Morning Stroll in Takayama

October 2, 2012-

I think I remember reading in one of the brochures about some morning markets in Takayama.  Shall we see if we can find one???

We saw these  people (monks??? no idea) just ahead of us:

Interesting idea….looks like part of a wooden wheel used for flowers:

You know…if we find a place that sells coffee.  I love tea but I NEED coffee! 

Maybe there will be a coffee shop of sorts along the road we walked up and down yesterday????

The gentleman with the white shirt and red ribbon around his arm is part of the clean-up crew. We a few people up on ladders cleaning the tops of the building entrances.

This place not only has coffee but they also have these hot little cakes for sale:

The lady filled up some of the wells with (I think) green tea flavored batter and then closed it up to let the cakes cook/bake into round forms. We got some to try- VERY TASTY!

I *think* this is a green tea grinder. Mark remembers being part of a tea ceremony many moons ago on his first trip to Japan and they used green tea powder to make the tea.

Taking a pink poochy for a walk.

Hey!  I think we've found one of the markets:

Let's check it out and see what kinds of goodies we can buy:

Scarves with bleached designs. Is this batik? Well, whatever it is I love the blue and white colors so I bought three scarves!

APPLES!! Let's get some for the bus ride!

Is that a big bowl of green tea leaves???

Flowers galore- both fresh cut and plants.

Kitty cat toys???? Mama and Kirstin, this photo is for you!

Eggplant! And lots of it! Such a lovely deep color, don't you think?

It looks like this store sells all kinds of miso paste!

Nice shop keeper is handing out samples of miso soup made from different kinds of miso paste.  Mmmmmm!!!!!

Do you know what I was really hoping to find but couldn't….I wanted an unframed print to take home and have framed.  All the artwork was framed and unframed prints were unavailable.  *sigh* We just don't have the luggage space to haul back a framed print.  I did however buy a few tiny pieces of blue and white pottery. 🙂 I also bought several "happy monkey babies" …they look like they'd be great Christmas ornaments.

I think it's time to head back to the inn so that we can catch the morning bus to Shirakawa-go.  It's time to go pack our bags and say good-bye to the ryokan!