Saitama Prefectural Misato Park

Located on about 13,000 square meters of the Nakagawa Riverbed, the contrast between the 120 pink peach blossoms and fields of yellow rapeseed flowers that bloom from March to April every year is a beautiful sight to see. In autumn, you can enjoy red spider lilies and cosmos. The annual Hanamomo Festival held in late March attracts many tourists.

Enjoy natural hot spring open-air baths and Ganban yoku (hot stone baths) made from black silica, just a few of the ten unique baths prepared to wash your fatigue away. Enjoy a relaxing meal or foot bath surrounded by a traditional townscape that will make you feel like you have traveled back in time. In addition, there are many refreshment rooms for massage and body scrub treatments, allowing for maximum leisure! Enjoy “healing and moisture” to your heart’s content.

An old resting house for travelers, built from local cedar and cypress trees, was remodeled and opened on May 16th in 2018 as a public rest area. Local products, such as the Sōka Senbei (rice cracker), are sold, and you can find plenty of useful information, making it a great starting place for any traveler in the area.

The 12 cities and towns along with the 13 places of scenic beauty related to Matsuo Bashō’s “Oku no Hosomichi” has been recognized for influencing the scenery and lives of future people, as well as preserving the elegance and atmosphere of past times. Collectively, these areas are appointed as one of the best scenic spots in the country.

This single-floor wooden house, built using the 'Sukiya' architectural style, has been praised and written about by the Japanese literature researcher Donald Keene. The facility now serves as a place to introduce the Sōka area's culture of tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and classical instruments such as koto and shamisen. Furthermore, the facility is also open as a resting area where visitors can enjoy a cup of tea for a small fee.