Hattasan is famous for its dumplings for warding off bad luck. They are sold on the premises of the temple, and I think many people come there mainly for them. In recent years, my mother, sister, and I have visited there on January 3. But this year, my sister preferred staying at home though she wanted to have dumplings. So, I went to Hattasan to buy dumplings for her and others on my way back from Atami.
After arriving at Fukuroi, I took the last bus to Hattasan that left the bus stop in front of the station at 15:05. The road near the temple was still crowded, and it took about 50 minutes to get there.
Along the road from the parking lot to the temple, there were many shops and stalls selling foods. The road was full of people coming and going. It was difficult to walk through the crowd, but I finally reached the gate of the temple. According to their website, this is a national important cultural property.
Hattasan has large premises. So, visitors walk a long way partly through a grove to reach the main building. It was refreshing to walk under trees. I saw some camelia blossoms.
Though it was 16:15, there were still many people waiting in lines in front of the main temple. It took time to reach inside.
After praying, I hurried to the area where dumplings were sold. There were as many as seven ticket vending machines, and people were queuing in front of each of them. As I was hungry, I bought a ticket of “one portion for here” in addition to a ticket of “four boxes to go” and went to the place for eating. In exchange for the ticket, I received a plate of dumplings and a cup of green tea.
The dumplings tasted so good with green tea! They were fresh and soft.
After that, I went to the receiving place to pick up the four boxes of dumplings: one for my parents, one for my uncle’s family, and two for my sister. She needed two because she wanted to take one box to her working place to give out dumplings to her co-workers who also like them.
I got on the last bus to Fukuroi Station at 17:05. The road was no longer crowded, so it took only about 15 minutes to get there. When I read the label of the ingredients of dumplings in the bus, I found that they were not vegan as I had thought. They contained enzyme derived from eggs. Otherwise, they were ordinary dumplings made from mainly rice flour with adzuki bean paste on.
I had to come back to Hamamatsu by 18:30 to meet my sister at the station who would take Shinkansen to Tokyo before 19:00. The next train came soon, and I could arrive at Hamamatsu before 18:00.
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