water down a hillside nearby to grow the Ashigakubo icicles, roughly 200 meters wide and 30 meters high. Visitors park at the station's second car park and walk about ten minutes. It fills fast on weekend evenings, and mild weather has delayed or ended past seasons early.