Imo-ni in Yamagata

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In Sendai we have this weekly newspaper called, Sendai Weekly. It's a lot like the Independent in Raleigh. It has ads for restaurants, concerts, coupons, and articles about things that are happening around or in Sendai. It's in Japanese but I have been going through it and practicing my Japanese and trying to learn new kanji and vocabulary. It is fall, or becoming fall, up in Tohoku, so most of the newspaper is about things that families can do together in the fall. This weeks Weekly was about Yamagata; which is the next prefecture over from Miyagi. There were ads for pear and grape picking, and for Imo-ni in Yamagata.

Imo-ni is a Japanese potato stew that is famous in Yamagata and Miyagi Prefectures. "imo" means potato and the "ni" is a way to say in so the stew literally translates as "potatoes are in". It is a thick and delicious stew with lots of taro potatoes, vegetables, and beef or pork. Yesterday was the 20th annual festival for Imo-ni in Yamagata. The picture showed a giant pot, the biggest pot in the world I am told, and lots of people walking around and having a good time. I brought the article into a class I have with a mom and asked her a couple questions about it because, as I said before, my Japanese really isn't all that great. She told me how famous Imo-ni is in Yamagata and showed me where it said where to take the bus and everything.

I decided to drag my friend/co-worker Chikako with me, but she was interested anyway so it wasn't very hard. We met at the express bus stop outside of AER and after a brief bit of confusion we found our stop. The bus left from in front of the Sendai Hotel and cost ¥900 one way or ¥1600 for round trip. It was kinda nice to ride in the bus because I got to see a lot of Miaygi and Yamagata. There were lots of beautiful trees and it was really nice to get out of Sendai for a little while.

It takes about an hour by express bus to get to the Yamagata Prefectural Office and from there we took shuttle bus, ¥200 a ride, and ended up at Imo-ni! It was a rather large production. There were yataii, food venders, everywhere and lots of people. The whole festival was set up along the bank for a river and both sides had tents and activities to look through while you were enjoying your Imo-ni. We bought a ticket, ¥300, and went in search of our line. The lines were split into letters and there were 4 of them. We ended up being on the other side of the biggest pot and waiting our turn. The system worked like this; one line would go through, give their tickets, then wait for the road construction scoopers to scoop out more Imo-ni, get a bowl and chopsticks and then find a place to sit and watch as the scoopers kept scooping out huge scoops of the stew and put them into pots.

We waited for a little bit and then we finally started moving. After we got out bowl of Imo-ni we sat on the grass and ate. It was rathe sunny and lots of families were sitting near us when it started raining, pouring rain. I was lucky enough to finish my bowl before the worst of it started. It was a little chaotic after that. Families running of shelter, people waiting in line for their Imo-ni were all under the Imo-ni tents and waiting for the worst to end.

After the rain started the lines for the Imo-ni were gone and most people were running home to shelter but the festivities were still going. There were stages set up and groups were singing, dancing, or the power rangers showed up!! That was exciting let me tell you. We ended up getting "iwana", a whole fish salted and stuck on a spike close to a fire. It was absolutely delicious and then we went to the other side of the river and got another bowl of Imo-ni. This Imo-ni had a lot more veggies in it. I was really full by the end of it. We headed back to Sendai after that. Nothing much else to do in the rain but it did take a bit longer to get back because of the lines to the busses.

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