To market, to market!

The weather was still fairly fine today, so I decided to venture out to the Sunday market at Kamigamo Shrine. According to the Kyoto Kankou guide, this flea market is held every fourth Sunday, which this just happens to be, and Kamigamo Shrine, although "quite a trek from Downtown Kyoto", as Inside Kyoto says, is a fairly short bike ride -- just 3km according to Google Maps -- from the RIHN House.

Kankou's remarks are that "It will be held, rain or shine, but cancelled when a red alert is given." I wonder what a red alert is?  Still, it did not seem there was one in force today, as the market was in full swing. Most of the stores were selling hand-made craft items: jewellery, ceramic-ware, textiles, papers, carved wood.  There were also quite a few food stalls, which I enjoyed tasting my way around! Artisanal bakery goods seem to be a popular handicraft item, with everything from French pastries to soba cookies and "matcha-pan", small loaves of bread baked with a green-tea swirl. (These looked really tasty, but I didn't think I would eat a whole loaf on my own -- maybe next time I will buy one and take it to the office to share.)  One feature is that almost everything is packaged tiny-small and cute -- a single miniature slice of cake, perfectly wrapped; three cookies tied up in paper with a ribbon. It gives a sense of specialness to something so little.


The market extends all the way down by the canal. There's no apparent organisation of sections, which makes for more interesting browsing. A random selection of the quirky things I came across: beautiful wooden dragonfly and bee sculptures, carved and weighted to balance on the tip of a stand; smoked soy sauce and olive oil; blown-glass hanging ornaments which could be filled with water to put flowers or plants into -- or fish! a couple of them had tiny minnows with a sprig of water plant inside. I was tempted to get one but worried it was not really sustainable for the fish to survive; hanging lamps made from whisky, gin and beer bottles and mustard jars -- these were a really unusual and innovative idea; the Heineken bottles looked a bit tacky but the whisky and mustard ones would be great in some kind of underground bohemian bar.

I also enjoyed tasting five different kinds of tea made from the same plant: a black tea, from drying the leaves; a delicate green tea, made just from the tips; a 'full moon' green tea, from the shoots left to mature; and two roasted stem teas (houjicha), one a strong roast and the other quite mild. I reminded myself, though, that I am having a tea-buying moratorium for now.

Finally I thought I should have a quick look around the shrine itself, though I plan to come back on New Year's Day. Today it was much quieter than the market, with just a few people coming to pray, including some couples in full kimono. These two cones formed from sand stand in front of the building in the main courtyard -- I'm not sure what they are meant to represent, though!

I couldn't resist buying some pickles at only 100 yen a pack, having avoided the much-higher prices at the Nishiki market last week.  I also succumbed to the charm of a stall selling tiny bonsai cactus arrangements -- there were a few plant stalls, but only this one had such perfect miniature specimens.  These are now part of my New Year decorations, about which more soon!

After a good couple of hours wandering and browsing, I was cold all the way through and ready for some hot and hearty food in a warm place before heading home.  Although the teishoku promised by Google Maps (今井食堂) didn't seem to be there, an unassuming cafe a bit further up the road turned out to have just what I needed. It took me rather a long time to puzzle my way through the menu, but having done so, in the end I thought I knew what to expect -- and what arrived was actually what I expected! All for 580yen: ginger pork, karaage chicken, fried eggplant, and the accompaniments of miso soup, salad, rice and pickles; "gochi-so-sama-deshita" indeed!