The festival was held in Hibiya Park, a 45 minute train ride from our neighborhood. The park itself was beautiful with glorious fall foliage. There is a large pond in the park featuring a crane sculpture water fountain. I highly recommend visiting this park if you are in the area.
The festival was bustling from the start. There were over 100 booths featuring produce, Japanese pork, farming themed kids activities, food booths, and even a vegetable themed Anpanman show.
We started the morning with making a dried persimmon. My son peeled the persimmon and then tied a string to the stem. It was then put in a bag and we were told we should dip it in boiling water for 3 seconds to sanitize it and then hang it in direct sunlight for at least a week. (I think I might buy some more persimmons to repeat this process. I love dried persimmons! But I learned you have to do it with the right variety - Hachiya is a great one.)
We then got busy collecting stamps for various raffles and giveaways. One fun giveaway, you collected stickers from around the festival to fill up a little card. Once filled, we turned in the card and were given a plastic bag which we could then fill to overflowing with produce - potatoes, carrots, onions, Japanese bell peppers, and Japanese sweet potatoes. Another stamp collection activity resulted in winning a large bag of potato chips and a restaurant gift certificate.
My son also enjoyed the shitake mushroom harvesting. Children were able to sign up on a first come, first serve basis and harvest five shitakes from inoculated logs that were stacked neatly in breathable frames. We love teaching our son where food comes from and this was a really neat lesson.
There was so much fresh food to eat. A couple booths had meat on a stick, like sausages and yakitori. We tried some fried renkon (lotus root) that was delicious. And we all enjoyed filling a cup with various kinds of grapes to munch on.
My son enjoyed the Anpanman show. Anpanman is a very famous character in Japan with a TV show and several movies, plus an unbelievable amount of merchandise! I had to laugh when they said you could take photos/videos but you weren't allowed to put those photos/videos on social media due to licensing! My American brain asks why are you letting people take photos and videos? But the reality is Japanese people usually follow the rules, so if they say don't do it, they probably won't.
My son proved his winning ways by getting the right amount of rice in a measuring cup by weight. He filled a cup of rice and leveled it off with a stick. If the weight was exactly 150 grams, he would win a prize of rice and instant curry. If he was .1 grams off, he would win rice. If more or less than .1 off, he would win a smile and a wave. He walked away with some rice. Not too shabby since they said they had given away less than 20 packages of rice!
The one strange thing during the festival, was the periodic boom noises. Quite disturbed by the sound, I asked my husband what it was (because no one was reacting to it whatsoever). He took me to a booth where they were making puffed rice. They put uncooked rice into a pressure cooker and set it to pressurize. Once it did its thing, they released the valve, which made the loud boom and out came puffed rice. It reminds me a bit of fresh air popped popcorn, minus the pesky kernels that get stuck in your teeth! It has a slightly toasted flavor, which I really like. Of course, this is just one more way for my husband to consume copious quantities of rice.
Festivals in Japan are fun events that are family affairs. There is always things to do for everyone and the food is great (not like the greasy horrors of US festivals and fairs - like deep fried Twinkies or deep fried butter). While this was an unusually large festival, it's theme held true throughout the entire event, including the entertainment. We're looking forward to another agricultural themed festival next weekend!
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