When I was a university student, I had a sketching lesson by the father of my childhood friend. He told me about Boro-ichi (rag market) in Setagaya, I always wanted to go and I finally did it after 10 years! It was great! Apparently there are about 750 stalls and 200,000-250,000 people visit there a day! I understand that this 426 years old market is intangible cultural assets.
I used to go to Camden, Portobello and Brick lane markets in London. I think Boro-ichi is a mixture of Portobello and Brick lane. There are lots of antiques but lots of useless items too. I like it! Too many people in the afternoon on a weekday anyway!
I did a bit of shopping. A Daikan-mochi which is a Boro-ichi specialty ¥700 (¥100 more than last year because of a sudden increase in the price of mochi-rice), an organic Yaki-imo (roasted sweet potato) ¥100/100g, 8 fillets of Ishikari salmon ¥1000 (I watched a fishmonger filleted salmon), very nice Chinese Oyaki (pancake) ¥300 (seemed like it was ¥200 last year?). Not only food! I also bought a pale sea green ø31cm plate. This is a flower bowl but It could be nice for Sushi arrangement too! ¥500. The paper bag for this plate was more antique？
Maybe we can go to the market when I come! It looks amazing! Maybe there will be some old toys I can use in my photos. Thanks for putting the link to my pages on your site! Hopefully see you in April.
Nigelx
Hi Jun
Me again, you can tell I am at work! I've just looked through the last months diary! Cool! I'll make sure I catch up every week now. The only problem with your site is most of the entries make me hungry! So much food! The snowflake cookies were amazing, but I appreciated the 'happy mac' cookies were the true stroke of genius. Lots of people are writing mails too!
I got a really funny enquiry in the library last week. A Russian woman who was on holiday came in for a Japanese dictionary. Her next door neighbour has begun 'speaking in tongues'. This Russian woman woke up one day and was suddenly speaking Japanese, and her friend wanted to know what she was saying! Bet Carsten wishes that could happen to him! Nx
Hi Nigel! I want to take you to
the market but it opens only 4 days a year which is 15th and 16th of December and January! Anyway I didn't see any cool toys for you. And thanks for checking other entries. I know that I talk about food a lot! Actually it makes me hungry too!! LDK stands for Living room, Dining area and Kitchen, so that's the way it is!
Oh no! I will be dead scared if he starts to talk Japanese like that!
