Walking downtown I saw a vendor selling Takoyaki on a stick for 200 yen. I thought wow! I could really use some takoyaki right about now! And I decided to grab some of these tasty octopus treats at a great value! It’s strange to have a piece of wood go through the takoyaki because there’s supposed to be some octopus in the middle. The presentation and the vendor’s friendliness helped secure the sale. The value was good, but it turned out the food wasn’t.  So I’ll be sticking to the freshly made takoyaki in a box for now on. Take a look at the difference. The 2nd picture is from a summer festival.

Takoyaki on a stick with what I'd consider great presentation and a lot of mayo!

Fresh takoyaki in a box at a Japanese summer festival

The first Friday this August we went to a summer festival. I don’t know the official term besides ‘awesome’! Most people wore a yukata (looks like a kimono) or jinbei (shirt and shorts outfit), Fireworks lasted about 90 minutes, and the vendors sold crazy foods. It was about hot, about 85 F (29.5 C) with 90% humidity.

There were breaks between some of the firework explosions to announce sponsors of the event on a loudspeaker. I’ve never seen this before. I wonder how much an ad placement costs. One sponsor was Coca Cola and a big bottle of coke lit up near the end, but I didn’t get a picture of it.

Kids were using a flat paper net to catch goldfish, and turtles! It was ¥100 per try and they were doing great even though the net break easily. Food like grilled meat on a stick, takoyaki, dangly tentacles, and other mystery meat ran ¥400-500. Here are a few pictures.

Summer festival fireworks

"I like Turtles!"

Mmm... grilled tentacles

Takoyaki aka Octopus