Mariko Morning Market
Sunday morning, we got up bright and early and headed off to the Mariko morning market, a local event that takes place on the 28th of every month. How this happened to escape my attention for 3 years, I'm not sure, but I'm glad that we eventually came across it.
Mariko was originally a lodging spot for travelers on the Tokaido road, which was constructed under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu's rule in order to connect Edo (Tokyo) with Kyoto. There were 53 lodging stations total, Mariko being 20th from Tokyo.
Today, it's a rather sleepy area of Shizuoka, very peaceful and beautiful. Well, I imagine that it's usually peaceful....on this particular day, the main street was quite crowded with locals there for the market.
We were hoping for a lot of farmer's market fare, and while there was a fair amount of vegetables, there were a lot more festival-type stands than expected: tako yaki (grilled balls of dough with octopus and spices inside), yaki soba (fried noodles), ramen, you name it. Overall, it seemed more like a street fair than a farmer's market.
The entire road leading up to Odatara Fudoson Temple was filled with market stands, but the temple was definitely the best sight. A little waterfall streams down from the top, where the temple is, and you get to climb through a mossy haze past tons of miniature Buddhas. I wish that our pictures did it justice, but the lighting was rather hard to adjust for.
Sample wares
Odotara Fudosan Temple
Maneki Neko...the good luck cat
Seigan Temple, another temple along the main road
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