Did you know there is an American town in Japan? I didn't either until I stumbled upon a Tweet about it. The town is called Johnson Town and lucky for me it's located nearby in Saitama, only about an hour north of my house.
I mentioned it to my wife recently and she said "Oh cool, let's go!". So we rounded up our daughter and off we went to find out just what Johnson town was.
When we arrived it was very apparent this place was different. The buildings all stood apart from the native Japanese buildings bordering it.
A nice Ford hotrod was parked in the public parking lot too.
Because it is a tourist attraction there is a large parking lot on one side. It's very affordable, about $1 an hour.
There we parked and began our adventure!
We began on Palm street without a plan we just wandered.
One thing that struck me immediately was how it felt slightly different than America. The architecture of the buildings was definitely not Japanese, but slightly off. I came to the conclusion it felt more Australian. Even though I have never been to Oz, it felt like it for some reason.
Perhaps it was the narrow streets.
The mailbox definitely was not American.
As we wandered around we noticed something, many buildings were both retail and residential. Yes, people actually live & work here.
In the center of town on Johnson street there was a directory showing all the businesses.
There is also one at the parking lot, we just happened to miss it when we came in.
I forgot to explain what Johnson Town is. It's an old American military housing development for the nearby Iruma Air Force base. It's about 5 blocks wide and three blocks long. The base was used during the Korean War. After the war it was no longer needed so the service people relocated to the Yokota Air Force Base about 30 min away.
Portions of the down became dilapidated and in the 90's a Japanese company came in and renovated much of the town.
The town borders a park and major street. I mentioned to my wife maybe it would be cool to liver here and have our gem and mineral shop as a store front.
When I looked at the rental prices however that idea went out the window. For just a 2bdr home it was almost double what we pay where we live. That's crazy because we live closer to downtown Tokyo and we are on two train lines. This place is farther north in Saitama and the train station is about 10 minutes away. Maybe they would give an American Cowboy a discount?
As we wandered on, we came upon this cool Airstream trailer.
It had been converted into a cafe with an outdoor space.
Unfortunately it was closed. Actually almost everything was closed. We made the mistake on visiting on Dec. 29. Everyone had closed shop for the long New Year's holiday, which is common in Japan.
One restaurant called The Pork Shop was open across from the directory sign. It was a bit crowded and expensive so we passed on eating there. My wife did get me some authentic bacon from them though.
As my wife was getting me bacon, these monster Harley Daviidsons pulled up.
Believe it or not there are a lot of bikers in Japan. When you are out in the countryside of Tokyo & Saitama you'll see lots of really nice bikes like these. Some of them ridden by women too!
After walking around for about 1 hr we decided to head out for lunch. We said we would have to come back another time when everything was open.
Most of the shops we saw were cafe's, restaurants or handmade crafts. If you are thinking about visiting Johnson Town keep that in mind. Also, you can visit their website here to plan ahead. http://johnson-town.com/
Thanks for reading!