Every year, Yamagata prefecture holds the biggest imoni festival in Japan along the riverside of Yamagata City‘s Mamigasaki river. This event uses industrial cranes to transport imoni pots with diameters of 3 meters to 6.5 meters to cook around 30,000 bowls of imoni! No wonder Yamagata is famous for imoni and that it is known as one of the soul foods of Yamagata!

Yamagata imoni is a taro and beef stew, typically eaten in fall when the weather starts to get cold. Besides the imoni festival, it is common to see groups of families, friends, coworkers, university students or schoolchildren have imoni-kai (imoni gatherings) alongside any riverside of Yamagata Prefecture during the fall. This culinary experience we are offering is available all-year round, so you will not be limited to fall to create your delicious stew.

Imoni recipes slightly differ depending on the region which is cooking it. The Murayama region uses a soy-sauce base and beef, whereas the Shonai region uses a miso-base with pork. Neighboring Miyagi Prefecture’s Sendai City uses miso and beef. However, the base ingredients of the stew are basically the same, adding konnyaku, burdock root, chinese cabbage, and taro root, which is similar to potatoes. In this experience, you will be cooking the Murayama region-style of imoni.

With our imoni culinary program, you will learn to make your own imoni from market to table with an experienced local Japanese cook and an English-speaking guide, an opportunity rare to many travelers!