Japanese New Year's Fair in Katsuyama City

The “Katsuyama New Year’s market” has been held annually for the 300 years.

Traditionally, the market takes places at the end of the lunar calendar (old calendar),

around the end of January.

Since Bakuhan period (also known as the Tokugawa, or Edo period) farmers in the village have sold New Year's products, lucky charms, and handcrafted materials which they made during the agricultural off-season.

As we introduced in our previous blogs,

visitors can enjoy many things at the markets, including auctioning ”at the town markets”, watching "the master in the village", making "buckwheat noodles", buying "handmade lucky charms" and playing the Japanese lottery called “Garapon”.

Besides these, there are also delicious baby castella mini cakes,

soy sauce and miso (fermented soybean paste) that you can buy.

I also recommend taking a walk around this area to enjoy the magnificent scenery.

All around town, there are old buildings which create nostalgic atmosphere.

T.F