Nezu Shrine Tsutsuji matsuri pt.2 Stalls!

How was your Friday? I hope it was a fun day! I didn't really do anything yesterday because I was just tired out all day. Insomnia is setting in again TT But today should be great despite the grey weather. Me and my mom are heading out to the Mall of America and Ikea! The only store I'm going to in MoA is Forever21 so that should mean another "gets" post soon haha!

Looking down the Tsutsuji matsuri food stalls

Anyhow, today I am wrapping up my post on Nezu Shrine by writing about the food stalls that were present during the Tsutsuji matsuri. For me, the best part of Japanese festivals are the food stalls! Even if I can't eat anything (because I am a good dieter) I love looking at all the foods that are not available here in MN. And it's really fun to be able to watch the cooking process up close.

Grilling some meat patties

The food stalls were located near the rear of the shrine grounds, and were a single path that was not too long. However when I was first walking up it, the path was jam packed with people looking around. More people like to just check out the stalls rather than patronize them, just like me, it seems. So I had a bit of trouble getting in there and taking photos without people bumping into me. But walking back through again, it was nearly empty ><;; Haha!

Various grilled squids and seafood

A close up of takoyaki

When you go to matsuri, you will find some food stalls are "popular" and others are not so much. I don't know if it's the collectivist mentality, or the desire not to stand out, but when a food stall is not popular noone will approach it. And the popular stalls will get longer lines. Sometimes I wonder if people just go to the popular stalls to fit in, even if they'd prefer food from an unpopular stall?

These are the cutest choco bananas I have ever seen!! The stall lady decoed them so cute ^3^

But that's fine for me, I can get in and photograph more easily when there's no people around! haha. Even if there are no patrons, the stall workers will continually make food to try and entice customers. Do they sell the food or does it waste?

Of course food is not the only type of stalls they have a matsuri. At large matsuri there are wide varieties of game and merchandise stalls. But this was a small matsuri, so I only spotted one game stall. It was a toy scoop (like a goldfish scoop, but with little toys) I would have liked to try if I wouldn't surely loose haha!

I hope they were able to win some cute toys^^

Making okonomiyaki

I hope you enjoy food stall photos as much as I do, because I have lots more I can share in the future! hehe^^ I have some especially awesome matsuri photos from Japan Trip 3, but it's kinda up in the air if I can write about that. I will try to update with a cosmetic review tonight, so I hope to see you again soon^^