Japan Matsuri 2010 - Lady in Kimono outside Spitalfields
Japan Matsuri… celebrating all things good about my favourite place on the planet. As I walked up to Spitalfields you could hear the sounds of the Taiko drums and smell the Yakitori in the air.
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Taiko Drumming
As I walked in… various wagashi and other sweet things served up by Minamoto Kitchen and next to them sake tasting… these guys, I think the company is called Jalux, import some pretty nice sake’s.. my favourite from the tasting was Tarusake from the Fuyo Brewing Corp… which had quite nice oakiness and a slight sweetness… and another one I can’t remember the name of but bought a bottle of as it was sweet, soft, slightly fruity and easy to drink… I love sake…
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Sake tasting
There were many stalls… serving up lots of food, drinks.. but on to the middle… where there was a martial arts demonstration…
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Martial Arts Demo
on to the food… I could smell Yakitori, Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki in the air… it was a Matsuri indeed… I reminded Yasaka Shrine during the sakura season last year… I started with Yakitori naturally served up by Bincho Yakitori… and then joined the ever increasing queue to eat Takoyaki. Takoyaki are balls of batter, filled with spring onion, shouga (pickled ginger) and bits of octopus (tako) and fried on a special shaped grill, topped off with a special sauce, japanese mayo and ao nori (seaweed flaked)…. proper party food… I love takoyaki…
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Takoyaki Stall
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Takoyaki
So as I ate my way through the 8 glorious orbs of octopussy goodness… I wandered past the other vendors… Japan Centre and the lords of all good Japanese imports, Tazaki Foods…. and I began to catch glimpse of the cosplayers arriving… I wandered through market area… and managed to get a few pictures…
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Cosplayers
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Cosplayers
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Cute Cosplay
but the prize for the freakiest picture goes to…
Japan Matsuri 2010 - Cosplayer with freaky eyes
The event was fun… it was packed… and it was really nice to see so many people sporting their kimonos… and really getting into the spirit of the festival… good festival food and plenty of sake… what more could you ask for… only thing that was missing was a grilled surume squid… I think now we need to get into the Hanami spirit next April when the cherry blossoms are out…
I’ve put up more pictures on the Mr. Foodie Facebook Page in the Japan Matsuri Photo Album so feel free to check them out…
Looking forward to Hyper Japan in the couple of weeks
