Eat and celebrate Japan's festivals like a local.
Japan has an incredible number and variety of traditional festivals. Festivals often celebrate autumn harvests, or Obon in summer to honour the ancestral spirits. The Nagasaki Kunchi in early October, for instance, is a grand autumn harvest festival; while the late August Marunouchi Ondo Bon Odori Festival at Hibiya Park in Tokyo is a huge and lively multi-day festival of taiko performances, singing, dancing, eating, and more — and it’s just one example of the many Bon festivals held nationwide.
However, there are all kinds of reasons to hold a festival! For example, the Sapporo Snow Festival is held over one week in February, where it showcases hundreds of artistically intricate snow and ice sculptures. Spring also sees many festivals across Japan; for example, Kyoto’s Aoi Matsuri in mid-May, which is held to pray for the safety and wellbeing of the state, culminating in a spectacular parade that features a huge, elegant procession of several hundred locals dressed in traditional Kyoto costumes.
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But aside from the dances, performances, and processions, one of the best parts of traditional festivals in Japan has to be the food! Dozens of yatai (food stalls) pop up on festival days, selling all kinds of delicious sweet and savory snacks at reasonable prices. We’d argue that eating your way through several yatai is an integral part of the festival experience.
Here are a few festive street foods to try at a festival in Japan. Whether you have a sweet tooth or prefer salty snacks, you’re sure to find one you’ll love.
Yakisoba
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When you’re hungry after an evening of laughing and dancing in your yukata, few dishes hit the spot like a plate of yakisoba. Derived from the words yaki (“cooked over direct heat”) and soba (buckwheat noodles), Yakisoba is to the Japanese what mee goreng is to Malaysians — filling and delicious comfort food. A hearty mound of wheat noodles stir-fried with meat and vegetables, yakisoba seasoned with a salty-sweet, tangy brown sauce akin to Worcestershire sauce. Strips of red-pickled ginger add a piquant touch to each bite; some vendors drizzle extra sauce and mayonnaise, making it saucier and utterly more-ish.
You’ll also find regional variations around the country. In Akita Prefecture, for example, each serving is topped with a sunny-side-up egg and f*ckujinzuke pickles (a kind of traditional Japanese condiment often enjoyed as a side dish with Japanese curry) instead of red-pickled ginger. In Gunma Prefecture, Joshu Ota yakisoba resembles KL’s Hokkien noodles with its thick noodles and black sauce. In Hokkaido, Okhotsk Kitami Shio yakisoba includes scallops and is seasoned with salt to highlight the flavour of the ingredients. Every area has its own spin on the dish — that’s part of what makes regional festivals so much fun!
Takoyaki
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First popularised in Osaka in the 1930s, this street food consists of batter studded with small chunks of tako (octopus) and red-pickled ginger, cooked in a special griddle until they transform into toasty golden-brown orbs with molten centers. It’s most often topped with lashings of sweet-savory brown sauce and mayonnaise and finished with a shower of aonori (green seaweed) powder and bonito flakes that dance in the residual heat.
Most of the locals like to eat Takoyaki while it is still extremely hot inside and you can see people breathing out the hot steam from their mouth on street. Although the classic flavor is still an irresistible taste, more special flavors have been adapted to the dish nowadays, like stuffing cheese, kimchi, or mentaiko, instead of octopus.
Karaage
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Every matsuri you go to will have at least one stall specialising in karaage, or fried chicken. Traditionally, bite-sized pieces of chicken are marinated in soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Then, they’re tossed in a mixture of flour and/or potato starch before being deep-fried until crunchy on the outside and juicy and tender within.
Although karaage is a very common food found all over Japan, the karaage found in every matsuri always tastes different from the ones that are sold in an izakaya or restaurant. It tastes more delicious during festivals as the atmosphere adds some plus alfa effect to it.
Karaage is a staple food at festivals, and every vendor has their own spin on the dish. It’s a surefire crowd-pleaser, perfect for munching on as you walk through the festival grounds!
Ringo ame, or candied apples
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“Ringo” means apple, while “Ame” stands for candy in Japanese. As the name suggests, ringo ame are simply whole apples dipped in molten sugar and cooled, giving them a shiny, hard glaze. They’re served on sticks for easy eating.
If you’re not keen on crunching through a whole apple, some vendors also sell variations like candied grapes, strawberries and even their locally picked fruits on festivals in regional areas such as tangerine and pears — all are equally addictive.
Ramune
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Sweet, fizzy, and refreshing, ramune is the quintessential Japanese summer soft drink. Ramune comes in a distinctive, slightly old-fashioned heavy glass vessel known as a Codd-neck bottle; a round marble in the bottle’s mouth helps seal in the carbonation. Navigating your way around this bottle is half the fun of drinking ramune!
There are a few theories on how ramune first became popular in Japan, but the prevailing theory attributes it to Scottish pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim, who reportedly introduced it to the Kobe foreign settlement in 1884. The word “ramune” derives from the English word “lemonade,” so it makes sense that its original flavour was lime-lemon. These days, you can find ramune in all kinds of flavours from peach to bubble gum.
To open a bottle of ramune, you’ll have to push a plunger on top of the marble inside until the marble falls into a little chamber in the neck. The secret to getting the marble after you finish drinking the ramune is fiendishly simple — you unscrew the bottle cap anti-clockwise to pop the marble out of the bottle without breaking it.
Conclusion
Not only are traditional Japanese festivals ideal for getting up close with the country’s culture, but they’re also great for sampling all sorts of street food in one place! Consider attending a festival on your next holiday to Japan. There aren’t many better travel experiences than enjoying street food and celebrating with the locals at a festival.
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