At the time of the flowering season of Sakura, we did several matsuri in Tokyo. Here we are at Ueno Park (northeast of Tokyo) near Benten-dō temple 弁 天堂 where Sakura Matsuri festivities take place. There are dozens of stalls that connects all along the driveway that leads to the temple. It's packed with people, we barely manage to breathe, so people are huddled in front of the stands, stuck to each other like sardiness.
Among the stands, we find several stalls of grills where they sell various skewers including those with mini octopus. The skewer of 6 mini-octopuses costs 600 yen. Octopuses are pre-cut to facilitate cooking and skewers are dipped in soy sauce before and after passing to the grill to be completely soaked. Initially, when you bite on the octopus, it seems that it is quite chewy but when chewing the flesh, it is really tender. The taste is much like squid and well grilled skewers is eaten with much ease. In addition, soy sauce is well steeped in the flesh which gives a slightly salty taste and makes the flesh juicy.
This type of stand is found in all Japanese Matsuri as Sakura Matsuri, summer festivals... If you have the opportunity to participate in one of these matsuri, don't hesitate to test the octopus skewers, it is quite original but very good!