Domestic Food Insufficiency Problem Strikes Yamagata

[Mulboyne]

[YT]1l03nQ_hYSM[/YT]

A potato stew festival nearly turned into a riot when thousands had to go hungry as organizers realized they had run out of food. "Imonikai" are popular events, especially in the Tohoku area, and this one in Yamagata claims to be the largest in Japan. The stew is made in a massive 6m diameter pot which is usually supervised by construction machinery operators as you can see in the clip above. Unfortunately as the afternoon drew on, servers began to notice that there was a distinct lack of meat and potatoes in the pot and, by around 2:30pm, organisers were forced to announce that they had run out of stew. There was still plenty of soup left so this was offered up to the masses of rumbling stomachs free of charge. On the day, around 2,500 people received refunds for the 300 yen tickets but the festival committee now thinks the number entitled is around 3,300. Applicants will be able to claim their 300 yen until the 15th. Initially, the committee thought the problem arose because they had sold more tickets than budgeted. However, it seems there is a more prosaic reason. The organizers buy the ingredients by weight and they got in the usual amount for the 30,000 tickets they sold. Servers were under instructions to pop 3 or 4 potatoes into every bowl but it seems that this year's crop produced a larger average tuber. Consequently, each bowl had the same number of potatoes as previous years but everyone was getting a larger serving until the festival discovered it had become prematurely spudless.

[Coligny]

"oyeshiiii..."

that's like 75% of the vocabulary for daytime TV in this craphole...

I don't know if it would be less annoying if they were eating something better than the standard dumpster-soup that would make a rat throwup...

[Midwinter]

"oyeshiiii..."

that's like 75% of the vocabulary for daytime TV in this craphole...

I don't know if it would be less annoying if they were eating something better than the standard dumpster-soup that would make a rat throwup...

You're right, just once I'd like to see a "Mazzuuiiii... nani kore?!" but the way they plan those programs as mini advertisements, it'll never happen.

[Iraira]

[Coligny]

[xenomorph42]

You're right, just once I'd like to see a "Mazzuuiiii... nani kore?!" but the way they plan those programs as mini advertisements, it'll never happen.

That would make good and dramatic TV, wouldn't it? But since 40% of J-TV is geared towards Japanese Culinary. Fat chance on that! What gets me is the extreme visual close-ups of fat drizzling off the fork is, in my opinion, not visually appealing or women trying to be so feminine and eating so delicately that they almost look scared to pick up the food. The other day on TV I say a woman use a fork and knife to eat fries! That just drives me nuts!

[Mulboyne]

In years to come, there's a good chance that the Yamagata Potato Stew Incident will come to be seen as a metaphor for Japan's pension system.