Sunday Farmer's Market

One of my students offered to take me to the morning market in the neighboring prefecture. It's quite famous in these parts and is open pretty much the whole year round on Sundays. In the spring and summer it starts at 5am (they get an extra hour of sleep during the colder months). This is something that I have been wanting to do and I was really happy when they invited me. It also turned out to be a really good day to go, sunny and warm. The market is about 2km long so many pictures were taken.

We started out on the end near the castle.

The area is famous for knives and scissors so there were a few stores that extended their shops a bit and laid their wares out on the sidewalk for the day.

Many flower and plant vendors:


and of course, my favorite, food. Most of the vendors had fresh produce but there were also stalls selling homemade miso and pickles. Added to this were a few stores selling snacks meant to be eaten on the spot, like this one selling tempura.
The line at this stall wound around the side and looped around the back of the neighboring stall.

Mochi! Daifuku with different fillings like Buntan and Yuzu-flavored anko. Freshly made this morning.


Saba-zushi, also freshly made. I can personally attest that this was quite yummy with a strong sesame accent. But I still prefer the vinegary Kansai (Osaka?) battera.

Ke-gani (Hairy Crab). This is usually found in Hokkaido but was caught somewhere locally for reasons I couldn't quite make out from her explanation. Upon hearing that I was a foreigner, she said, "big crab" (in English) and let me pick it up so that I could pose with the local (?) seafood. I didn't see the picture my friend took but based on the way the muscles in my face started twitching and rearranging themselves, it was basically squeamish city girl holds large moving crustacean for the first time. The professional is holding crabby in this picture (she obligingly pulled out the stops for the international tourist)

Finally, the culinary highlight of my day. Tomatoes! Well, actually just tomato. This (that perfect red one in the middle of the tray) was the most delicious tomato I have ever had in my life. If the tomatoes mom tried to force on me as a kid tasted like this, I bet she wouldn't have had to force them on me. These were iced and thoroughly chilled for immediate consumption. I should also mention that they cost 100 yen for one large cherry-tomato-sized morsel or two small bites. If I wasn't with my student-friends I probably would have bought a few more but I was a bit embarrassed so I refrained. Then, a few yards later I encountered 200 yen tomatoes and wondered if it was possible that they tasted twice as good...