Hyper Japan Festival London

Love Japan? Living in London? This is the place to go and get your fix! I love Hyper Japan and how its full of everything Japanese you could need (or don't need and think are cute or cool!). For me its usually the food! Oh the food!! From the karaage chicken to the ramen to the gyoza to soooo much more. The food that Japan has to offer at this event is so good. Like I could eat this forever good.

And then there are the drinks. Everything from the different flavoured fizzy drinks to beer to sake. As a Japan lover I love coming to this festival and experiencing everything Japanese. They have live demos to showcase some Japanese culture such as Taiko drumming and martial arts such as Jiu Jitsu and below some Kendo.

And unfortunately I sooooo kind of had a blogging fail! I was going to take more pictures buuuuuut…I did not have a great time. Personally I thought that it was a lot better at the previous venue. Like it was really good the last few times I went but this time (and it pains me to say this!) it was kind of crap! The venue doubled in size (it’s being held at the O2) but everything inside has downsized. Like wtf?! I just can’t seem to understand that.

Walking around everything seemed a little sparse and man how much walking was there! There were nowhere near the amount of stalls they had last time and most of the stalls were a lot smaller. And the food section, omg…utter disaster. Four/five stalls selling food, two of which were selling the same food. Last time they had a lot more Japanese food on offer such as ramen, katsu curry and sushi. I was so damn disappointed because I was looking forward to some yummy food. I don’t actually understand what happened and why the event was so badly organised and so small for such a big venue. Perhaps it cost too much for the previous vendors to come?

There were a few redeeming qualities though such as the sake experience- even if it took almost an hour to get through! I was on my last legs by the end of it but getting to taste all the different sake on offer (I am a huge sake lover FYI!) was really nice and listening to how it was made and tasting all the subtle differences between them all was a good experience. If you're new to sake I’m not so sure this would be good for you (there were over 30 different sake and liqueurs to try) as the taste is very unique. 

BUT I would say if you are new, sparkling sake is the way to go! The past few years there were only two sparkling sakes on offer (it doesn’t taste like sake at all) and is described as a japanese version of champagne. Now there are more than FOUR different types to try all of which are absolutely delicious. Great for summer evenings and to share with a few friends.

The first one with the pink top is a new one that I tried at the event and it has a very subtle taste of cotton candy. The second one called Mio in that gorgeous blue bottle is one that I have had many times before and is still by far my favourite. Its sweet but not overly so, smooth and just easy to drink.

Also how cool is this?! Any attack on titan fans out there? It looks quite small in the picture but in real life it was quite big.

 

xx

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