we went to the natsu matsuri festival at uwajimaya

today leff and i went to the natsu matsuri festival at uwajimaya. i had been looking forward to this for weeks, i am not gonna' lie. (i check their events calendar religiously.) 

even though it was not very summery outside

it was still a full fledged japanese style summer festival! we had lots and lots of food from vendors. leff kicked things off with this tasty udon!

i headed straight for the ramen burger.

if you have any doubts as to whether or not this was oishii, you need to have your head examined. SOISHII!!!

i could have eaten two more! (that is a lie. it was incredibly filling but i WANTED two more because, as mentioned, OISHII LIKE CRAZY!!!!!)

another thing that you're supposed to do at summer festivals is have some shaved ice. i obliged with this matcha with mochi.

"obliged" ha! i had planned on getting kakigoori in tokyo but we ran out of time.  you had best BELIEVE i will track some down next time i'm in tokyo during the summer months!

i can't remember everything else that we ate. um,  mabo tofu, gyoza, okonomiyaki and something else? it was all INCREDIBLE! leff will have pictures, no doubt!

in addition to the natsu matsuri, there was also a small group of local artists at the kino art fair in kinokuniya. i like this idea a lot since it was something that one of the employees came up with when the store's manager asked for suggestions to get the community more involved.

at the kino art fair, i picked up one of aleeza mccant's tiny sushis.

also of note were the lovely cutouts by smallrinilady.

i tried looking for some issues of  "cooking papa" while at kinokuniya but, man, it was crowded so no dice. (it is *always* crowded there because it's a great store.) i guess i will have to make do with this cooking papa recipe that i found the other day.

you are not going to be surprised when i tell you that we ducked into uwajimaya where i picked up five pure smiles and one other brand of milk mask. you will also not be surprised when i tell you that i also went to daiso and got royal jelly, collagen, cucumber and hand masks.

(hand mask is not made from hands. it is FOR hands. also, yes, the pure smile that has a snail on it does, indeed, have some sort of snail extract. i do not question japanese face masks. i submit blindly to their awesomeness. (and i will let you know how it works.))

you probably will be surprised to learn that i didn't get a picture of the person in the kitty chan costume. but, dude. i was eating kakigoori! so much kakigoori. so much brain freeze.

let's end this post in the traditional natsu matsuri way with fireworks. they are a serious business in japan!  and they are amazing. (here's a great "begin japanology" if you'd like more info!)