The mist from Lake Shinji moves through Matsue before the city wakes. Matsue is built on water — canals, the Ōhashi River, the lake itself — and the morning moisture is part of the city's character. The Sunday market along the Fukuro River operates in this atmosphere: vendors arriving in the early dark, the lake mist still unresolved. The shijimi clam is Matsue's defining flavor. The particular species that grows in Lake Shinji — where fresh and salt water mix — produces a depth of umami that the same clam elsewhere cannot replicate. Miso soup made with Shinji shijimi is the correct breakfast for understanding Matsue, and the Sunday market is where you find them from the fishers who gathered them at dawn. The market is small — a dozen or so stalls, running for a few hours before the city fully opens. Matsue Castle is ten minutes away. But the morning market, in the mist, with the lake visible beyond the canal, is the part of Matsue that doesn't appear in the official photographs.