The festival takes place at Oribe Hills, where many minoyaki whole-sellers have shops opened to customers searching for new potteries for commercial or personal use. Each shop offers a huge assortment of bowls, plates, cups, etc. at a discount every day in the year, and these crafts get even cheaper during the festival.
These minoyaki wares are at the same quality you expect to see food served on in high-class Japanese restaurants, but they are sold at unbelievably reasonable prices. To give you an idea of the great deals, we found a zebra-print dinner plate for 380yen, and it is easily one of the most beautiful plates we’ve ever had. We bought a couple of sturdy ramen bowls for 500yen each that normally sells for over 1000yen. Thanks to them, eating instant noodles at home has been taken to a whole new level!
Finding the best deals will require you to go explore outside the shops. The whole-sellers set up tents along the many streets with hundreds of buckets full of cheap minoyaki table-wares. Dig through the piles and you might find something you fancy for only a fraction of its original price. It feels like treasure hunting and it’s very exciting. You can usually get an even bigger discount if you buy several together, 3 plates for 500yen, for instance. At such attractive prices, many families prepare suitcases and load up new wares to bring home or as souvenirs.
However, there is way more to Toki Minoyaki Festival than just shopping. Street food stalls are set up for when you’re hungry, street performers provide entertainment to liven up the crowds of people, there are minoyaki workshops for hands-on experiences in making minoyaki pottery, and an old lady shop-owner generously offered extra discount on a rice bowl I was prepared to purchase so we’d walk away smiling. It is a festival after all. Having fun is just as important as business!
Visiting the Toki Minoyaki Festival and digging through thousands of minoyaki pottery is fun and exciting. It wouldn’t cost you more than a few thousand yen to replace your dining wares with a fancy new set of Japanese crafts. You will certainly bring home many lovely Mino rewards from the Toki Minoyaki Festival.
Information
Oribe Hills Toki
Address: 3-1 Izumikitayama, Toki, Gifu 〒509-5171
http://www.oribe-hills.com/
Map:
Comments