inatori-tokyo

The next morning, sunrise was pretty spectacular.

The breakfast buffet had all sorts of things to eat, of course, Satoshi ate like I don't feed him at home...ahem!

The main reason for coming to Inatori was to see this...Tsurushibina.

Apparently in the Edo period most people could not afford the elaborate tiered doll displays (center of this photo), so many would sew these types of tsurushibina (literally hanging dolls..seen on the sides of this photo) out of kimono fabric to pray/wish for the good health and happiness of their daughters.

Each "charm" has a different meaning, for example, the mouse sitting atop tawara (bales).

This charm hopes for prosperity and that the child will work hard to be prosperous.

So fun to see all the different variations of charms.

Like this dried kinmedai...

And this one all "blinged" up with Swarovski beads.

As we walked to the station, we bought all sorts of snacks for the train ride...like this kinmedai shaped monaka (wafer) filled with sweet bean paste.

And a tsurushibina shape (not sure what type) filled with a tomato flavored bean paste (very faint tomato flavor)

and the end pieces of castella...all these sweets were from Kurohatsu.

This oshizushi called hanazushi topped with fish floss from Takeya.

The grandmas at both of these shops were so nice!

We had bought the sweets and rice for the train ride home, but instead we shared these different kinmedai bento which I found at the train station.

The train we caught back happened to be a special one called Black Ship Train with all sorts of historical info about the Shimoda area and the black ships.

We enjoyed this train because the windows were wide and let you sit facing the ocean...also, we didn't need to pay extra to ride it.

We were lucky to have great weather and saw all that we intended to.

I hope you enjoyed our adventure as much as we did.

Kurohatsu
672 Inatori
Higashi-izu cho, Kamo-gun
Shizuoka
Phone: 0557.95.2976
Closed Sundays
Hours: 8:00-18:30

Takeya
423 Inatori
Higashi-izu cho, Kamo-gun
Shizuoka
Phone: 0557.95.1674