NHK Cycle Around Japan 2024 Yamagata Seeking the Flavors of Autumn
[Music] the best way to discover little known sides and make even familiar places feel brand new is to go exploring by [Music] [Applause] [Music] bicycle this time we’ll be riding through [Music] Yamagata from a spectacular Coast to beautiful rivers and high forested mountains Yamagata has every kind of [Music] scenery at the end of autumn we’re seeing the first Snows of [Music] Winter the unpredictable weather can be a challenge but it’s worth it for the food you can only get in this season [Music] [Music] and the L before the heavy snows begin people traditionally busy themselves with creative [Music] activities this is the season when Salmon come home to spawn [Music] [Music] nature here can be harsh but also generous with her Bounty come with us now on a 425 km ride through Yamagata [Music] yon zawa city is in the south of Yamagata we start our trip from this Shrine dedicated to a historic local warlord our cyclist is Bobby Judo from Florida in the USA Bobby lives in kushu in the south of Japan his work on TV and other media is mostly about food and cooking just starting out on the first day of our yamama got the cycling trip which is one I’ve been looking forward to for a long time uh one of the good things about the colder parts of Japan is that they’re very well known for having delicious food whether it’s fish or vegetables so I’m looking forward to getting on the road seeing the sites and finding some really good things to eat all right let’s get started [Music] Ed on the first day of this 4-day trip Bobby will ride from yon zawa through the Yamagata Basin to sagay the second day will take him across the shonai plain over mountains to the Sea and on on the third and fourth days he’ll ride back from the coast up the Mami River his goal is to discover Cuisine and ingredients unique to [Music] Yamagata it’s a super brisk [Music] morning look at the Mist Rising off the [Music] water right in the end of [Music] autumn [Music] the Mami river runs through Yamagata from south to North watering much of its fertile [Music] farmland rice patties here are finished for the [Music] [Applause] [Music] year some kind of big statue up here on the right what is that oh some kind of bird [Music] statue there’s a there’s another one of those bird things up here it’s the same kind of bird figure totem pole what is [Music] that ah it’s got the bird objects displayed on the side the birds Bobby saw are advertising a local craft this is the one that we saw just over there this is the same design right wow this is really intricate you look at it up close you can see these wings and the feathers are all carved individually one by one but they’re all attached to this main piece here for about 300 years these birds have been as toys in this District of Yon [Music] [Music] zawa some say that this technique for whittling wooden flowers has been in use for over 1,000 [Music] years toak Kento is the seventh generation of his family to practice this craft [Music] e hi [Music] hi oh [Music] [Music] in the past the town held a flower market in January where the TOA family also sold their [Music] flowers chrysanthemums are prized in Yamagata for another reason too in the old days when the rice Harvest failed people in yon zawa survived by eating chrysanthemums and wild [Music] plants hi [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Applause] Chris anthemum season in yon [Music] zawa Bobby is now riding north [Music] oh oh wow whoa got a great view of the city of yata laid out below us oh got a rainbow over [Music] there and one season gives way to the next you can never tell what the weather is going to do oh we’re back to the Mami River oh wow Bobby has arrived at sagay on The Middle stretch of the Mami [Music] [Applause] [Music] River sagay has a special dish only made in this season that Bobby wants to try it looks like they’ve sent out the Welcome Wagon for [Music] [Applause] us this is an association of farmers who grow sat IMO or Japanese too princess they’re preparing the famous Yamagata stew called imoni that Bobby has come to try Imon parties are a regular feature of autumn here a great excuse to get together with neighbors and [Music] friends it’s sat IMO beef mushrooms green onions and more and a sweet and savory soy based [Applause] broth [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Applause] [Applause] for [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] for emo Mochi is made with the emo from the crop that are too small to [Music] sell [Music] the emo is served with a paste made of miso Sesame and [Music] sugar [Music] [Music] fore [Music] [Music] today begins at the foot of the mountains of dewa [Applause] Sunan since ancient times these mountains have been an important pilgrim in site wow these enormous Shrine Gates right up ahead symbolizes that we are on the road to the gods oh passing right under these are enormous got our first little flurries of [Music] snow oh feel that [Music] wind wowoo whoa that’s getting close to [Applause] hell ah it is cold made our way well into the mountains another 60 km and the road is starting to climb oh look like there’s a bunch of rocks out in the field over here are those rocks I know they’re they’re tree stumps tree stumps burn black there’s a fire [Music] here [Music] oh the whole Hill Covered in these burned stumps these blackened [Music] stumps ah there’s uh another big clump of those burned stumps up there see there’s a person up there working or doing something [Music] it’s a special variety of turnip unique to this area that grows best with this type of cyclical [Music] farming after harvesting a crop of turnips they’ll plant the area again with cedar seedlings the field isn’t plowed after burning they just sew turnup seeds in the ashes [Music] [Music] for [Music] igarashi shichi born and raised in these mountains is both farmer and [Music] [Music] Forester igarashi invites Bobby to his [Music] [Laughter] home it’s a completely different world in here oh turnips from Igor rashi’s field pickled with salt and sweet vinegar M oh sheit it’s got a a good radish kick in the [Applause] flavor Bobby has decided to try a new way of cooking [Music] turnips he slices the turnips inserts Pats of butter then Seasons with salt pepper and [Music] rosemary [Music] woo a drizzle of soy sauce and they’re ready to [Music] [Music] eat [Applause] a taste you can only enjoy in yamagata’s mountains in [Music] Autumn the land around us has opened up quite a bit oh wow and look at out in front and we’ve come right up on the ocean wow ah very different Beach very different ocean from what I’m used to this is cold and windy gray and Rocky it’s a real sense of a power of nature to it as winter approaches in Yamagata Fierce cold winds begin to blow in off the sea raised in sunny Florida Bobby has never experienced such weather woo very chilled right now nothing to stop the wind from cutting right through Straight off the ocean into the bones oh this is this huge white building up ahead for a second I thought it was a boat like a cruise ship ah it says it’s a jellyfish dream Museum it’s a it’s a jellyfish dream jellyfish display in here it’s actually an aquarium featuring jellyfish from all over the world world oh [Music] wow oh yamagata’s many species of saltwater fish are also on display here these are all the kinds of fish that you can find in the ocean that we’ve been riding along look at that huge seab bream huge [Music] grouper these are T Cod that’s [Music] enormous the aquarium has a restaurant that serves Regional Seafood the chef suda takesi is well versed in traditional [Music] for [Music] Fore [Music] [Music] [Applause] for to allow the taste of the Cod to come through fully it’s cooked in a simple broth of kodashi with a hint of [Music] miso at the table a final topping of Ian seaweed this was originally a dish made by [Music] fishermen [Music] wow Bobby’s first taste of the riches from yamagata’s fertile [Music] Seas from its mouth on the coast Bobby will now follow the Mami River up [Music] dream it’s gotten so big can’t really tell it from the ocean they cross over the river [Music] again [Music] wow Bobby has left the Mami to explore one of its [Music] tributaries wow see it down low right up on [Music] it absolutely gorgeous this time a [Music] year at this silver white of the Suzuki the yellows and reds of the [Music] trees Bobby will meet a Man Who Loved this River so much he moved across Japan to live [Music] here you all matsunami mitsuo originally lived near Tokyo he studied fishery science at University and now works as a coordinator of fishing events in Yamagata [Applause] right up through here right up close to the bank they’ve found a salmon the name of this River the sakawa means Salmon River every year at this time these fish swim up here to [Applause] [Applause] spawn [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Applause] each November special traps called urai are used to catch the salmon [Music] wow to help increase the number of salmon they take the eggs hatch them and grow the fry until they are ready to be [Music] [Applause] [Music] released why do so many salmon come to this particular River matsunami has brought Bobby to this Hilltop to explain hi the salmon repay the forest by helping its [Music] growth [Music] [Music] really verse forests salmon the cycle of [Music] nature woo just an incredible landscape still got these vibrant green rice patties of all colors in the mountains Blue Sky white clouds a perfect [Music] scenery the next day matsunami takes Bobby to taste the local way of cooking salmon Keen chefs the maras work to promote the cuisine of this [Music] area [Music] first they’ll Grill and glaze it with miso for the salmon is glazed with a mixture of miso sugar and sake it’s got well Sauced now and crisping up really really nicely miso is soul full of umami [Applause] [Music] flavor the rest of the fish is boiled in a broth with added miso locally called zapa this salmon soup is now [Music] [Music] ready [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] finally on the last leg of the trip Bobby is headed for a spot that will give him a panoramic view of the Mami River and the surrounding [Music] [Applause] mountains and Misty gray at the end of [Music] autumn look at the visibility up ahead there a wall of fog like riding into a [Music] cloud [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] you ah this is it this is our spot wow woo Who wow here we are like we’re standing in the clouds it’s so [Music] quiet far below the Mami river is shrouded in [Music] Mist that was a great trip I’ve I’ve never traveled in these conditions before and I wanted uh to enjoy the food I wanted to eat my way through Yamagata and I got to but I think it was the perfect season to see how the people here have developed this culture of taking whatever they can get whether it’s flowers or parts of the fish that I would throw away or anything that they can that’s edible because that’s what they had to do to survive winter here financially and just in terms of sustenance the flexibility and the Ingenuity that it takes to do that that’s what it takes to live an environment where the changing of the seasons is so drastic and the winter is so Stark Bobby’s trip just caught the last fading days of autumn soon Yamagata will be plunged into the icy cold of winter [Music]