Monday was one of those holidays - Sports Day, but we did nothing even vaguely sporty. Instead we headed to Mount Daisen for the 2nd Tottori Burger Festival. We did intend to go last year, but that didn't quite work out. Anyway, this year's festival was bigger and better, with 60 different burgers on offer, spread over 3 different sites. About a third of the burgers available were from restaurants based here in Tottori prefecture, and the rest were from all over Japan. As well as all the types of burgers you might think of (beef, pork, chicken, fish), there were also a lot you probably wouldn't think of: venison, ostrich, deep-fried octopus croquettes...
We went to two of the three sites. The first one didn't have such a great choice of burgers, but it did have our prefectual mascot, Tori-Pi...
Tori-Pi is a cross between a bird (tori in Japanese) and a pear. That's why he is green and round and has a black stalk sticking out of his head. Obvious, right? 'Bird' is in the name of the prefecture, Tottori, and the area is famous for its pears. So that all makes sense now. Every place and every event in Japan seems to be required to have some odd mascot. Do you remember these bizarre characters (scroll to the bottom of the post)?
The second site we visited was much better; better burgers, more people and it wasn't located in a car-park.
Most people seemed to be in the 2 hour queue for Kobe beef burgers, so there wasn't long to wait for any of the others. In the end, I had a chicken burger, a pork burger and a really good American-style beef burger. H just had a pork tendon burger (?) and a beef burger; I think he was still recovering from excessive curry consumption the previous day. And K? He had that octopus thing...
Hello, I was searching for more information about the Tottori Burger Fest and I happened upon your blog. I live in Iwami and I am a first year JET, I plan on going to the Burger fest this weekend with my husband and some friends and I figured out where the car park was with the shuttle service, but I was wondering about the tickets? If I understand correctly you need tickets to get burgers but the ticket books are not sold in Tottori City (or anywhere surrounding me). Do you know if it is possible to buy them at the fest itself? Any information you could send my way is greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteHi Amber, thanks for getting in touch! It seems that the ticket system is new this year. We're not planning on going this time but I just had a look at the website and found that you can indeed buy the tickets at the festa, and at the shuttle bus bus-stop, although it warns that it may be busy. You can also buy them in advance at any Imai book store in Tottori prefecture.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps, and that you're settling into life in Tottori well. Hope I can meet you in person sometime, and let me know if I can help you with anything anytime!