On the 21st day of every month, the Toji Temple in Kyoto gets transformed into a bustling market — something I had no idea about until the owner of the pug cafe clued me in. Ah, pug cafe: the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s a pretty typical flea market, filled with all of the useless knick-knacks and quirky junk that you’d expect, but it’s still interesting to wander around, and the location can’t be beat.
There are also intense, claustrophobia-inducing crowds, so it might be a good idea to either go first thing in the morning or later in the day, not smack-dab in the middle of the afternoon like I did.
I was surprised by the amount of food to be had; there was all kinds of street food like takoyaki, okinomiyaki, and yakitori (all of the yakis, basically).
It didn’t occur to me that there’d be so much food there, so I had already eaten lunch. Like an idiot.
I did, however, partake in one of these cakey, sweet bean-filled things.
As far as I can tell, these are identical to the ubiquitous fish cakes that you see everywhere in this part of the world, just in a different shape. It’s hard to go wrong with these things, especially when they’re hot and fresh.