Yakiimo Fes Osaka

Few foods announce autumn in Japan quite like yakiimo. The smell of sweet potatoes roasting as the weather cools is one of the season’s familiar pleasures—but Yakiimo Fes takes that simple comfort food and asks a much more entertaining question: what else can we possibly do with it?

From October 30 through November 8, Yakiimo Fes OSAKA 2026 returns to Taiyo-no-Hiroba in Osaka Castle Park with 14 specialty vendors and around 30 ways to eat sweet potato. Traditional roasted varieties are still here, but they’re joined by brûléed yakiimo, tempura, crêpes, doughnuts, sweet-potato fries, cheese croquettes, parfaits, soup and combinations that wander considerably further from the roasting cart. Admission is free; you simply wander the stalls and buy whatever catches your attention.

This year’s theme is “gap texture” (ギャップ食感), contrasting the crunchy zakuzaku, crisp paripari and karikari side of sweet potato with the sticky, creamy and fluffy nettori and hokuhoku textures associated with a perfectly cooked yakiimo. Rather than organizing everything simply into sweet and savory, the festival approaches its menu through four ideas: tracing the potato back to the ingredient itself, playing with texture, experimenting with new preparations and crossing sweet potato with unexpected foods.

Some vendors stay close to the classics. OIMOcafe offers a three-variety tasting of premium Kawagoe sweet potatoes, while Kyoto Imoya Imoto Yasai serves its intensely sweet roasted potatoes alongside butter-topped sweet potato. Then things start getting playful. Roman Yakiimo Imo no Su brûlées its roasted sweet potato with salted butter or buries it beneath honey and cheese, while Ten Carat turns aged yakiimo into tempura with salt, honey butter, curry or mala spice.

Keep going and the potato becomes almost unrecognizable. Imoya Mitsusaburo is bringing a mitarashi yakiimo frappe and the wonderfully named “Forbidden Italian Yakiimo Mazesoba.” SOUP STAND takes the savory route with yakiimo miso soup, potage and spicy chige, while other stalls transform sweet potatoes into doughnuts, long cheese croquettes, fried sandwiches, parfaits and crispy chips. This is less a roasted-potato market than a demonstration of just how far one ingredient can travel.

Yakiimo Fes itself has grown considerably along the way. The festival series began in Tokyo in 2022 and had passed 940,000 cumulative visitors by the announcement of the 2026 edition. Osaka Castle Park hosted Yakiimo Fes in 2023 and again for ten days in 2024,  The festival returns to the city in 2026 with Tokyo and Osaka running simultaneously for ten days.

The Osaka setting suits it particularly well. Taiyo-no-Hiroba is a broad outdoor event space on the eastern side of Osaka Castle Park, just a couple of minutes from Osaka-jō Koen Station. Come hungry, pick something reassuringly traditional first, then start making progressively worse decisions. By the time somebody has convinced you that roasted sweet potato belongs in Italian mazesoba, Yakiimo Fes has probably done its job.

14 Yakiimo Specialists – Sweet-potato shops and creators gather from around Japan.

Around 30 Creations – Roasted classics meet desserts, snacks, soups and savory dishes.

Gap Textures – Crunchy, crispy, sticky and fluffy preparations define the 2026 menu.

Sweet & Savory – Go from brûléed yakiimo and crêpes to chige, tempura and mazesoba.

Ten Days at Osaka Castle – Free admission makes it easy to drop in and taste your way around.

Photos: Yakima Fes Official Website, Osaka Scene Staff, Japan Scenes

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