Choosing what sauce to go with our thin sweet potato chips (Photo: Lynda Hogan)

Autumn Treats in Kawagoe: Sweet Potato Chips

Sweet Potato Chips from Koedo Osatsuan

Choosing what sauce to go with our thin sweet potato chips (Photo: Lynda Hogan)
Lynda Hogan   - 2 min read

If you've been in the bell tower area of Kawagoe in the last year, you probably saw dozens of people walking around eating long strips of potato chips! They are from Koedo Osatsuan, a food stand located on the bell tower street. They shot to fame shortly after the food stand opened for business. To this day people still queue for some of their famous sweet potato chips, although over time the queues have become more manageable.

The thin sweet potato chips sold at Koedo Osatsuan are served with a sauce of your choice. There are 12 different sauces to choose from. I've only tried two so far: the chocolate and the salty butter flavor. The latter isn't to my liking, but the chocolate sauce was delicious. It goes very well with the sweet potato. They are also quite palatable plain.

Kawagoe is famous for sweet potato. Within the tourist district there are dozens of shops selling sweet potato flavored goodies. There are even sweet potato digging tourist farms in the rural areas of the city. Best of all, it is currently harvest season. What better time to try some sweet potato treats than when they have been freshly plucked?

Getting there

By public transport: Koedo Osatsuan is located on the same street as Kawagoe's landmark Bell Tower. It is close to the equally famous Kanetsuki Starbucks branch. Any of the tourist buses from Kawagoe, Hon-Kawagoe and Kawagoeshi stations go close to the street. Alight at "Ichibangai" bus stop and head towards the easily identifiable bell tower. You can also walk from any of the Kawagoe stations. It takes about 20 minutes from Tobu Tojo / JR Kawagoe station and about 15 minutes from Hon-Kawagoe and Kawagoeshi stations.

By car: there is no official car park for this food stand. There are several coin parking lots nearby. The "rakuda" parking lots tend to be a bit cheaper than average.

Lynda Hogan

Lynda Hogan @lynda.hogan

Lynda has been in Japan for 20 years and blogging about Saitama on her personal blog insaitama.com for 14 of them.  Despite its central location, just North of Tokyo, Saitama is still quite unknown to the international tourist, but frequented by domestic travelers. It is a great place to experien...