There are a few foods that many Japanese people think of when autumn comes around. Questions related to this are often asked on TV quiz shows. For example, it goes like this. The program staff surveyed passersby in advance about the foods that come to mind when they hear the word “autumn,” and the respondents answer the question of what the most common answer is. In most cases, the correct answer is pacific saury, chestnuts, sweet potatoes, etc. Anyway, one of the delicious foods of autumn in Japan is yakiimo, roasted sweet potatoes. These days, yakiimos are sold in supermarkets, but I think the yakiimo from old-fashioned yakiimo-ya,roasting sweet potato shops are more delicious. yakiimoyas heat pebbles on a stove installed in the bed of a small truck, and the heat from the stones slowly roasts the sweet potatoes. Yakiimo baked in this way have a golden color inside and a pronounced sweetness. Nowadays, you can make yakiimos by heating them in a microwave, but I don’t think they are very sweet. The secret to making them sweet seems to be to bake them for a long time at a temperature of about 60 to 70 degrees. By the way, in the past, it was common to gather fallen leaves, make a fire, and put sweet potatoes on the bonfire to roast, but this is no longer seen today, perhaps due to the risk of fire. Sweet potatoes roasted on a bonfire could be burnt black or barely cooked, making them difficult to eat.

Here is one delicious way to eat roasted sweet potatoes. If you find a sweet potato truck near a park, buy one and have them put it in a paper bag. Put it in your jacket or coat pocket and walk around the park to warm yourself up. Then, when you find a bench or other place to sit, take out the sweet potato and take a bite. If you can’t find a bench, try walking while eating the sweet potato. Eating roasted sweet potatoes like this makes you want to drink tea. Astringent sencha is good, but personally I think roasted green tea goes well with it. These roasted sweet potatoes have a traditional promotional slogan. It is “Thirteen ri, tastier than chestnuts.” “Ri” is an ancient Japanese way of measuring distance, and one ri is roughly equivalent to four kilometers. The taste of roasted sweet potatoes and chestnuts is very similar, but this copy is trying to appeal that roasted sweet potatoes are sweeter and tastier. Just to be clear, “kuri” and “9 ri” are pronounced the same. Also, “yori” is pronounced the same as “4 ri”. And 4 ri and 9 ri added together is 13 ri. In other words, the pun is that roasted sweet potatoes from 13 ri are more delicious than chestnuts from 9 ri.

Let’s go off topic from roasted sweet potatoes and talk about chestnuts. Chestnuts appear in the Japanese folk tale “The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab”, so it seems that Japanese people have been eating chestnuts since ancient times. Chestnuts have a slightly sweet taste and are used as an ingredient in rice dishes. Chestnuts may be said to have a more refined sweetness.

Now, I would like to talk about my friend Ueno. He has a daughter in the early grades of elementary school. Ueno likes to take walks in the park near his house. He often takes walks in the park with his daughter. In the fall and winter, he looks for yakiimo-ya, a roasted sweet potato vender, and when he is lucky enough to see one, he always buys one, breaks it in half, and gives it to his daughter. His daughter Miyo loves sweets, so she happily eats them. When Ueno was young and single, he rarely walked in the park. When he went on dates with his girlfriend, who is now his wife, he would make an effort to go to a high-end restaurant instead of the park. Now he sometimes walks in the park with his wife, but he never goes out during the cold season when there are sweet potato vendors selling sweet potatoes everywhere. One Sunday, Ueno’s wife had gone out since the morning, so Ueno took Miyo’s hand and went to the park. As they were walking through the park, Ueno looked around the area where the sweet potato truck usually comes. However, today there was no truck. Miyo looked sad and said, “I want to eat sweet potatoes.” Ueno also said to Miyo with regret, “They only sell sweet potatoes here.” At that moment, he heard a voice from a loudspeaker from afar saying, “Sweet potatoes, stone-baked sweet potatoes.” It was a sweet potato vendor. Ueno thought he heard the voice of an angel and turned in the direction of the voice. Suddenly, a light truck came running towards them and stopped near Ueno. Ueno immediately bought some roasted sweet potatoes. When he bought them, he said to the sweet potato vendor, “I thought you wouldn’t be coming today,” to which the man replied, “Sorry, I was late in cooking them today.” Ueno received the sweet potatoes, broke them in half, and handed them to Miyo, saying, “See, they’re hot.” When Ueno returned home, his wife had also returned and said happily, “I found something great in the food section in the basement of the department store.” He then took out a stylish paper bag modeled after an English newspaper and showed it to Ueno and Miyo. When they opened the bag, what came out were shining golden “13 Ri, Tastier Than 9 Ri (Chestnuts).”