Fish

Andrew and Noriko met us at the hotel this morning and we took off for Tomioka to visit the  Hachiman Shrine.  This Shinto shrine dates from 1627 and is known for the origins of professional sumo.  There are many memorial stones relating to the sport and a garden with a fish pond

After, we visited the nearby Buddhist Temple, Fukagawa Fudoson. Japan splits it religion mainly between the two, though strictly speaking Shinto is not a religion.  Some people combine the two.  I bought a charm there to help my feet.

Lunch time found us at the Fish Market.  It was interesting looking round and attracts lots of visitors, though as a working market the best time to visit is very early morning.  There are quite a few small fish restaurants, most of which had queues outside.  We went to Andrew and Noriko's favourite and after a short wait arrived at the front of the queue.  

I had a very tasty lunch of mixed sushi platter with soup and green tea.  Andrew and Pete had eel on rice.  We sat at the counter so was able to watch the cook preparing the meal.  Live fish were swimming in a tank behind the chefs, I'm not sure if they were tomorrow's sushi (apparently not Andrew tells me, they have been there for ages, and were quite large).

Back at Funabori we collected Kio from kindergarten and took her home where we caught up on Friday's Masterchef, no spoilers please, and Noriko prepared a wonderful spread for tea.

The photo is taken looking straight down into the fish pond at the shrine. The leaves from the trees above and the sun are the reflections in the water.