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The story
At the “Japan’s Best Imoni Party Festival” in Yamagata City on September 20, paid viewing seats with all-you-can-drink packages and bus tours have proven so popular that some plans have already sold out. The signature event features a giant pot 6.5 meters across, stirred with heavy machinery, to cook roughly 3.2 tons of taro and 1.2 tons of Yamagata beef. With this year’s festival falling during a long holiday weekend, turnout is expected to top previous years. On 5channel forum threads, reactions poured in from every angle — surprise at the ¥16,500 price tag, questions about holding the event in near-midsummer heat, and concerns about hygiene given the use of heavy machinery for cooking.
At the “Japan’s Best Imoni Party Festival,” held in Yamagata City on September 20, high-priced seating and bus tours are proving popular. Many reservations are coming in from outside the prefecture, and some plans have already sold out. This year’s event falls during a long holiday stretch, and organizers — expecting turnout to exceed previous years — are pushing hard to draw in visitors.
Bus tour seats are also running low
Now in its 38th year, the Imoni Party Festival has become a fixture of autumn in Yamagata. On the banks of the Mamigasaki River, organizers use a massive 6.5-meter-diameter pot and heavy machinery to cook up an enormous spread of roughly 3.2 tons of taro and 1.2 tons of Yamagata beef.
Source: kahoku.news / Read the original article
What people said
Do it once it's actually cooled down
People get heatstroke even now, in this weather
Last year one of the organizers was shouting about this — apparently once it cools down enough for prime imoni season, Yamagata locals are busy eating it at home, so the event has no choice but to be held in this heat.
¥16,000? For imoni?
If you remember how this used to be, you can't believe how ridiculous that sounds
That's basically just the price of the all-you-can-drink package.
This isn't the old days anymore
This is just the standard now
Here:
>You can enjoy imoni alongside all-you-can-drink local Yamagata sake and wine.
Yamagata: "Oh hey, my folks just sent beef from home, I'll bring that."
Miyagi/Akita/Fukushima/Iwate: "Waitlolololol, beef?? lol"
Yamagata: "What? Fine, fine. I'll go buy some taro then."
Sanriku: "Taro? It's potatoes."
Akita: "I'll just throw in some Hinai-jidori chicken." (a prized Akita chicken breed)
Miyagi/Yamagata/Fukushima/Iwate: "No way lol"
Sanriku: "What fish are we adding? Shellfish?"
Miyagi/Yamagata/Fukushima/Iwate/Akita: "This is turning into a hodgepodge hot pot lol"
Asahi Town: "Dried cod is the only seafood we need."
Miyagi: "Sanriku, Asahi Town — you minorities, stay out of this."
Iwate: "…Hey Yamagata! Why are you putting in soy sauce!"
Miyagi/Akita: "Ugh… this guy's the worst."
Fukushima: "Eh, it's fine, let's blend in some miso too."
Akita: "I'll just add some kiritanpo." (Akita's pounded-rice skewers)
Miyagi/Yamagata/Fukushima/Iwate: "No way lol"
Aomori: "What are you guys even doing?"
Miyagi/Yamagata/Fukushima/Iwate/Akita: "If you're not making imoni, zip it."
Miyagi isn't too particular about it — if there's a big enough crowd, they'll just make the Miyagi style, the Yamagata style, and a kiritanpo pot, all at once
Well, calling Asahi Town — the town said to be imoni's birthplace — a "minority," or lumping the inland Murayama/Mogami/Okitama areas of Yamagata together with the coastal Shonai region even though they classically clash over seasoning and ingredients… this bit had holes in it from the start.
Re: #54
Wasn't that person from Yamagata, if I remember right?
like in Re: #35
Really? The meat's different too — Yamagata uses beef, Sendai uses pork. And the broth: Yamagata's soy-based, Sendai's miso-based. Pretty different, honestly.
Back in the Showa era they used cheap pork, apparently, so they paired it with Sendai miso since it went well together — there's testimony from the innkeeper said to be the dish's originator
Even within Yamagata, the Shonai region does the same miso style as Sendai though
Sendai started later, so they changed things up to set themselves apart
unbelievable
It's a showcase of the tech behind making an excavator food-safe.
Seems like it'd be full of bugs, machine oil, all sorts of stuff.
though they probably won't be pouring anything junmai daiginjo-grade (top-tier premium sake)
(°∀°) Forget the imoni, I just wanna drink some Juyondai (a prized, hard-to-get sake brand)
(°∀°) *hands over an iced café au lait*
(/◎＼) *glug*
Nah, they'd probably just have it on hand normally. Breweries would happily beg to get their sake featured — it's free advertising.
Unless you eat a ton of it,
you can't just have a light bite, drink,
and call it a night —
you'll still need to eat dinner separately.
Since around the Heisei era, finishing the meal with udon caught on, and eventually curry udon became the standard finish. Though if the curry burns onto the pot, whoever has to wash it is in for a pain.
(°∀°) Eating your fill of delicious taro, like Goi in "Imogayu" who dreamed of all the yam gruel he could eat — that's real satisfaction. I'd call that complete in itself.
(°∀°) *hands over an iced café au lait*
(/◎＼) *glug*
it just never comes out the same when I make it at home
If it's soy-based, just order some Aji Maruju dashi shoyu (a Yamagata soy sauce brand) online and you'll get pretty close
after that it's really just sake and sugar
Re: #145
My relatives in Yamagata used plain soy sauce, not dashi shoyu
They told me the dashi comes from the beef itself, so you don't need to add any — that was pretty shocking to me as a kid
I looked it up later, and apparently the combination of beef, mushrooms, taro, and long green onion perfectly balances the three big umami compounds — glutamic acid, inosinic acid, and guanylic acid — so that alone makes it incredibly delicious
It's brand new and cleaned beforehand
They use margarine instead of lubricant oil
…yeah, margarine, apparently…
There's actually such a thing as food-grade machine grease
Obviously there's no salt or seasoning in it
I heard the organizers don't buy one every year — they reach out to a dealer that already has one and borrow it
Apparently "used at the Imoni Party" is considered good luck locally, so it's popular
I mean, it's not like you buy a power shovel every year anyway
If I remember right, they borrow it before delivery, convert it to food-safe spec, use it for the imoni, then the manufacturer reconditions it and delivers it to the actual buyer
It really is a good-luck charm, in a way
I think it really depends on who's scooping, hit or miss
Still, eating outdoors is great, so I'll probably go again this year
Background and Talking Points
The “Japan’s Best Imoni Party Festival” is held every autumn on the banks of the Mamigasaki River in Yamagata City, and this year marks its 38th run. The heavy machinery used is cleaned when new and has its lubricant swapped for food-grade grease as a hygiene measure — a point that came up in the thread as well. As for why the event runs during the lingering late-summer heat, one poster explained that organizers deliberately schedule it for this period because, once the weather actually cools down, Yamagata locals tend to enjoy imoni at home instead — so pushing the date back wouldn’t draw the same crowds. The thread also touched on how, even though both are called “imoni,” Yamagata’s version uses beef and a soy-sauce broth while Miyagi/Sendai’s uses pork and miso — a divide that has long fueled debate over the dish’s true origin. Alongside blunt reactions to the price and cooking method, posters traded jokes comparing the regions, though posts containing personal attacks, references to specific politicians, or discriminatory language were excluded from this article.
This article is compiled from excerpts and summaries of the 5channel (Newsplus) thread “Something’s up with ‘Japan’s Best Imoni Party’? High-priced seats sell out — Yamagata.”
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