Yoshi (Mr. Wada), Author at The Wadas On Duty

Saga International Balloon Festival

There is a day that numbers of visitors in Saga exceeds the number of its own population. That’s the annual Saga International Balloon Festival! It is said that 800,000 people gather during the event. The crowd was a lot bigger than we expected!

Character Balloons

Familiar characters are printed on those balloons. You can get closer during specific time (check out the schedule).

Balloon Competition

Participants compete score by throwing a bag of sand called marker at the target on the ground. The view of all the balloons are in the sky is quite something huh?

Light Up

Performance along with music is remarkably amazing. Some fireworks await at climax as well. MC was a little noisy though. Keep in mind that drones are not allowed during this event.

Let’s call it a day.

Information

Hello world. It’s Mr. Wada back on duty. I would like to introduce a compact cafe nearby Okayama Station.

Retro Cafe Downtown Okayama: People (ぴいぷる)

People (pronounced as Piipuru) stands quite close to Okayama’s bar area where many drunks hang out naturally. We found this place just by accident and couldn’t help peeping. Ended up stepping in. We were curious if this place would be non-smoking since it is near the bar area and take a look at a store next door.

Tabaco Mania!

Turns out, it has a non-smoking sign at the door. Hard to believe though.

As soon as we entered the cafe, a waiter popped out from nowhere as well as a waitress. Where the hell were they hiding? Apparently their specialty is waffles. The waitress also kept suggesting ‘Soft Yogurt’ which seems to be yogurt with fresh fruits on top. OK, let’s get waffles and some coffee this time.

Coffee is good but waffles taste…OK (I am being honest). Not sure how the soft yogurt is.

It was only us in the store first. The waitress told us that more people would come in later after drinking. Ah, so that’s how it works here. This place opens until late for this reason. In fact, some drunks came in soon after but it remained non-smoking. Coolio.

Let’s call it a day.

Information

Name	Coffee & Waffle People (ぴいぷる)
Access	2-13 Honmachi, Kitaku, Okayama City
Business Hours	12:00 PM – 11:00 PM Open: Tueday – Sunday
Contact	086-222-3621

Lastly

How do you find it? It was definitely an unusual place for us and interesting. We may check more places and share with you another time.

See you around!