Enjoy nostalgic Japanese shotengai at Misawa Market Caravan

Flyer promoting Misawa Market Caravan 2024

Misawa Market Caravan 2024 (Photo courtesy of Misawa Market Caravan 2024 )

Enjoy a good, old Japanese shotengai at an open-air street market event in Misawa on Oct. 27.

The sound of “shotengai” (traditional Japanese commercial district) takes me back to my childhood in the 1970s. Shotengai were packed with small grocery, vegetable and fish shops along with soba noodle joints and cheap candy and toy shops for kids. The streets were filled with shouts from sellers, laughter of women and mixed smells of various food. As they were usually closed to car traffic, even a small child could run around in the streets.

These days, however, most of the old-fashioned shotengai streets have disappeared as large modern shopping malls continue to fill the landscape.

Misawa Market Caravan is a unique project to build a temporary shotengai. This is the fourth and final shotengai day of 2024.

During the event, the Misawa Central Shopping Street will be closed to car traffic, allowing visitors to check out all the good deals, food and games, just like we did in the 1970s while walking along the temporally-built shotengai made up of dozens of food, games, clothes and handicraft booths.

Sample tasty baked goods, sweets, coffee, sake and other good eats. At the event site, there will be a kids’ area, as well as DJ and music tents.

Leaves started changing to crimson hues, so visit the Misawa Market Caravan and enjoy nostalgic shotengai in the refreshing autumn air.