Kawagoe Shrine Sale

We have some friends who like to hit up the "shrine sales", also known as swap meets, flea markets, or in Japan, "nomi no ichi".  Many of them are on Sundays, but the sale in Kawagoe, about an hour's drive away, is on the 28th of each month, regardless of the day of the week it falls on. So we got directions from the Yokota Travel website and headed to Kawagoe on Monday, December 28th. We were pleased to find it with no difficulty and decided we were getting better at navigating unfamiliar territory in Japan (this was later proven false, but that's another story...)

This place was awesome! From the Yokota Travel website:

Kawagoe was a castle town, protecting the northern flank of Edo Castle... The Matsudaira family ruled Kawagoe for 100 years, boosting rice production to sell downriver in Edo. Much of Tokyugawa-era Kawagoe (1700-18002) remains for you to rediscover.

We didn't have time to rediscover much, because we had to be back to Fussa by early afternoon to help an elder from another area get on the base to renew his ID card. But we sure enjoyed the shrine sale. Apparently this is an area that was not bombed during World War II. We look forward to going back another day and exploring the rest of the community.

In the photo above, you can barely see the large iron bell hanging on the left side, under the roof. Every hour a man (maybe a priest?) would come out and ring the bell, which means repeatedly hitting it with a big wooden mallet. He started slow, then gradually would strike the bell more rapidly until he finished with a flourish and let the ringing tones fade away. It was pretty cool!

The perimeter of this block where the sale was held had one little structure after another like this. The light wasn't great from where I stood and I wasn't sure if it was okay for me to go inside, and of course I don't know what any of this means. But it was fun to see and I wanted to share it. 

We see the most pampered dogs here! A dog in a stroller like this is not at all unusual.

I kind of want a whole bunch of these wooden kokeshi dolls. Don't ask me why. 

Or how I would get them home. Or where I'd put them once I got them there.... I resisted this time, but I don't know if I'll be able to for the whole next year.....

I have no idea what these markers are for or what the writing means -- but there were about 30 of them and they looked pretty impressive.

We ran into this new friend, who we met at the Jacksons on Christmas Day. She and her husband met the Jacksons when they lived in Okinawa and became fast friends, as Sister Jackson helped them navigate Japanese life, especially the Japanese schools their children attended. Her husband works in banking; they now live in Singapore but plan to head back to their home in Charlotte, NC in about a year. She has some experience at these shrine sales and gave Bruce some tips on what to shop for.

 

 We also ran into a few ward members, another senior missionary, and President Whiting, the area president. He was there with his wife and a couple of his children who were visiting for the holidays -- and he helped Bruce with a little bit of translating. :-)

 So here's Bruce, discussing the price of this antique farm tool (curved handled hoe? Bruce called it an adz), which was ¥6000 or about $50. Too much, he decided, and will try again another time.

This was taken outside the shrine area, near the entrance to the Kitain Temple -- a visit we'll have to save for another day.

A touch of present-day in these surroundings.

Bruce's focus was tools, and here's what he found: a carving knife, a saw (beats the plastic one he bought a few months ago!), a wooden plane, a scribe, a cool looking hunk of monkey seat wood (at least we think that's what the Japanese vendor called it), and....

 an old Japanese chalk line. The spindle on the right end hold the string, which you pull through the black gunk (don't know what it is, but it's really dirty and greasy -- powdered bituminous coal mixed with soot, maybe?). Then you use the little crank on the wheel to roll up the string. Pretty cool, huh -- Bruce was really excited!

I went looking for fabric, which I found in the form of kimonos. I paid ¥4500 for six kimonos, which would be about $36 or $37, and I was quite pleased -- there's a lot of fabric here!

We had time to drive around a bit after leaving the shrine sale -- I thought the interesting architecture here was worth sharing -- and of course, the ever present overhead power lines!

Driving back to Fussa, we made the mistake of trusting the GPS rather than our instincts -- it put us on a toll road that cost about ¥2100 and got us thoroughly lost! We were not impressed and next time will know better!