Last weekend there was the Namaste India Fair. This weekend, there was the Hokkaido Fair! It was held at the same place; at Yoyogi Park right opposite NHK studio park. There were tons of yummy goodies, but the ones that I were looking forward to were crab and lamb. By the way, this is not really important, but BBQ-ed lamb is referred to as ジンギスカン (genghis khan, dschinghis khan, jingisukan). It has absolutely nothing to do with the songs. ^^.
Look at all the crabs blushing on the grill. Yummy. I wanted the orangey eggs… and I wanted lots of it! It was going for 500yen a shell. Pretty cheap for freshly grilled crab eggs. The legs and other parts were sold at 1000yen. You can see how popular 焼き蟹 (Yakigani) is by the length of the queue.
Crabs are rather expensive in Japan and it’s more often than not only eaten during special occasions… that is unless you live in Hokkaido, maybe it’s a totally different story there. ^^. The popular crabs in Japan are those from the ocean. Mud crabs aren’t popular here and I haven’t really seen them around.
After downing so many would-be crabs, I was getting rather thirsty. I headed off to my next course, Genghis Khan. I love lamb. I know there are quite a number of people who don’t consume lamb because they find the meat pungent. Are you one of them?
I learnt this from visiting a Genghis Khan restaurant. ラム, lamb, is the meat from a baby sheep or lamb. Meat from a matured sheep is referred to as mutton. Both I like. That reminds me… I haven’t had mutton curry for a while…
When it got to my turn, there was no more meat on the hot plate and I had to wait a couple of minutes while “papa” cooked up some more.
On my right, there were lamb chops sizzling on the barbie. Hungry yet?
Have you seen a sausage lollipop before?
No meal from Hokkaido is complete without a glass of Sapporo Beer. ^^.
The circle is now complete. ^^.
Had to find a quiet spot to sit. There was this couple having a mini picnic behind me. Sweet ain’t it.
And for dessert, a milky white soft cone. Hokkaido milk should be safe. ^^. There was also this little “experience milking a cow” contraption nearby… 1/10 of a fake cow with rubber teats. No real cow, but close enough. Have you milked a real cow before?
This is a no no in many other countries, but in Japan, it is quite normal for one to bring their dogs out to events like this. Japanese dog owners are very well mannered; they clean up whatever mess their dogs leave behind. It’s a good thing. It’s precisely because people go to great lengths not to upset others in the same space, that these kind of things are possible. At least that’s my two yen’s worth. But sometimes they make their dogs wear shoes… this is something that I don’t quite get.
I like this guy’s bag.
Check out the tiny wheels on his bike.
I ran into our friendly neighbourhood spiderman. He didn’t mind posing for a few pictures. ^^.
Random shots around the place.
This is where polar bear and brown bear ramen came from. Grrr!
Events like this are a day out for the whole family. Usually dad rides his own bike while mum handles the kids.
Related posts... maybe:
- Vegetarian Fair 2008
- Hokkaido Markets
- Exclusive Potato from Hokkaido
- Namaste India 2008
- My Christmas 2008
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HNNNGGG YAKIGANI AND LAMB CHOP DO WANT!
Dammit those stuff all look delicious. Lol @ friendly neighborhood Spiderman.
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I’m hungry. Hope you brought back the lamb chops for me x).
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Hokkaido Fair 2008…
Ken Lee visits Yoyogi Park to enjoy the food and atmosphere of the Hokkaido Fair. Have you seen a sausage lollipop before?…
damn, watching all these foods makes me hungry…… that sausage loli looks tasty… hmm loli, erm hmm.. sausage i mean..
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beer, food, and spider man, that is all what a man needs in life
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Wow looks fantastic Ken! And the info about the name of barbequed lamb wasn’t irrelevant at all, I love that kind of stuff and I’d never have made the connection myself!
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I actually had the sausage lolipop. It was pretty damn good.
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Nice photos Ken.
So this was the Hokkaido Fair! I was wondering what was all this. ^^
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Some nice shots (especially of Spider-Man). I use a Nikon D80 also.
Any reason not to use a photo gallery instead of many embedded photos linked to Flickr?
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k Reply:
October 11th, 2008 at 3:42 am
well, it kinda kills 2 birds with one stone. it brings people from flickr here (i hope) and probably send people here to flickr where they can maybe chance upon some other photos that will bring them back here to some other post. it’s almost 4am… am i making sense? ^^
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[...] Hokkaido Fair 2008 [...]
That looks like so much fun! I love the atmosphere… you’ve captured them in the photos very well.
Strange enough, I’ve milked a cow before >.<;; I’ve also drank freshly milked .. milk. It’s warm and sweet, you should try it sometime!
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Sitting here in New York I couldn’t help but notice one major difference between the fair in Yoyogi Park and the average street fair here in New York City: the Japanese fair lacks the lived-in atmosphere created by lots of paper and coffee cups and bottles on the pavement. [I'm being sarcastic....at the expense of New York] They certainly keep the streets clean in your park!!!!
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The little weekends fests in Yoyogi are always a good time.
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Looks like you had a great time and some good food. Hokkaido soft seems to be popular no matter where you go. Even down here in the islands.
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