Higashimatsuyama City

Three days of walking in the hills.

Japan Three-Day March

Photo by 京浜にけ (CC BY-SA 3.0)

01 ／ Walking

From 5 km to 50 km,three days across the Hiki Hills.

比丘尼山.jpg — Photo by EastPineHill (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Japan Three-Day March (日本スリーデーマーチ) began in Gunma Prefecture in 1978 and has been based in Higashimatsuyama since its third edition in 1980. Every November, walkers choose courses of 5 to 50 km and spend three days crossing the Hiki Hills (比企丘陵). In 2012 the total turnout passed 120,000. In 1996 the city became a sister city of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, home of the world's largest walking event.

Based here since 1980
Courses from 5 to 50 km
123,658 walkers in total (2012)

02 ／ Yakitori

Here, "yakitori" meanspork cheek, not chicken.

In Higashimatsuyama, yakitori means kashira, meat from a pig's cheek and temple, grilled over charcoal and eaten with a spicy miso sauce. It began in the Shōwa 30s (the late 1950s) when a street stall grilled kashira, a cut few people ate then. The sauce blends white miso with more than ten ingredients such as chili and garlic, and differs from shop to shop; the city's yakitori map lists about 40 shops.

Pork kashira (cheek)
Miso sauce with 10+ ingredients
About 40 shops on the map

03 ／ Shrine

No paint, only carving:a shrine built in the Tenpō era.

Yakyū Inari Shrine (箭弓稲荷神社) is said to date from 712. According to the shrine's records, when Minamoto no Yorinobu prayed here for victory in the Heian period, a white cloud shaped like an arrow appeared in the dawn sky, and he had the shrine called Yakyū ("arrow and bow") Inari. Its halls, built in the Tenpō era, are decorated with unpainted wood carving and became an Important Cultural Property in 2024. Because "yakyū" also means baseball, there are bat-shaped votive tablets too.

Said to date from 712
Halls of the Tenpō era
Important Cultural Property, 2024

Living here

55 minutes from Ikebukuro by express.

about 90,000 people
60 min to a city centre

On the Tobu Tojo Line, it is 55 minutes by express from Ikebukuro to Higashi-Matsuyama Station and 50 minutes to Takasaka Station; the TJ Liner reaches Higashi-Matsuyama in as little as 44 minutes. City Hall is about a 12-minute walk north from the station's east exit. By car, it is about 8 minutes from Higashimatsuyama IC on the Kan-Etsu Expressway to City Hall.

People living here: 91,791people
Area: 65.35km²
Households: 39,797households
Rent (average for rentals): 49,692yen
Healthcare: 7 hospitals ／ 64 clinics

Area and habitable land at the same scalee-Stat B1101 / B1103

Children waiting for childcare: —14 nurseries and similar
Home purchase subsidy: —
Average annual temperature: —

These 3 items are waiting on a nationwide data source. We do not fill them with estimates.

ACCESS

Where you can go from here.

Higashimatsuyama City in Japan36.042°N 139.400°E

to IkebukuroTobu Tojo Line express55min

Travel times follow 市公式「アクセス・交通」に載っている値（東武東上線、池袋駅から東松山駅まで急行で55分） (checked 2026-09-24). They vary by time of day.

Shape

Borders 7 municipalities.

Territory of Higashimatsuyama City

Boundaries: National Land Numerical Information (N03)

North to south

13.7km

滑川町, 吉見町, 熊谷市, 川島町, 鳩山町, 坂戸市, 嵐山町

Higashimatsuyama City isthis kind of town.

01Home of the Japan Three-Day March since 1980: every November, walkers from Japan and abroad cover 5 to 50 km a day across the Hiki Hills
02Yakitori here means pork kashira (cheek), eaten with a spicy miso sauce that differs from shop to shop
03Yakyū Inari Shrine, said to date from 712, has Tenpō-era halls decorated with unpainted carving, now an Important Cultural Property

If something caught your eye, ask the town itself.

Higashimatsuyama City official site ↗Wikipedia ↗