Finally, after being in Japan for more than a year, I went to my first shrine sale this weekend. I picked a doozy as my first, too. I went to the Togo Shrine Sale in Tokyo, probably the biggest regular shrine sale in all of Japan.
For those of you not familiar with the shrine sale, it is like a flee market or swap meet, but it is held at one of the local Shinto shrines. Vendors set out their wares along the paths and open areas around the shrine. The items for sale vary from used toys and old dishes priced at under 100 yen (about $1) to fine antiques and pieces of art going for several hundred thousand yen (sever thousand dollars).
We arrived early (a little after 6 AM), and got a great parking spot. We were there so early, that not all of the vendors had set all of their stuff out yet. We spent about the next three hours wandering around looking at everything, and making a few purchases. I personally bought four Ainu Bears, ten kokeshi dolls, and a small household shrine. The total for all of this was just about $100.
We were home by 10:30, and my wife was mostly fairly please with my purchases (she didn't care too much for the kokeshi dolls I chose).
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