I woke up at 5.45h and made it out of the hotel short after 7 am. I didn't take the breakfast, since then I would have been full, but decided to eat on the market. Getting there by public transport is a nightmare if you don't know all the timetables and the locations of the correct bus spots (I did it in 2019, so I know. It took me over an hour) and just grabbed a taxi for a relaxed 10 min. ride. The market is spread over the whole wharf and indeed quite large. Every Sunday around 70.000-80.000 people come visiting.
The weather was grey and dark clouds were on the horizon, but the rain of the night had let up, so it was dry at least. The sounds, views and smells are amazing even in bad weather. I think it is even better when sunny. The photos cannot really catch the feeling of the place and the vibrant yet relaxed atmosphere. I was there at 7.15h and the market is officially running until 9 am, but many vendors started packing already before 8 am.
Not the best spot for a video of this kind. A drone would have been nice. Anyways, you can only see a tiny bit. It stretches far in both directions and has multiple rows of stalls in one direction. So quite a lot to see.
Deepfried chicken parts. Everything from wings, over legs to complete half chicken. No better breakfast than golden deepfried dead birds! I took one of the meatballs at the far end. I have no idea what it was made of, it was kinda meaty and reddish. But it tasted awesome, so who cares?
Charcoal grilled scallops and fish. I was a bit torn, but in the end the scallops won. And I got the last skewer! Luckyyyyyyyy!
Chargrilled to perfection, fresh from the sea, lightly spiced only. Divine!
Bad weather incoming!
This cloud formation was awesome, but you have to maximize the image to see it. For that click left once, then click right and choose open image in new tab and you should get the original size.
Spring roll with apple filling. The spring roll dough goes really well with it.
And the stand. There was a female tourist (dunno the country, looked northern european) who had obviously booked a guide for half or a full day (getyourguide.com is a site where you can search for that). Such a tour costs around 100$ for half a day and up to 300$ for a full day. Well, she was accompanied by 2 guys and they made a big scene about buying and gifting! her such an apple roll. Talk about return on investment. 350 Yen apple roll for promotion purposes against 100+$ for easy work. I am doubting my career choices. Is it already too late to change into the rip-off-a-tourist business?
When you have a line, then you usually find something good at the end. The locals know their quality!
Just a mood pic.
No Japanese event without some Kawaii (cute) girls somewhere.
They also just started packing.
There were a lot of these stalls. This one is a vendor, but there also some who were obviously selling stuff from their garden.
There was a really long queue...
For these. Tayaki, aka fish shaped waffles filled with sweet red bean paste. They are absolutely delicious when freshly baked, but the queue was too long for my taste. Maybe I missed out on something, though.
Instead I bought some freshly griled skewers. The vendor first left out the chili miso, but I wanted it. He "But spicy, very spicy!" with a face as if he was afraid to hurt me. I had to reiterate several times that I like spicy until he gave me about half the amount he gave to other customers. And it wasn't even spicy. There was a slight chili kick, but no lasting spice or heat. Dunno what experience he had with other foreigners to be so cautious.
More grilled goodness. All 8 skewers together were like 1200 yen, so 7,20 €
There was also live music at the market. A kawaii girl idol in a fake school uniform and with high plateau shoes. She had promotion posters hanging around for her CD? "Graduation". The voice in the first song (which I recorded the beginning of) was a bit meh, but she couldn't really warm up before so that is expected. Her singing was much better a little bit later but I was too far away to be able to sensibly record it.
After walking around for quite a bit I decided to leave, also because most vendors had started packing. As it turned out, in spite of the dark clouds there was only light rain after all.
There seems to be some kind of bullfighting in Japan? Where there is no Matador but the bulls fight amongst themselves?
And that. The plaque belongs to the tree/stone ensemble but I was to lazy to have it translated.
Now it was time to go back to the hotel area. I blew half of my daily budget on taxis today. Good thing I saved up the last days.
Back at the hotel I decided that it's far too early to go back to the room and took a stroll through the "old town". On a Sunday most shops in Japan are closed, but not all of them and so you have quite some people on their feet.
I had a coffee at this Tully's branch with appropriate jazzy music. It was bad but still lightyears ahead of that stuff at Starbucks. When you get better coffee from the hotel coffee machines than in specialized coffee shops something is wrong.
The Karaoke venue was already open for business.
A barber shop far back in a tiny alleyway.
Nice walkway.
This was a restaurant mascot. Looks a bit depressed and that rope around his neck...
Just a little context for the possibly suicidal wooden mascot.
This is the entry to the Yokocho area. Looks much less mysterious and inviting in daylight.
MOS Burger is an all Japanese hamburger chain. You find them almost as often as McDonalds.
This is part of their menu. A sausage Burger with a soft cooked egg is at least innovative and at 580 Yen (ca. 3,50) even reasonably priced. I didn't try it regardless.
A venue specializing in Sake. Normally you drink Sake out of those wooden boxes.
What do you think. How long would such a decoration stay undamaged and unstolen in Germany? This is outside of the shop, it is glass and the shop is closed.
Chris Broad also said that it is a crime to not have Family Mart fried chicken at least once while in Japan. Since I am a law abiding citizen (most of the time) I did my dues and tried it today. This is the sy flavored chicken.
This is the ingenious packaging. You rip off the upper half and still have clean fingers with the lower half. The packaging for Onigiri is just short of a miracle. They have to pack the nori and the rice ball separately, so the nori doesn't get soggy. The packing is made in a way that if you follow the instructions you get a perfectly wrapped rice ball with a crispy nori shell. Engineering done right!
This is the spicy chicken. And this one is actually pretty good. Both are real chicken thigh meat, no foamy formed meat (like chicken nuggets) or meat "assembled from different parts". The parts they have to cut off go into the grinder and are used for those minced meat skewers. No Japanese chain or kitchen would use breast meat for this kind of fried or grilled chicken. Thigh meat is much more juicy and flavorful. You can buy steamed and spiced breasts in the combini though. What they do with the surplus chicken breast? No idea.
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