400 Years of Bargains and Good Food

Friday, Jan 15, 2016

Today we decided to take a return trip out to the 400-year-old flea market Boro-ichi in Setagaya. We were there in December. Though it had been my idea to go the last time, I ended up only consuming vendor food while The Professor found old records and a beer opener.

This time I hoped my luck would change and I’d find something so great I couldn’t pass it up and maybe The Professor would be the one to return home empty handed.

We took the train out from Waseda, transferred to another subway line, then transferred to the old-fashioned Setagaya tramway and got off at the Setagaya station.

It was just like the last time—supposedly over 700 vendors are lined up on either side of the little neighborhood and you can easily spend hours looking for bargains and eating. The flea market is fun and filled with old kimonos, old samurai head gear, dishes, knick-knacks, and lots of food that you can eat there or take home.

And, just like the last time, The Professor found a bunch of records. These are my personal favorite covers from the 45s. Most of them are from the 60s and 70s and cover the gamut of music types from rock, to fusion, to 60s J-pop, and old Enka. His collection is getting huge and I can’t wait to haul them back to our New York apartment where the floorboards are just hanging on under the weight of the records we already own. Ugh.

I found a little paper mache lion headdress to remind me of the New Year’s lion dance we saw—it’ll be a fun addition to my folk art collection and much lighter than a pile of records to haul home.

This time it got really chilly so we left around 3pm—after consuming fish cakes, onion pancakes, stew and hot sake. Boy oh boy the Japanese know how to throw a flea market.