Gyoda, a quiet town in Saitama north of Tokyo, grew rich making tabi, the split-toe socks worn with kimono and sandals. The thick-walled kura, the storehouses where the socks were kept, still stand around town, and several are now cafes, a soba shop and a small museum you can walk between. It is about an hour and a half from Tokyo by train.
A free information center in a tabi storehouse from the Meiji era, where you can step inside one of the thick-walled buildings and see displays on the tabi trade. Pick up a walking map here before you set off.
A cafe in the former home of Gyoda's first mayor and the tabi storehouse beside it, with windows onto a quiet Japanese garden. Come for lunch, or for Japanese sweets in the afternoon. It is closed on Mondays.
A soba restaurant in a tabi wholesaler's storehouse from around 1930, where you eat handmade buckwheat noodles under the old beams. It is open for lunch only, so come by early afternoon.
The main shop of Saitama's best-known sweets maker, in a storehouse-style building from the 1800s. Buy its manju, a soft steamed bun filled with sweet bean paste, to eat on your walk or take home.