Shitennoji flea market

Roughly in descending order of quantity: second-hand kimono and obi, often in the ¥500 to ¥3,000 range for things that would be four times that in a Kyoto antique shop; old tools, plane blades, chisels, garden shears; ceramics, mostly domestic rather than collectable but with real pieces mixed in; plants and bonsai; military and Showa-era ephemera; and a very large quantity of things somebody cleared out of a house.

There is also a substantial food section – takoyaki, yakisoba, grilled things, sweet things – run at market prices rather than Dotonbori prices, which alone is worth the trip.

The clientele is largely local and largely elderly, and the trade is real: people come here to buy things they intend to use. That is the difference between this and a craft market. Haggling is possible and is done quietly and briefly; a polite request for a small reduction on a second item is normal, and pushing hard is not.

Stalls set up early and the serious buyers are there first. Before 10:00 is when the good kimono and the good tools move. By early afternoon the crowd is at its thickest and by mid-afternoon sellers start packing, which is also when prices soften if you are willing to gamble on something still being there.

Combine it with the temple itself, which is the point of the site on the other 364 days: the grounds are free, the Central Garan is ¥500, the Honbo Garden ¥300 and the Treasure House ¥500, three separate tickets. Standard hours are 8:30 to 16:30 from April to September and 8:30 to 16:00 from October to March, extended on the 21st.

A note on crowd type: this is busy in a way that is completely different from Minami. It is dense, slow and good-natured, and the lanes between stalls are narrow. It is not a good place for a pushchair and it is an excellent place to be on foot with a small bag.

Shitennoji-mae Yuhigaoka on the Osaka Metro Tanimachi line puts you at the north gate in four minutes. From Tennoji station, served by JR, Kintetsu and two metro lines, it is about twelve minutes on foot north.

South and west of the temple is Shinsekai, fifteen minutes on foot, which is where you should eat afterwards: kushikatsu at ¥143 to ¥396 a skewer, and Tsutenkaku above it at ¥1,500 with an advance reservation now required. The Namba to Shinsekai walk covers the route in the other direction.

If you miss the 21st, the equivalent in Kyoto is the Toji market on the same date, and Osaka has smaller markets on other days that are not in the same class. The 21st is the one.