children's day

Thought these handmade carp were so cute for Children's Day a.k.a. Boy's Day...click on the photo to see them move in the wind.

Up the hill is Ikegami Honmonji, the largest temple of the Nichiren sect and this 5 story pagoda.

There are also lots of smaller temples as well as many cemeteries.

Many families had their own buckets for water for their family graves.

The buckets not only had their names but also their family crests on them.

Some families also used their buckets as makeshift vases for flowers.

This particular bucket was the temple's.

Also on the grounds of Honmonji is Shotoen, a beautiful garden with a very large pond and many tea houses...we look forward to seeing this garden in the Fall.

Lunch was at a soba shop called Koga.

I had their yakitori donburi with soba..980 yen.

Satoshi had their unatamadon (unagi donburi with egg) with soba...980 yen.

We both enjoyed our lunches, they were delicious and filling.

There are many sweet shops along the way to the temple, and we picked up some senbei from Hamaya.

Goma (sesame seed) and ginger (coated with a ginger sugar glaze).

This was the first time I've had ginger senbei made from arare (rice crackers), most times they are more like thin wafers coated with ginger glaze...these were spicy & sweet.

I'm sure we'll check out the other sweet shops in this area in time.

We also bought some takuan (pickled daikon) that was made for the temple.

The nice thing about exploring so close to "home" is that we went to take a nap after lunch then ventured to Kitsune & Hachimitsu for some pancakes...

Love their name..."kitsune" is fox & "hachimitsu" is honey, not sure what the relevance is but thought it was cute.

And how everything was "branded" with their logo.

I chose their dorayaki thinking it was teeny but it was huge!

Loved the sweet bean paste and butter "flowers".

Satoshi ordered their matcha with matcha sauce & vanilla ice cream.

Mega carbs and so worth it!

We'll be back to all of these places.

Koga Soba
4-20-6 Ikegami
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.6410.2517
Hours: weekdays 11:00-15:00, 17:00-21:00 weekends & holidays 11:00-21:00

Hamaya
1-35-1 Ikegami
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3751.3257
Closed Thursdays
Hours: 10:00-19:00

Kitsune & Hachimitsu (UPDATE: 6/2020 no longer at this address)
6-31-3 Ikegami
Ota, Tokyo
Phone: 03.3752.8155
Closed Mondays
Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays 11:00-16:00, Weekends & Holidays 11:00-20:00