Pigging out at the Azabu Juban Matsuri

As I look back on my folders of photos on my desktop, I’m amazed at how busy my summer was. While chilling out on my futon enjoying the cool autumn air, I wondered where my three months went. I finally understand the idea of “summer fun”. Coming from Singapore, where it is summer all year round, I never understood the fuss.

In summer, there are tons of activities and events in Japan. I definitely notice I get markedly more invitations to do stuff in summer than any other season.

One weekend in August, we went to the annual Azabu Juban Festival. A Japanese festival, or matsuri, usually involves some kind of dance performance but I didn’t see any at this one. Apparently, it’s known for its endless rows of food stalls offering piping hot Japanese street food.

It was humid and the crowd was teeming. Everybody was trying to buy food and eat it while navigating their way through elbows and sweaty backs. I was a bit hungover from my birthday celebration the night before but I enjoyed the slow stroll through the festival.

My girlfriends had a chuckle when I posted this on Facebook. I’m sure they were yummy — chocolate and banana are always a winner, but they looked a little too phallic for my taste.

Deep-fried spaghetti. Weird, I know, but the Japanese love pasta.

I think every other stall sold takoyaki and the ones on sale here were humongous — twice the size of regular ones. The kangaroo attested to their yumminess.

The ubiquitous Japanese street food: yakisoba. I took a while to find one without any meat and it was worth the wait. I’m usually a little indifferent to this humble dish because I find the tare sauce to be too sweet, but this one was just the right balance of savoury and sweet.

You may yawn at the thought of grilled tofu but it was one of the best items I had. Brushed with some tare sauce, the tofu was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

I heard there was an international strip of food stalls in the festival but we didn’t explore that area. But we did see some Spanish and Korean stalls among the Japanese ones.

Fideua — noodles done paella style.

Korean potato tubes bubbling away in dark red hot sauce.

There was fresh fruit on sale, too, and I devoured a slice of watermelon but I was very half-hearted when I saw these:

These cucumbers looked curious bathing under tiny water sprinklers, but you know, I may be into my raw food, but even I can’t eat a raw cucumber like that straight. I need some pate or dip….something!!

Other non-food pictures…

Love looking at Japanese in their yukatas.

This cute kid was hawking bottles of Japanese wine. It was a bit ironic that the stall used such a young kid to promote their alcohol…

Here’s the kangaroo looking hungover. Greasy food was just what the doctor ordered.

Although I enjoyed this food fest, I cannot help but think it’s a bit strange that we often use food as entertainment, especially in Asia. We spent three hours eating our way through the crowd — definitely just an annual thing for me…

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