Once a month, on the first Sunday, the grounds of Mitake Onsen in Kasugai become a morning market. Farmers from the surrounding Aichi and Gifu countryside set up before dawn with seasonal vegetables, pickled goods, and handmade products. The hot spring is adjacent; its steam rises into the morning air above the stalls. This combination — sacred shrine space, thermal spring, agricultural market — is specific enough to Kasugai that it has developed a dedicated following. The same families return each month, buying from the same farmers they have been buying from for years. The regulars evaluate everything with the seriousness that monthly markets earn: one shot per month, so you pay attention. Kasugai is a satellite city of Nagoya — not a destination in the conventional sense. But the Mitake morning market is the kind of institution that makes satellite cities livable: a recurring gathering that provides an excuse to be outside early, that connects buyers directly to the people who grew what they are buying. Japan is full of this richness, in places that don't appear on maps.