Osaka’s Lohas Festa is a massive eco-friendly outdoor market held at Expo ’70 Park from late April and over Golden Week through early May. The event features a whopping 700 vendors peddling all sorts of handmade and upcycled items, such as pottery, children’s clothes, jewellery and accessories, including some fair-trade items. You can also look forward to gourmet food and fancy flower arrangements.
With an Eco-Recycling Corner set up on the premises, the event aims to be entirely zero-waste. Donate your used milk cartons to be made into toilet paper, and cooking oil, which will be turned into biodiesel fuel to power the generators used during future Lohas events. Used books, paper bags and winter clothes are also accepted at the donations stand. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own cutlery to the festival, and food vendors will offer only reusable tableware.
Admission to the festival costs ¥500, with elementary school children and younger getting in for free. Note that additional tickets to Expo Park are required; those cost ¥260 for adults and ¥80 for elementary to high school students.