MITSUWA NATSU MATSURI!!!
Warning: Half of these are "henshin" related. Other half...might make you hungry.
Arrived at Mitsuwa for the Summer Matsuri. Honestly, I shouldn’t be at work on my day off, but I’ve been waiting since I was employed to for this day. Let me say, it was worth it.
But before we begin, let me get my identity…
There we go.
This was the first thing I bought when I got here. Obon masks are traditional summer festival masks, and range from traditional Japanese characters to popular television characters. I saw this one in Mars Toys when I was coming out of work earlier this week, so I waited until today to get it. I was lucky that they still had one; unfortunately, they didn’t have the Kachidoki I saw that same day. Well…Come on! Banana Arms!
Knight of Spear!!
The area was split into 3; the side stores and the side of the market had the games. When you crossed the driveway to the back, to the waterside and the old steakhouse, were the food stalls. I proceeded to the ones along the waterside behind Mitsuwa. These consisted of stuff like green tea, Marukome brand chicken rice bowl, ramen noodles, takoyaki skewers (they were the frozen ones I bought once; ugh…), gyoza, and one I missed out on, curry rice. Pictured here was one I was pretty interested in. These are grilled seafood skewers and ranged from different types, included tuna toro, shrimp, and salmon. The ones pictured are squid cuts, scallops, and my personal favorite, yellowtail.
Round 1 continued with the chicken rice bowl and the takoyaki. I wanted the gyoza, but I was “feelin’ the feelsâ€, so I had to hold off. Unfortunately, that was a mistake and I ended up missing it. I love Aijinomoto brand too…
Round 1 ended with my first bottle of coke for the day. Shout out to my classmate and fellow musician, Rob!
I was actually on the line for the adjacent stalls, but I had “the feels†and had to run to the bathroom, which ended round 1. Round 2 began with the stalls across from the water, into the back parking lot where the bon dancers were (I unfortunately missed those, too). These included shaved ice, ginseng tea, and ramune. Of course, I went to the cotton candy one. Though $3 for a cotton candy this size is…kinda expensive…also, my tongue was not supposed to be out in this shot. I apologize.
Back in line again to those adjacent waterside stalls, which included takoyaki balls WITHOUT skewers, yakisoba, yakitori, grilled rice balls, and grilled corn. However, I’ve been to Otafuku enough to say that I don’t need to get anymore takoyaki and yakisoba for a while. So I went straight for the yakitori and grilled corn.
Not pictured, but I actually met up with my classmate in my college’s Japanese class. It was a great refresher since I’ve been wanting to hang out with him all summer, and I wanted him to feel welcome on his way back. Shout out, Marc!
At this point, I started feeling quite tired, so I need one more fuel boost before I got the last of the food (which unfortunately consisted of just cotton candy). Shout out to my good friend, Jess!
It was time to head on home with a full (or half-full) belly and a new bon mask to add to my collection. I had waited for the bus, but by the time it was my turn to board, the bus was super full, so I had to wait another half hour to get home. I figured since when I got there, there was a long line. But at this point, I’m just glad to say that I work at Mitsuwa enough to be able to participate here.
This has been a wonderful day…it’s time for a well-deserved rest before going back to work.
Lock off…
[BTW, I also had 3 other lockseeds attached to my belt; Orange, Durian, and Donguri, all DX. I had my Sengoku Driver with me, but since I had to use the bathroom, I didn't want to have to go through the process of taking it apart and putting it back in the bag, so I just never used it...]