The Market at the Temple and the Shrine in the Fields

The 6th was Dad’s last day in town, and luckily my friend had found out about another flea market at Toji that was happening on that day, so we decided to go take a look around. It was less than half the size of the usual Toji market on the 20th, but it was still very interesting and filled with a large variety of unusual and random items. We managed to find an old diving helmet and framed pieces of old Japanese WWII propaganda among the usual kimono and porcelain. For Dad’s final dinner in Japan we actually had some very lovely Italian food, some of the first that I’d had in a long time, with tomatoe, mozzarella, and basil salad. Afterwards we got Dad back to his hotel in time to catch the airport shuttle, and then it was just my friend and I. That afternoon my host family had offered to take the two of us over to Arashiyama to see some of the sights there, so we headed out that way by car. We walked through a lovely bamboo forest to a shrine called Nonomiya, which, in the Tale of Genji, is where the Lady Rokujo last meets with Genji while her daughter is being prepared to become high priestess of Ise shrine. Because of this, the shrine is likely to do some good business in 2008 with the 1000th anniversary of the writing of ‘Genji.’ After that we tried for another big temple (the name escapes me just now) but it was, unfortunately, closed for the New Year’s season. We did, however, get to see the neighbouring lake that was used for moon viewing parties centuries ago. After that we returned to my host family’s house for dinner, which they had made an effort to keep vegetarian for my friend’s sake. It was very good, though I could hardly move at the end after eaten so much.
-Nonomiya is described both in Genji and at least one Noh play taken from it as being a bleak and isolated place, but now it’s a thriving tourist area that seems to meet up with the rest of the city, more or less.
-We had sushi for dinner, but not the kind that most people think of. ‘Sushi’ actually refers to vinegar-seasoned rice and not fish, so what we had was a rice-bowl sort of setting topped with vegetables, egg, and seaweed.