Early November. The Sassafras area has a completely different atmosphere than usual, with the waterway closed in the morning.
That's because this was the day of the Kita-Shibu RunRun Festa and its accompanying satellite events in the Sasazuka neighborhood, the Waterworks Road MARCHE in Hatagaya, and the Kita-Shibu Festival in the Tokyo Opera City area, all in one day!

However, light rain had been falling on and off since the morning... We had been anxiously waiting the day before to see whether the event would be held or not, but the Sasahatahatu area does not cancel the event with a little bit of rain!
All events went off without a hitch, albeit on a reduced scale.

We started from Sasazuka on the waterway road and went to the satellite event, which was held for only two hours in the morning.
Originally, the flea market stores were supposed to line the waterworks road, but because of light rain, the stores were sparse.
However, I was able to enjoy an hour here first of all, interacting with ponies and police cavalry, eating delicious food at a local restaurant that had a kitchen car, and having a workshop in front of "Atsumeteru" where an open atelier was being held.

I walked to Hatagaya's Rokugou-dori and went to MARCHE, this time on the waterworks road.
Although this was also a scaled-down event, there was a wide range of vendors, from local favorites to stores from all over the country, including the Machiiku Expedition, a well-known trash pickup group.
Our family tried the all-you-can-stuff eringi at the Tottori booth! Our 5 year old stuffed them for 30 seconds and got about 500g of eringi.

At Rokugouzakaue Park, there was also a small festival of the Hatagaya Community Association, so I had a curry here to fill up.
By this time, the waterworks road had been unblocked, so we took the Hachiko Bus all the way to Hatsudai and went to the Kita Shibu Festival.
Watching children from local dance classes perform hard in the rain, playing with various booths of Sanipak, CASIO, and other Sasahatahatu area companies, trying body painting... anyway, there was a lot to do here, too.
I found myself enjoying myself until 4:00 p.m., when the event closed.

On this day, the Sasazuka, Hatagaya, and Hatsudai areas were united around the waterworks road.
Despite the weather, and even though we were just heading straight east on the waterworks road, we had a great day of playing, eating, watching, and shopping.... (If it had been sunny, we would have enjoyed the flea market, games, and sports even more than this 1.5 times. Looking forward to next year!)