My favorite festival came and went in September. As usual, it lived up to the hype. There were lots of people, food, and wine.

Mostly food, though.

Here are some of the highlights:

We made the mistake of going to the fourth block first. This is usually where the ramen and the rice meals are served. While it was very good, we got full quite quickly. Good thing was, we came in a group of five so everything was shared.

This year’s night mode pamphlet. On the top right is fried venison. It was very tasty. On the left side of that was the lamb yakisoba.

We also tried the above, which was soy-milk miso ramen. It was really good.

After that, we did some walking. We went on a Sunday, so there were lost of people attending the festival.

Every block was crowded, but the seventh block was especially so. This is whre the wines and the craft beers were located. There were also seating areas. People who got here first were lucky enough to find some seats under the tents.

We opted for the craft beer instead:

In particular, this one below made from pears. It was quite good and very fruity. I am glad I was able to take a photo of it. I’m going to try finding them in the local stores. I was very impressed by how delicious it was.

We got to the eighth block, where more seating was available. This time, some of us went for the “regular” beer instead of craft. This was Sorachi beer made from 100% hops from Hokkaido. It tasted like regular beer to me, but I am not complaining.

And of course, there were more crowds. But I liked this area the most. I loved that there were trees that shaded you away from the rain. It was mostly cloudy that day but sometimes there was a light drizzle. This area also has a stage where there was some kind of cheer dancing performances from different groups of kids.

And of course, the day won’t be complete without some desserts.

I had the usual pumpkin soft serve ice cream:

And my friend was curious about this tomato and carrot ice creams we saw in the pamphlet:

The colors are very slight so the difference is hard to see. The one more in the front is orangey so that was the carrot flavored ice cream. The one behind it is more reddish, so it tasted more like tomatoes. The mix was more like a sherbet instead of ice cream. They were surprisingly good. Interesting use of vegetables, but you could definitely taste the flavors.

This year, tapioca drinks were very popular. They were everywhere.

Of course fall wouldn’t be complete without some sweet potatoes. Or more like sweet potato chips with some vanilla ice cream 🙂

Okay, there was definitely lots of food and sweets on that day. But again, everything was shared, so it’s okay. Plus we did a lot of walking to burn off those calories.

At the Hokkaido market, we all bought omiyage to take home to our families. At this block, local gourmet products from far areas in Hokkaido came closer to us. There was food from Kushiro, Nemuro, and Hakodate.

This stall with the different types of bread from different local bakeries was a hit with all of my friends. We all bought a bunch of bread to take home.

Finally, we made it all the way to the end of Odori Park, at the tenth block. This is where the meat dishes are located.

Those of us who could still eat bought some more food. Steak with some sauce–I don’t remember.

Man, I feel so full just looking at these photos. Holy cow, we ate a lot. But this festival only comes once a year, so I guess it was okay.